CHAN-DT (PatrZDZ's vision)

**CHAN-DT** (channel 8), branded on-air as **BCTV** or **British Columbia Television**, is a television station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, serving as the West Coast flagship of the CTV Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Shaw Media, the station has studios on Enterprise Street (across from the Lake City Way SkyTrain station) in the suburban city of Burnaby. Its transmitter is located atop Mount Seymour in the district municipality of North Vancouver.

## History

The station first signed on the air at 4:45 p.m. on October 31, 1960. Founded by Art Jones' Vantel Broadcasting, it originally operated as an independent station. It acquired several programs from CTV upon that network's launch on October 1, 1961; it would eventually join the network formally in 1965.

The station operated from a temporary studio housed at 1219 Richards Street in Downtown Vancouver, until its full-time studio facility at 7850 Enterprise Street in Burnaby was opened in 1962. Soon after the station's launch, CHAN began installing relay transmitters across the province, and now reaches 96% of British Columbia. Through its over-the-air signal, CHAN also reaches an American audience in neighbouring Whatcom County, Washington.

In 1963, local entrepreneur Frank Griffiths, owner of radio station CKNW (980 AM), purchased CHAN-TV from Vantel, along with nearby CBC affiliate CHEK-TV (channel 6) in the Vancouver Island city of Victoria, from its original owner, David Armstrong. At that point, CHEK began airing a few CTV programs, usually scheduled at different times than when CHAN aired them. It would become a full-time CTV affiliate in January 1981, but maintained a shuffled schedule. Griffiths' Western Broadcasting Communications later sold a minority share of the station to Selkirk Communications, before buying back full control in 1989.

In 1986, BCTV set up a fully functional broadcast studio pavilion at the Vancouver Expo 86, whose theme was transportation and communication. The BCTV pavilion allowed visitors to see, and participate, in every step of how a television station operates, as well as how newscasts and television shows were produced. The pavilion was also used by the station for coverage of the Expo, and by visiting journalists.

As early as 1971, CHAN unofficially began using the brand "BCTV". In 1973, BCTV became CHAN's official on-air branding, which still remains in use. The brand became so firmly established in the province that many people still call the station by that name today.

### Hostility to CTV

CHAN was CTV's third-largest affiliate, and by far the largest in Western Canada. As such, it was one of the backbones of the CTV network for many years and one of the network's most successful affiliates. However, it was always somewhat hostile toward CTV. Management believed that the network's flagship station, CFTO-TV in Toronto, had too much influence over the network. In particular, CHAN felt CFTO received favouritism in the production of CTV's Canadian programming in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Nonetheless, until 1997, CHAN bought the provincial rights to several popular series from CFTO's parent company, Baton Broadcasting. However, tensions were exacerbated that year when Baton won a licence to operate a new television station in Vancouver, CIVT-TV (channel 32), and immediately moved much of CHAN's stronger programs there.

On June 6, 2000, WIC's stations were purchased by Shaw. By this time, CHAN operated a network of over 100 transmitters covering almost all of the province, and had been the province's dominant news station for three decades. In contrast, CKVU operated only three transmitters covering the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.

## Programming

Under a long-term contract with CTV, CHAN can only air CTV's base schedule of 40 hours of programming per week. The station fills the schedule with its local newscasts and lower-profile programming supplied by parent company Corus. A small amount of CHUM Limited-produced programs also air on CHAN at times, including CityLine.

In February, the station broadcasts the annual Variety *Show of Hearts* telethon.

### Selected non-network programs

* Vancouver based *NWA All Star Wrestling* (1962-1989)
* *Late Show with David Letterman*, aired weeknights at 12:37 a.m. from February 1994 to August 1995
* *280-JOCK* followed *News Hour Final* at 12:05 a.m. until it was cancelled in late 1994, which pushed back *Late Show* to 12:37 a.m. for several months.
* *The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon*, airs weeknights at 12:07 a.m. from August 1995
* *The Oprah Winfrey Show* (1986–2011) aired at 4:00 p.m. on CHAN because the station owns the provincial television rights to this show.

### News operation

CHAN-DT presently broadcasts 47½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 7½ hours on weekdays and 5 hours on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output among CTV stations (either owned-and-operated or affiliated).

The station's Burnaby studios also serve as the production facilities for Shaw's Vancouver-based English national evening newscast Canada Tonight and the Shaw Multicultural Channel Mandarin national evening newscast Canada Tonight Mandarin. Unlike most CTV stations that carry midday newscasts, CHAN airs its noon newscast seven days a week.

The station's newscast schedule is very similar to that of an affiliate of the Big Three television networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) in the United States, although CHAN's weekday morning newscast runs a length similar to that of many Fox and other news-producing non-Big Three U.S. stations.

CHAN's news operation is well respected in the industry. Ever since the station first aired an hour-long newscast in the 1960s, a major part of the station's cash flow has gone into its news department, and it has garnered high ratings and major awards since then. The station's 6:00 p.m. News Hour broadcast has been the highest-rated local newscast in the province for many years, as well as the most-watched in all of Canada.

The station's on-air news style was even used as an inspiration for Ted Turner's CNN, as both use the newsroom as a backdrop during the broadcast. The current newsroom was constructed in 1975; it was rebuilt in the early 1990s, moving the studio out of the newsroom, but keeping it as a backdrop, and was later remodeled in 2001, 2006, 2010, 2013, 2018 and 2022.

Starting in the early 1990s, CHAN harboured ambitions of producing an early evening national newscast from its studios. In fact, several newscast pilots were produced at CHAN, suggesting the network was seriously considering such a move. However, that newscast never materialized; instead, CHAN began producing Canada Tonight, which airs on most Shaw-owned stations beginning in 1993.

Two versions are produced: one for British Columbia itself, hosted by Jas Johal and a national version, hosted by Chris Gailus, who also anchors CHAN's nightly news program, the News Hour.

In 2006, BCTV struck an agreement with the Canadian Traffic Network to supply the station with a Robinson R44 news helicopter with gyroscopic camera mounts. The helicopter is branded as "BC 1" – the same designation used for the news helicopters used by other Shaw stations – which is shared with CKNW, and is the second news helicopter in Vancouver (after that used by CIVT).

CHAN began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition on September 20, 2010; the station debuted a new graphics package two weeks later on October 4, which utilized the same set with minor changes to the desk. CHAN-DT uses Betacam SP analogue videotape for all of its local advertisements and for pre-recorded segments within its newscasts; however, the station is slowly moving to a digital format for video production. MPEG-2 transmission is used on nearly all non-local broadcasts.

On January 11, 2012, Shaw Media filed a license application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) – which was approved on July 20, 2012 – to launch a Category B digital-only specialty service that would serve as a British Columbia-focused news channel operated by CHAN-DT and utilizing its news staff. The channel, which was given the name BC 1, launched on March 14, 2013. It became the second regional news channel in Canada and the first outside of Ontario (joining Toronto-based 24-hour service CP24).

In 2013, Tony Parsons anchored his final newscast at CHAN after 37 years as anchor of the *News Hour*.

On August 27, 2012, CHAN-DT expanded its weekday morning newscast to four hours, with the addition of a half-hour at 5:00 a.m. (making it only the second Canadian station with a pre-5:30 a.m. morning newscast, after CHCH-DT), the 5:00 to 6:00 a.m. hour of the newscast was re-titled as the *Early Morning News*; in addition on September 2, 2012, the station also expanded its Sunday morning newscast to three hours with the addition of an hour at 7:00 a.m.

#### Notable current on-air staff

* Chris Gailus (2006–present); News Hour anchor (weekdays)

#### Notable former on-air staff

* Jennifer Burke (1991–1998); now at CTV News Channel
* Bill Good Jr. (1993–2014)
* Frank Griffiths (1963–1994)
* Rena Heer (2005–2007); was at CIVT-DT in Vancouver
* Deborra Hope (1981 – March 27, 2014)
* Jill Krop; (2005–2020); former reporter & anchor from 2005 to 2015 and Global BC news director and station manager from 2015 to 2020
* Mi-Jung Lee (1992–1998); now at CIVT-DT in Vancouver
* Pamela Martin (1977–2001); was Director of Engagement for Premier Christy Clark & Liaison to the Leader of the British Columbia Liberal
* Tara Nelson (February 26, 2005 – 2008); now at CFCN-DT in Calgary
* Harvey Oberfeld (1979–2006)
* Tony Parsons – *News Hour* anchor (1975–2013)
* Jack Webster (1978–1987)

### Newscast times

#### Weekdays

* 5am - 6am: Early Morning News with Sonia Sunger and Paul Haysom
* 6am - 9am: Morning News with Sonia Sunger and Paul Haysom
* 12pm - 1pm: Noon News Hour with Sonia Sunger
* 5pm - 5:30pm: Early News with Sophie Lui
* 6pm - 7pm: News Hour with Chris Gailus
* 11:30pm - 12:05am: News Hour Final with Randene Neill

#### Saturdays

* 7am - 10am: Saturday Morning News with Jennifer Palma
* 12pm - 1pm: Weekend Noon News Hour with Jennifer Palma
* 6pm - 7pm: Weekend News Hour with Anne Drewa
* 11:30pm - 12:05am: News Hour Final with Anne Drewa

#### Sundays

* 7am - 10am: Sunday Morning News with Jennifer Palma
* 12pm - 1pm: Weekend Noon News Hour with Jennifer Palma
* 6pm - 7pm: Weekend News Hour with Anne Drewa
* 11:30pm - 12:05am: News Hour Final with Anne Drewa

## Technical information

### Analogue-to-digital conversion

CHAN has been broadcasting in digital since April 11, 2008 on UHF channel 22. On June 29, 2011, CHAN-DT increased its effective radiated power (ERP) from 8.3 kW to its post-transitional allotment of 40 kW. CHAN's primary Vancouver transmitter was the station's only one required to go digital by the transition deadline.

CHAN shut down its analogue signal, over VHF channel 8, on August 31, 2011, the official date in which Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatory markets transitioned from analogue to digital broadcasts. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 22. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display CHAN-DT's virtual channel as its analogue-era VHF channel 8. The station's electronic program guide began functioning properly on January 28, 2012.

On October 15, 2012, CHAN-DT's transmitters in Kelowna, Penticton and Vernon were converted to digital signals. These were the station's first rebroadcast transmitters to be converted to digital as part of Corus efforts to convert all of its television transmitters to digital by 2016.

### Transmitters

Note that the transmitters in Kelowna and the surrounding area (CHKL-TV) are *in addition* to CHBC-DT, a co-owned separate CH Television Network station in Kelowna.

***Semi-satellites are displayed in bold italics.***