CHWI-DT (PatrZDZ's vision)

**CHWI-DT** (channel 16) is a television station licensed to Wheatley, Ontario, Canada, broadcasting A-Channel programming to the Windsor area. Owned and operated by CHUM Limited, the station has studios at 300 Ouellette Avenue in downtown Windsor with a secondary office in Chatham; its transmitter is located on Zion Road (between Concession Line Roads 4 and 5) in Chatham.

## History

Baton Broadcasting applied to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for a licence to operate an independent television station for the Wheatley area, that would also serve Chatham and Windsor. This application was related to, and directly dependent on, Baton's purchase of CFPL-TV in London and CKNX-TV in Wingham from The Blackburn Group, as their intention was to launch a semi-satellite of CFPL-TV that served Chatham and Windsor. At the time, the only clear signals from Canadian stations were from TVOntario, the CBC and Télévision de Radio-Canada. The station's license application was approved on January 26, 1993, and CHWI-TV first began broadcasting on October 19, 1993. This marked Baton's return to television broadcasting in the region after the CBC had bought out Baton's majority interest in CKLW-TV in Windsor, renaming it CBET, in 1975 (Baton also operated radio stations in Windsor until 1984).

During its tenure as an independent station, it also aired ABC's Disney's One Saturday Morning schedule (along with, or from, the CTV affiliate in Kitchener, CKCO-TV), along with syndicated Disney shows in the afternoons on weekdays (The Disney Afternoon), such as Bonkers and Goof Troop before the 5 p.m. news, similar to WXON (channel 20, now WDWB) and WKBD-TV (channel 50) across the river in Detroit. While the station aired many CTV programs, it was never branded as a CTV station directly, but it was labelled as a BBS station instead. For all intents and purposes, it was Windsor's CTV affiliate for most of this time, if in programming and not by affiliation or name. Windsor is one of the few major Canadian cities that has never had a CTV affiliate of its own, largely because CTV owns the Canadian rights to a large amount of American programming. The Windsor area is considered part of the Detroit market for purposes of programming rights, and Windsor stations have often had to adjust their coverage or programming under pressure from the Detroit stations. CTV programming is piped in via CKCO on basic cable; that station's Sarnia-area translator is the nearest over-the-air source of CTV programming.

It was broadcast on channel 16 only (its Wheatley transmitter) for the first two years. However, the transmitter was located farther to the southeast, presumably to protect the Detroit stations. As a result, it was practically unviewable over-the-air in Windsor.

In response to complaints from the Windsor area, Baton applied for a Windsor-area translator on VHF channel 6, with an effective radiated power of 87 watts, in 1994. While the CRTC agreed to this request, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) refused to sign off on it, citing potential interference with WLNS-TV from Lansing, Michigan. However, the FCC recommended UHF channel 60 instead. The CRTC agreed, and Baton was allowed to place a broadcast translator in Windsor on channel 60 with an effective radiated power of 580 watts (with the same signal contours as channel 6 at 87 watts). However, some close-in suburbs of Windsor including Tecumseh, were not (and still are not, as of 2011) able to receive the channel 60 signal, or the channel 16 signal, and must rely on cable to watch CHWI-TV.

### CHUM Limited ownership

In 1997, the station was sold by Baton Broadcasting to CHUM Limited. CHUM would reformat the station (along with the other independent stations that CHUM acquired in the deal) with a lineup and branding similar to its new sister station CKVR-TV in Barrie, which would be known as "NewNet". CHWI would be rebranded as "The New WI" as a part of the format change.

In 2000, CHUM Limited applied to increase CHWI's transmitter power from 580 watts, to 5.8 kilowatts (10 times the strength), and was approved. Its Windsor transmitter stands atop the 34-floor Victoria Park Place apartment building, currently the tallest building in Windsor.

As a result of CHUM's acquisition of Craig Media (and its rebranding of a series of stations in Western Canada as Citytv stations on the same day), the NewNet stations (along with CHWI) were rebranded as A-Channel in August 2005.

## Programming

CHWI's schedule is almost identical to that of CFPL, apart from most local newscasts.

### News operation

CHWI-DT presently broadcasts broadcasts 29½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5½ hours each on weekdays, and 1 hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). The New Day has a contributor from Windsor, however, only the news anchor and weather anchor are based at the station's downtown Windsor studio. Prior to 2009, weather reports were based at CFPL-TV. Sports news continues to be based out of the studios at CFPL in London. Prior to 2003, CHWI's newscasts were produced entirely out of CFPL's London studios from a separate news set, and until 2014, both weekend newscasts were simulcast with CFPL. In January 2014, CHWI began producing local 6 and 11 p.m. weekend newscasts.

From 1993 to 1999, the Windsor newsroom was located at the corner of Riverside Drive East and Goyeau Street, at the foot of the 75 Riverside Drive apartments – which were left abandoned for 10 years after the move before being replaced by a restaurant. The newsroom now sits at nearby 300 Ouellette Avenue, co-located with the Windsor Star newspaper.

#### Newscast schedule

Weekdays

* 6am - 9am: A-Channel Morning with Sean Irvine and Cheryl Weedmark (simulcast with CFPL)
* 12pm - 1pm: A-Channel News at Noon with Stefanie Masotti
* 6pm - 7pm: A-Channel News at 6 with Rich Garton and Christie Bezaire
* 11pm - 11:35pm: A-Channel News at 11 with Rich Garton and Christie Bezaire

Weekends

* 6pm - 6:30pm: A-Channel News at 6 with Sijia Liu
* 11pm - 11:30pm: A-Channel News at 11 with Sijia Liu