CIII-TV

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = CIII-TV
station_
station_slogan = Your family. Your city. Your news.
station_branding = Global Ontario
analog = 6 (VHF) in Paris
41 (UHF) in Toronto
digital = 65 (UHF - PSIP 6) (Toronto only)
other_chs = see Transmitters and Facilities
affiliations = Global
airdate = 6 January 1974
location = Paris / Toronto, Ontario
former_callsigns = CKGN-TV (1974-1984)
callsign_meaning = C
III - Canada's third television network, and the station's cable 3 position on many cable systems in Ontario
former_affiliations = none
owner = Canwest
licensee = Canwest Media Inc.
sister_stations = CHCH
homepage = [http://www.globaltv.com/ontario/ Global Ontario]

CIII-TV is a television station owned by Canwest that serves much of the population of the Canadian province of Ontario, featuring content localized for the city of Toronto. It is the flagship station of the Global Television Network. The station's main transmitter is licensed to Paris, a small town near Brantford, but its main studio is in Toronto. Most cable television systems in Ontario carry the station, normally on channel 3.

CIII-TV can be heard at 87.7 MHz on FM radios, though at a slightly lower volume than other FM stations - due to technical reasons.

History

The station was launched on January 6 1974 under the CKGN-TV call letters, but has always been known on-air as Global.

The callsign CKGN-TV was changed to CIII-TV in January 1984, to mark the 10th anniversary of the station. The Windsor/Cottam transmitter would be an exception for a few years as it continued to be identified in CRTC documents as CKGN-TV-1, perhaps due to licencing issues with nearby Detroit broadcasters (see "Transmitters and Facilities" below). ("CKGN" was a former callsign for a television station in North Bay, Ontario from 1955 to 1962, known today as CKNY-TV. The "CKGN" calls are now used by a Kapuskasing, Ontario radio station, CKGN-FM.)

CIII has evolved into a much more Toronto-centric station in recent years, despite being licensed to a town a fair distance away from the Greater Toronto Area. Previously, it employed a number of freelance journalists from across the province who filed reports for Global News. This, along with extensive province-wide weather coverage, gave the station a distinctive Ontario feel for many years. In the late 1990s, its focus turned more toward Toronto, even though its main studio has always been located there. CIII was originally owned by Global Communications, which was fully acquired by Izzy Asper in 1989. Asper's stations, including UTV in Vancouver, STV (CFRE-TV/CFSK-TV) in Saskatchewan, CKND in Winnipeg, and MITV in the Maritimes, formed a mini-network for a number of years, which evolved into the Global that Canadians know today. All of these stations began using the "Global" brand, in addition to CIII, in 1997.

News

Unlike most Global stations, CIII presently uses "Global News", as opposed to a regional name such as "Global Ontario", as its main news brand. Individual newscasts are titled "News Hour", "News Final", et cetera.

Early on, its flagship news program "Global News" developed, and in the beginning it was anchored by Peter Trueman in Toronto and Peter Desbarats in Ottawa. During the 1980s, Global greatly expanded its news operation, with an hour-and-a-half of news starting at 5:30 PM, plus news at noon and at 11 PM. By the end of the 1980s, the noon news was simply called "News at Noon", the 5:30 news was called "First News", the 6:00 news was called "The Six O'Clock Report", and the 11:00 news was called "The World Tonight". Anchors over the years have included Mike Anscombe, Beverly Thomson, John Dawe, Jane Gilbert, Peter Kent, Loretta Sullivan, Bob McAdorey, Thalia Assuras, and others.

Newscasts

* Morning News (6:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m.)
** Robin Gill
** Alan Carter
** Bill Coulter - Weather; formerly of The Weather Network
** Sara Lynn Cauchon - Traffic
** Tracy Hemphill - Global 2 Chopper Traffic
** Michelle Jobin - Weather (As substitute for Bill when off)

* Noon News (12:00 noon -12:30 p.m.)
** Robin Gill
** Bill Coulter - Weather

* News Hour (6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.)
** Leslie Roberts
** Anne-Marie Mediwake
** Anthony Farnell - Weather

* News Final (11:00 p.m.- 11:30p.m.)
** Leslie Roberts (in for Carolyn Mackenzie)
** Anthony Farnell - Weather

* Evening News (6:00 p.m.)/News Final (11:00 p.m.) Weekends
** Alex Pierson
** Michelle Jobin - Weather

* Global News Toronto reporters
** Sean O'Shea - Consumer SOS Reporter
** Nathan Downer - General Reporter
** Jackson Proskow - Municipal Affairs Reporter
** Minna Rhee - General Reporter
** Darryl Konynenbelt - General Reporter
** Gus Kim - Court Specialist
** Catherine McDonald - Crime Specialist
** Antony Robart - General Reporter
** Sean Mallen - Queen's Park Correspondent
** Mark McAllister - General Reporter
** Mike Edgell - General Reporter
** Rob Leth - General Reporter
** Shirlee Engel - General Reporter
** Beatrice Politi - Family Health Reporter; formerly of Citytv and CBC Toronto
** Christina Stevens - Special reports and fill in anchor

From 1994 to 2001, CIII also produced "First National", which was anchored by Peter Kent and seen at 6:30 p.m. weeknights. In 2001, the program was replaced by "Canada Tonight", which in turn was replaced that fall with "Global National", anchored by Kevin Newman, it originated from Global BC in Vancouver before moving to a dedicated studio in Ottawa in February 2008.

Logos

Transmitters and Facilities

CIII's main and original transmitter broadcasts on channel 6, from a tower near Paris, which is located between London and Hamilton, at 475 Ayr Road.

Studios and offices are located in Toronto at 81 Barber Greene Road, the same address from which broadcasts began in 1974. Secondary studio and news bureau facilities are located at the National Press Centre in Ottawa.

A series of rebroadcast transmitters relay the Paris signal to much of Ontario. Most of these use the call sign CIII followed by a number to denote their status as rebroadcasters, except in Sudbury and North Bay where the CFGC call sign is assigned. The most likely explanation for using CFGC is that the close resemblance between the number 1 and the letter I would make CIII-TV-11 an undesirable call sign for Sudbury, while North Bay couldn't use CIII-TV-2 as that call sign is already in use in Bancroft.

These six transmitters formed the original 1974 service:

* CKGN-TV Channel 6 from Paris (serving Hamilton and Brantford)
* CKGN-TV-1 Channel 22 from Cottam (near Windsor; also serving Detroit, Michigan)
* CKGN-TV-2 Channel 2 from Bancroft (serving Belleville)
* CKGN-TV-6 Channel 6 from Hull, Quebec (Camp Fortune site, near Ottawa)
* CKGN-TV-22 Channel 22 from Uxbridge (near Toronto; the most powerful transmitter in Canada at the time)
* CKGN-TV-29 Channel 29 from Oil Springs (near Sarnia)

The Cottam transmitter was frequently blank during the airing of prime-time American imports as the signal reached into Detroit. The Detroit "Big Three" affiliates insisted that the networks not allow a Canadian broadcaster to air network programming in the Detroit area. This also affected CBC's station in Windsor, CBET, which frequently had to air alternative programs. For more information on this, see Media in Windsor, Ontario and Media in Detroit, Michigan.

In 1986, [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/1986/DB86-678.HTM Decision CRTC 86-678] approved the relocation of the Windsor-area transmitter from Cottam to Stevenson. This transmitter (then CIII-TV-1) was silent for several years following a transmitter fire in the late 1970s. Some time after this, the CIII-TV-22 call letters from the now-defunct Uxbridge transmitter were re-assigned to the Stevenson transmitter. The transmitter is located northeast of Wheatley, Ontario, but its signal is aimed northeast (towards Chatham-Kent), and barely reaches Windsor and Detroit--presumably to protect the Detroit stations.

The Uxbridge transmitter was deleted in 1988, replaced by CIII-TV-41, broadcasting from the CN Tower in Toronto. For all intents and purposes, given that the station's main studio is in Toronto, this is the station's main transmitter and Global's flagship station (as was the case with its predecessor in Uxbridge). It is not known whether the station sends its signal there first or to the Paris transmitter. This is the case with sister station CKMI-TV, which is licenced to Quebec City, but sends its signal to its transmitter in Montreal first.

Other transmitters were gradually introduced, including (launch dates in parenthesis):

* CIII-TV-7 Channel 7 from Midland (November 1987, serving Barrie)
* CIII-TV-4 Channel 4 from Owen Sound (June 1988)
* CIII-TV-27 Channel 27 from Peterborough (October 1988)
* CFGC-TV Channel 11 from Sudbury (December 1992)
* CFGC-TV-2 Channel 2 from North Bay (December 1992)
* CIII-TV-13 Channel 13 from Timmins (December 1992)
* CIII-TV-12 Channel 12 from Sault Ste. Marie (December 1992)
* CIII-TV-55 Channel 55 from Fort Erie (early 1993, serving St. Catharines and Niagara Falls; signal also reaches Buffalo, New York)

CIII is not available in Thunder Bay; Thunder Bay Television stations CKPR-TV and CHFD broadcast a large amount of Global programming. TBTV's owners, the Dougall family, were concerned about Global cutting into its ratings and pressured the CRTC to deny Global's application to build a transmitter there. It is also not available in Kenora; the local CTV affiliate, CJBN-TV, airs some Global programming.

According to Global TV's website, Global Ontario, along with CHCH Hamilton/E! Ontario and Global BC, will have their over-the-air high-definition transmitters operating by the end of April 2008. [ [http://www.canada.com/globaltv/info/faqs.html Global Television Network - Frequently Asked Questions] ]

logans

* Early 1974: Your New Point of View
* Late 1974 - Mid-1975: Global's Looking Good
* Late 1975 - 2005: Global's Got It!
* Early 2006 - Get the full story.
* Current 2008 - Your Family. Your City. Your News.

References

* Nelson Media "(dead link)"
* [http://billdulmage.com The Bill Dulmage Radio & Television Archive]

External links

* [http://www.canada.com/globaltv/ontario/index.html Global Ontario]
*RecnetCanada|CIII-TV