CHCH-DT (PatrZDZ's vision)

**CHCH-DT** (channel 11) is an independent television station in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Corus Entertainment, the station maintains studios on Innovation Drive in the west end of Hamilton; prior to 2021, it was located near the corner of Jackson and Caroline streets in downtown Hamilton for nearly 65 years. The station has additional offices at the Marriott on the Falls in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and news bureaus in Toronto, Ottawa, London and St. Catharines. Its transmitter is located on First Road West in the former city of Stoney Creek.

CHCH signed on the air on June 7, 1954, as a CBC affiliate which was founded by Ken Soble. Beginning in 1961, it became an independent station which transformed into an national superstation on January 1, 1982. In 1990, the station was acquired by Western International Communications, who sold the station to Corus in 2000.

## History

### CBC affiliation (1954–1961)

The station signed on the air on June 7, 1954, operating as an affiliate of CBC Television. Its studios at 163 Jackson Street West were previously used by CJSH-FM (102.9, now CKLH-FM). After CJSH's shutdown, its studios were converted for CHCH. It is the oldest privately owned television station in the Hamilton–Toronto area. At the time all privately owned television stations in Canada were required to be CBC affiliates. CHCH-TV was founded by Ken Soble, a leader of Hamilton's urban renewal movement and the owner of radio station CHML (900 AM).

### Independent station (1961–1982)

In 1961, CHCH left the CBC and became an independent station. There were three reasons for removing its affiliation from CBC. Hamilton is part of the Toronto market, and Toronto-based CBLT already provided full network service to some of CHCH's viewing area. CBLT planned to increase its transmitter power and change frequencies (from VHF channel 9 to channel 6, and eventually channel 5), resulting in a near-100 percent overlap with CHCH. The station's managers wanted to produce more local programming, instead of having to carry CBC programming.

CHCH became the first and for over a decade the only television station in Canada not to be affiliated with any network; the other private stations (which signed on the air in 1960 or early 1961) that were not affiliated with the CBC had formed the CTV network in October 1961.

Possible flagship of a third network (1966–1981)
In the mid-1960s, CHCH was the lead station in United Program Purchase, a consortium of Canadian television stations which began purchasing some programming rights separately from the CTV and CBC networks.

By 1966, UPP was attracting media coverage as the potential framework for a third Canadian television network. In the fall of the same year, Soble's Niagara Television which was the licensee of CHCH, put forward a proposal for a network to be branded as NTV. In the original plan, CHCH would have been the network's flagship station for the Greater Toronto Area. However the application faced numerous regulatory hurdles and delays, and its main financial backer which was Power Corporation of Canada, backed out in 1969. By 1970 however, the network application was revived by former CHCH executive Al Bruner's new Global Communications corporation, with Niagara Television and CHCH no longer involved in the bid. The Global Television Network network launched in 1974 on the new CKGN-TV.

Despite the station's lack of success in developing a full-fledged network, it became one of Canada's most prominent syndicators of non-network programming in the 1970s and 1980s, with many of its locally produced entertainment programs airing on television stations across Canada and occasionally internationally.

### Superstation CHCH (1982–1997)

CHCH became a national superstation on January 1, 1982, when Cancom (now Shaw Broadcast Services) began carrying the station and three others (CHAN-TV in Vancouver, CITV-TV in Edmonton, and TCTV, which was essentially a rebroadcaster of CFTM-TV in Montreal) to cable television providers in remote regions of the country that otherwise only had access to the CBC.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the station began a branding effort centred around the slogan "Together, we're the ones!" Different promotional slogans referring to either Hamilton or Ontario as a whole, reflecting the station's cable coverage across the province, and a blue-coloured, 3D variation of the longtime "circles" logo were used. Promos had a vocal song from Frank Gari which was part of the Pride Inside music package also used by the station's newscasts and movie presentations (originally commissioned by another channel 11 which is WBAL-TV in Baltimore).

### ONtv era (1997–present)

In 1990, Western International Communications (WIC) purchased CHCH. Although the station had been available on cable television in many Ontario markets for years, its broadcast signal coverage was expanded throughout Ontario in 1997. The launch of several rebroadcasters happened in 1997 in an effort to compete with the reach of Global's Ontario station CIII (channel 6), and with the Baton Broadcast System, a group of mostly CTV-affiliated stations that serves most of the province.

In turn WIC rebranded the station as "ONtv" ("Ontario Television"), in line with the branding conventions of many of the company's other stations including CHAN-TV in Vancouver (which is branded as "BCTV"), CITV-TV in Edmonton (which is branded as "ITV"), and CHCA-TV in Red Deer, Alberta (which is branded as "RDTV").

Local news programming shifted their focus from the station's core market, the Hamilton area, toward Ontario as a whole in an attempt to challenge a regional news service provided by Global. The station also airs Corus' nightly Canada Tonight newscast.

After months of negotiations, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved the sale of WIC's assets, including CHCH to Corus in 2000.

## Programming

As an independent station, CHCH produced local programs such as the children's talent show Tiny Talent Time (which was revived in September 2014 in honour of the station's 60th anniversary), Jane Gray's Hobby Time and a daily talk show hosted by Elaine Callei.

The station also produced a number of important Canadian syndicated series in the 1970s and 1980s, including The Pierre Berton Show, The Hilarious House of Frightenstein, Me & Max, Party Game, The Baxters, the Canadian version of Supermarket Sweep, and Smith & Smith, and was the original television home of The Red Green Show. Hamilton native Martin Short also made his television debut on the station. The 1986–87 syndicated revival of Split Second hosted by Monty Hall was also taped at CHCH's studios; their involvement was noted in the credits of the show in Canadian broadcasts, whereas the American copies only noted distributor Viacom Enterprises.

### Sports programming

The station broadcast home games from the Hamilton Red Wings (a minor league hockey team in the OHA Junior "A" league that was an affiliate of the NHL's Detroit Red Wings) from the Hamilton Forum (which were both owned by Ken Soble) on Thursday nights in the 1960s, with Norm Marshall doing the play-by-play.

For a time, CHCH broadcast local mid-week telecasts of NHL games from the Toronto Maple Leafs, and co-produced Buffalo Sabres games with Adelphia Cable and the Sabres' owners. It also produced a wrestling show called Ringside Wrestling, which was filmed in the Telecentre, before later moving to the Hamilton Forum. The station later reproduced World Wrestling Federation programs for Canadian audiences before the company's focus shifted entirely to cable television. Currently CHCH broadcasts Sunday afternoon coverage of regular season games from the NFL's Buffalo Bills because the Global Television Network had to choose the Detroit Lions for its Ontario stations as part of that network's NFL coverage. McMaster Marauders university football is also broadcast on the station from the late 1990s.

### News programming

CHCH presently broadcasts 39 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 7 hours each weekday and 2 hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the second-highest local newscast output among the Greater Toronto Area market's television stations.

### Newscast times

Weekdays:

* 5am - 9am: ONtv Morning Live with Tim Bolen and Annette Hamm
* 12pm - 1pm: ONtv News at Noon with Al Sweeney and Taz Boga
* 5:30pm - 6pm: ONtv First Edition with Al Sweeney and Taz Boga
* 6pm - 6:30pm: ONtv Evening News with Kate Carnegie
* 11pm - 12am: ONtv Final Edition with Kate Carnegie

Weekends:

* 5:30pm - 6:30pm: ONtv First Edition with Adam Atkinson
* 11pm - 12am: ONtv Final Edition with Adam Atkinson

## Technical information

### Analogue-to-digital conversion

The station launched its digital signal on UHF channel 18 on April 18, 2008. CHCH shut down its analogue signal, over VHF channel 11, on August 15, 2011, two weeks prior to the August 31 date on which Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatory markets transitioned from analogue to digital broadcasts. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 18 to its former analogue-era VHF channel 11. The analogue signal was discontinued immediately preceding the switch. CHCH-DT is available on digital cable and over-the-air through digital tuners and converter boxes. Since September 12, 2011, CHCH's HD feed has been carried by satellite provider Bell Satellite TV on channel 1057.

### Transmitters

On August 28, 1996, CHCH received CRTC approval to add new rebroadcast transmitters across most of Ontario. The launch of the transmitters in 1997 coincided with the rebranding of the station as "ONtv".

During the analog television shutdown and digital conversion in August 2011, CHCH's transmitters in Ottawa, London, and Muskoka (serving Barrie which is part of the Toronto market) were converted to digital. This was because the transmitters were in or near markets that were mandated to make the switch. At the time, the transmitters broadcast the channel in standard-definition 480i due to depending on Shaw Broadcast Services, which did not carry CHCH HD. As of September 2014, transmission was upgraded to 1080i.