CKEM-DT (PatrZDZ's vision)

**CKEM-DT** (channel 51) is a television station in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, part of the Citytv network. It is owned and operated by CHUM Limited alongside Access station CJAL-DT (channel 9). Both stations share studios on Gateway Boulevard in Edmonton, while CKEM-DT's transmitter is located near Yellowhead Highway/Highway 16A. The station also operates a rebroadcast transmitter (CKEM-DT-1) in Red Deer on virtual channel 4 (UHF digital channel 15).

CKEM was built as part of A-Channel, the regional television service constructed by Craig Broadcast Systems in 1997. Broadcasting from studios downtown in the historic Hudson's Bay Building, it was the first new commercial TV station in Edmonton since 1974; its style of news and programming was young and aggressive. The station also broadcast Edmonton Oilers hockey for its first several years on air. Ratings settled into third place, above the CBC but behind the established stations in town, CFRN and CITV.

Craig, overextended by its launch of Toronto 1 in 2003, sold itself to CHUM Limited, then-owner of Citytv, in 2004. CHUM moved other media properties into the Hudson's Bay Building, including a new radio station and Access Media Group; in 2005, the A-Channel stations took on the Citytv brand.

## History

### Hearing process

In 1993, The Alberta Channel Inc., a company majority-owned by Craig Broadcast Systems, applied to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for a television service in the province of Alberta, to be known as The Alberta Channel or A-Channel. Craig owned two stations in its home province of Manitoba; CKX-TV, a CBC Television affiliate in Brandon, and the Manitoba Television Network in Portage la Prairie and serving Winnipeg. It was competing with AltaWest Television, a subsidiary of the CanWest Global System. The Alberta Channel promised stations in Calgary and Edmonton as well as repeaters to serve Drumheller, Lethbridge, and Red Deer. The Calgary and Edmonton stations would each offer 20 hours a week of local news plus the same amount of non-news local programming. The AltaWest bid was part of CanWest's bid to turn Global into a third national network and envisioned a main station in Calgary. In the end, the CRTC opted not to award either group a licence, saying that neither proposal "would have added sufficient diversity" to Alberta television and would have harmed the province's existing television broadcasters.

In 1996, CanWest and Craig tried again with plans for new television service in Alberta. The A-Channel stations in Calgary and Edmonton would be autonomous, each employing 139 people; Craig also promised a C$14 million investment in independent television production in Alberta. The newscasts would have a style similar to Citytv in Toronto; U.S. entertainment programming would come from previously untapped sources, such as Fox and UPN.

Both bids drew concern from rural broadcasters, such as RDTV in Red Deer. Edmonton's CITV protested the CanWest bid, which it believed would cause "an unbalancing of the Canadian broadcasting system". CITV subleased the Edmonton-market rights to many popular U.S. shows from CanWest and stood to lose much of its highest-rated programming were CanWest to establish a Global station there.

After a hearing in July, the CRTC issued a ruling in favor of A-Channel and against CanWest in November 1996. Unlike two years prior, it found the Alberta television market to be "stronger than the national average". Craig won out because of its promises to air more local programming and schedule more Canadian production in prime time. CanWest appealed to the federal cabinet, having suffered a blow to its ambitions of constructing a third national network. It believed that the smaller Craig, which it called "boutique", was less preferable than a third national choice for Canadians. The cabinet rejected CanWest's appeal in January 1997 and permitted Craig to construct the A-Channel stations, though it endorsed inquiries into a third national TV network, a minor win for the company.

### Construction and early years

With the licence awards approved, Craig began construction on the Edmonton station. In Edmonton, A-Channel set up in the heritage-listed Hudson's Bay building on Jasper Avenue, where it added large windows to its streetside studio; historic preservation conditions complicated work, with new tiles having to be ordered from Quebec. It obtained rights to midweek telecasts of Edmonton Oilers hockey, In the Edmonton market, Craig scored a coup by rights to midweek telecasts of Edmonton Oilers hockey, which had been held by CFRN.

Most of the on-air talent hired for A-Channel Edmonton came from outside the market, except for Bruce Buchanan, who handled Oilers play-by-play. Darren Dreger was the first sports anchor, coming to the station from Winnipeg; Janis Mackey was a subsitute anchor for CTV News in Toronto.

A-Channel launched in Edmonton on channel 51, cable 7 on September 18, 1997—two days before CKAL-TV in Calgary. The new station was the first addition to Edmonton broadcast television since CITV in 1974. Both stations relied on prime-time movies, a formula Craig had used with some success at MTN in Manitoba. For local programming, the station featured a two-hour morning show, The Big Breakfast; 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts; and the local programs Live @ Five and Wired, among others.

In the spring 1998 ratings, A-Channel Edmonton surpassed the CBC in prime time, but its local programs—outside of hockey—attracted few viewers. BBM found that Live@Five, the station's 5:00 news program, had just 600 viewers. Over the next two years, the stations became more competitive with ratings rises for their local morning and evening programming.

Craig agreed in building A-Channel to provide some protection to rural broadcasters by delaying the launch of rebroadcasters for one year. This resulted in uproar from Oilers fans who lived outside of A-Channel's coverage area and were shut out of seeing hockey. In December 1998, A-Channel debuted on cable in Red Deer, with a rebroadcaster following the next year.

In 1999, a letter bomb exploded in the CKEM newsroom, injuring the assignment editor and one of the general assignment reporters. The station simulcast the Live@Five and News@Six newscasts from Calgary sister station CKAL-TV, while police investigated the bombing. Local Edmonton newscasts resumed later on in the evening. Raymond Neal Best was charged with attempted murder and possession of explosive substances, in connection with the A-Channel letter bomb, and the attempted letter bombings aimed at both Calgary and Edmonton police chiefs.

### Acquisition by CHUM

On April 12, 2004, CHUM Limited announced a deal to purchase Craig Media for $265 million. The move came more than a month after the CRTC denied CHUM's applications for new Calgary and Edmonton stations because the market did not have sufficient advertising revenue to support a new entrant. The sale was approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on November 19, 2004. CHUM had to sell off Toronto 1 because it already owned stations in Toronto (CITY) and nearby Barrie (CKVR); Toronto 1 was sold to Quebecor Media, owners of the media units TVA and Sun Media.

CHUM brought other media holdings into the Hudson's Bay Building on Jasper Avenue, which aside from A-Channel had few tenants. In February 2005, CHUM and Milestone Media launched a new Edmonton radio station, CHBN-FM "91.7 The Bounce", and built a streetside radio studio for it next to A-Channel's quarters. That same month, CHUM acquired all outstanding shares in Learning and Skills Television of Alberta (also known as Access Media Group), which operated Access, the provincial educational broadcaster. CHUM then moved Access Media Group's operations from an east Edmonton industrial park into the Hudson's Bay Building.

In addition to launching The Bounce and becoming the sole owner of Access Media Group in February 2005, CHUM announced that it would rebrand the three A-Channel stations—in Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg—as Citytv, aligning with the stations it already owned in Toronto and Vancouver. No other significant changes were made, since the A-Channel stations' on-air look had always been very similar to that of Citytv; they retained their local programs, relaunched under Citytv's Breakfast Television morning brand and CityPulse news brand.

## News operation

CKEM presently broadcasts 36½ hours of locally produced newscasts per-week (with 6½ hours each weekday and 2 hours each on Saturdays and Sundays).

### Newscast schedule

Weekdays:

* 5:30am - 9am: BT: Breakfast Television with Bill Welychka and Bridget Ryan
* 5pm - 6pm: CityPulse Live at 5 with Ryan Jespersen
* 6pm - 7pm: CityPulse at 6 with Julie Nolin
* 10pm - 11pm: CityPulse Tonight with Julie Nolin

Weekends:

* 6pm - 7pm: CityPulse at 6 with Kathy Mueller
* 10pm - 11pm: CityPulse Tonight with Kathy Mueller

## Technical information

### Analogue-to-digital conversion

On May 26, 2010, CKEM began testing its digital signal with the broadcast of a test loop. On June 29 of that year, the station began broadcasting regular programming over its digital signal. On August 31, 2011, when Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatory markets transitioned from analogue to digital broadcasts, the station's digital signal relocated from UHF channel 51 to channel 17. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers originally displayed CKEM-DT's virtual channel as 51.1.

On February 28, 2020, Craig Media applied for permission to convert their Red Deer repeater (CKEM-TV-1) to digital operations as part of the 600 MHz spectrum auction. The upgrade entailed moving from VHF 4 at 7 kW (at 229.7 metres HAAT) to UHF 15 at 35 kW (at 225.6 metres HAAT). The analogue signal was shut off on November 17, 2020.