CIVT-TV

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = CIVT-TV
city =
station_
station_slogan = Your Home. Your News.
station_branding = CTV British Columbia
analog = 32 (UHF)
digital = 33 (UHF - PSIP 32)
other_chs =
affiliations = CTV
network =
airdate = September 22, 1997
location = Vancouver, British Columbia
callsign_meaning = C
I
Vancouver
Television
former_callsigns =
former_channel_numbers =
owner = CTVglobemedia
licensee = CTV Television, Inc.
sister_stations = CIVI-TV, CKST (AM), CFUN (AM), CFBT-FM, CHQM-FM
former_affiliations = Independent (1997-2001)
effective_radiated_power = 2000 kW (analog)
0.9 kW (digital)
HAAT = 740.3 m (both)
coordinates = coord|49|21|26|N|122|57|13|W|type:landmark
homepage = [http://www.ctvbc.ca/ CTV BC]

CIVT-TV (also known as CTV British Columbia, CTV Vancouver or CTV 9) is a television station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Owned by CTVglobemedia, it is part of the CTV Television Network. It broadcasts on UHF channel 32, and is seen on cable channel 9 in most areas.

tation details

The station's studios are located at the former site of the Vancouver Public Library, on Robson Street and Burrard Street. The station broadcasts a 2 MW terrestrial signal on UHF channel 32 from a transmitter on Mount Seymour, making it the only CTV network station to broadcast on UHF only.

It is the only CTV station in British Columbia, and in the Pacific Standard Time zone. However, the station's UHF terrestrial signal only reaches Vancouver and Victoria, as well as neighbouring Whatcom County, Washington. Accordingly the station relies exclusively on cable and satellite distribution to reach the rest of British Columbia, making it something of a "weak link" in the CTV network. In the mountain time zone, CIVT is not available or is on a higher channel number, while the zone receives CFCN or CFRN over-the-air as the main affiliates.

Although the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) technically requires Canadian TV stations to identify themselves over the air by their call letters, this rule is rarely enforced, and most Canadian TV stations identify themselves by their brand name rather than their call letters. On-air, CIVT identifies itself simply as "CTV". Where a channel reference is warranted, it uses "Channel 9" - its primary cable channel number on most cable systems in southwestern British Columbia.

CIVT now generally conforms to the standard CTV network schedule, aside from timeslot differences in the daytime schedule in order to maximize simulcast opportunities. The only national program not currently aired on CIVT is "The Oprah Winfrey Show", due to historical factors. In the 1990s, almost all CTV stations acquired local rights to "Oprah", as well as "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!" – however, the local rights were always held by individual stations, not the network. This meant that the B.C. rights, acquired by CHAN (BCTV), did not revert to the network when that station disaffiliated from CTV. CHAN has kept "Oprah" on its lineup throughout its tenure as a Global O&O. CIVT has used a number of stopgap measures over the years to fill this hole in its schedule, currently airing "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" in the 4:00 p.m. timeslot instead.

Similarly, "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!" did not air on CIVT during the years that most other CTV O&Os carried the programs (the Vancouver-area rights to both series later passed from CHAN to CHEK, CHNM, CIVI, CKVU, and most recently CBUT). Ironically, this means that CIVT is now the only English-language, non-religious station in the market not to have carried the two game shows, long associated with CTV elsewhere.

The studios also house the CTV News Vancouver bureau, and are likely to be the broadcast headquarters for CTV's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics, held in Vancouver and Whistler.

History

Licensing

After receiving applications from Rogers Communications and CanWest Global Communications for new stations in the Vancouver/Victoria market in August 1995 and January 1996 respectively, the CRTC issued a general call for applications in March 1996, with a public hearing that September. In all, five applications were considered:
*Rogers proposed a multicultural station similar to its CFMT in Toronto, purportedly to replace an existing regional specialty channel, Talentvision;
*CanWest proposed a new station in Victoria, in parallel to its existing Vancouver station CKVU, in an attempt to gain parity with WIC's dual ownership of BCTV and CHEK in the market;
*The Baton/Electrohome Alliance, CHUM Limited, and Craig Broadcast Systems each proposed a new, independent local station focused on Vancouver.

The commission's decision, released January 31 1997, approved the Baton application and denied the others. The prospective Rogers station was denied largely because it would have replaced some of Talentvision's existing ethnic programming with U.S. syndicated fare. It also appeared that the application was purely speculative, as Talentvision's existing owners indicated they had no intention to vacate their licence. As for CanWest, the commission determined that the existing BCTV/CHEK twinstick did not justify licensing a new station to a company already serving the market.

The remaining applications were all determined to be high-calibre; however, the deciding factor in favour of Baton/Electrohome was a commitment to air new Vancouver-produced programming across Baton's and Electrohome's stations (eg. the "Vicki Gabereau Show"), a promise that the smaller CHUM and Craig station groups could not match. [ [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/eng/Decisions/1997/DB97-39.htm Decision CRTC 97-39] , January 31, 1997]

As "Vancouver Television"

CIVT first went on the air as "Vancouver Television" or "VTV" on September 22, 1997. The station's news operation started out similar to that of Toronto's CITY-TV, with a morning television show ("VTV Breakfast") and evening newscasts ("Vancouver Live") where the anchors stood up and moved throughout the studio. The Toronto station's founder, Moses Znaimer, went so far as to claim that his former protégé, Baton chief executive Ivan Fecan, had stolen CITY's format outright for VTV. [Susan Gittins, "CTV: The Television Wars", Toronto: Stoddart Publishing, 2001 (p. 323).] A noon newscast only lasted for several months after the launch. VTV began moving towards a more conventional news operation in 1999, and renamed its newscasts to simply "VTV News".

Upon launch, VTV took over the BC rights to Baton Broadcast System (BBS) programming, some of which was previously aired on BCTV; however, with the Baton/CTV merger nearing completion by this point, the "BBS" brand was not implemented locally in Vancouver. By early 1998 the BBS series had in effect become part of CTV's national schedule; VTV would cover up the CTV bug at the lower-right corner of the screen with its own logo.

To fill in the gaps, and because CHUM did not have a station in the market at that point, VTV also carried some series and movies sourced from Toronto's CITY-TV through the end of the 1999-2000 season. As well, some CTV-owned series that did not air nationally due to low expectations and/or scheduling constraints aired instead on VTV (two notable examples were the first episodes of "Ally McBeal" and "", both upgraded to national status by midseason). Previously-cancelled Canadian dramas that had already aired on the main network were sometimes aired to fulfill Canadian content obligations.

By the end of 1997, Baton Broadcasting had bought out Electrohome's broadcasting operations, and gained full control of both CIVT and the CTV network. It soon became an open secret that CIVT would become Vancouver's CTV station at the first opportunity. BCTV and CHEK had a long-term affiliation agreement with CTV, covering 40 hours of programming per week, which would not expire until September 2000; due to complications surrounding the breakup of WIC (including Canwest's acquisition of the BCTV/CHEK twinstick and the resulting sale of CKVU), this was later extended by an additional year.

As a CTV O&O

On September 1, 2001, as part of a major network shuffle in southwestern BC's television market, CIVT became a full CTV network station, and has not deviated significantly from the national schedule since then. Upon becoming a full network station, CIVT adopted the name "BC CTV". This caused some confusion among viewers with BCTV, the leading TV station in the region which has since changed its name to Global BC. Given CTV's desire to steal market share from BCTV, there was some speculation that the confusion was deliberate.

On July 1, 2002, CIVT stopped using the "BC CTV" ID on-air, and began to identify itself only as "CTV", following the lead of several other CTV-owned stations (such as CKCK and CFQC). The name "CTV 9" is often used to refer to CIVT informally, but is hardly ever used on-air.

In March 2004, CIVT became the first station in Western Canada to operate a full-time news helicopter, nicknamed "Chopper 9".

In 2005, digital signal CIVT-DT, sometimes known as "CTV HD West", became operational.

In January 2008, CTV began producing a Western Canada edition of "Canada AM" at the CIVT studios; however, the Western edition was cancelled in June of the same year. [ [http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/show/CTVShows/20080606/AM_release_20080606/20080606] ]

Newscasts

CIVT's newscasts are branded as CTV News, and are shown at the following times:

Weekdays

* 5 p.m. - 6 p.m.: CTV News at 5 with Coleen Christie
* 6 p.m. - 7 p.m.: CTV News at 6 with Bill Good and Pamela Martin
* 11:30 p.m. - 12:05 a.m.: CTV News at 11:30 with Mi-Jung Lee

Weekends

* 6 p.m. - 7 p.m.: CTV News at 6 with Keri Adams
* 11:30 p.m. - 12:05 a.m.: CTV News at 11:30 with Jina You on Saturdays, Keri Adams on Sundays

News staff

Anchors

*Bill Good (Weekdays at 6 p.m.)
*Pamela Martin (Weekdays at 6 p.m.)
*Mi-Jung Lee (Weeknights at 11:30 p.m.)
*Keri Adams (Weekends at 6 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.)
*Coleen Christie (Weekdays at 5 p.m.)
*Renu Bakshi
*Jina You

General reporters

*Mike Killeen - CTV News 2010 Olympic Reporter*
*St. John Alexander
*Jim Beatty - Victoria bureau
*Kate Gajdosik - Chopper 9 reporter
*Jina You*
*Julia Foy - Fraser Valley bureau
*David Kincaid - Chopper 9 Reporter
*Lisa Rossington
*Michele Brunoro - Fraser Valley bureau
*Renu Bakshi*
*Dave Pinton
*Maria Weisgarber
*Stephen Smart
*Sarah Galashan - Whistler bureau
*Kent Molgat - Okanagan bureau
*Reshmi Nair*Also substitute anchor.

ports

*Perry Solkowski (Weekdays at 6 p.m.)
*Kathy Kovacs (Weeknights at 11:30 p.m.)
*Jason Pires (Weekends at 6 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.)
*Farhan Lalji

Weather

*Tamara Taggart (Weekdays at 5, 6 & 11:30 p.m.)
*Marke Driesschen (Weekends at 6 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.)
*Rena Heer

Consumer reporter

*Chris Olsen

News photography

*David Alexander - Field Operations Supervisor

General assignment

*Chris Brinton - Victoria Bureau
*Wade Carpenter
*Shawn Foss - Fraser Valley Bureau
*Susie Golemba
*Ted Huang
*Steve Hughes
*Wayne Hancheruk
*Roman Komm
*Shelly Moore
*Steve Murray
*Gary Rutherford
*Jazz Sanghera

Chopper 9

*Gary Barndt
*Pete Cline
*Murray Titus

Past personalities

*Bridgitte Anderson: Anchor, now at CBUT
*Denelle Balfour: Reporter, now with CTV National News as Halifax Bureau Chief
*Ravi Baichwal: Anchor, now at WLS-TV
*Satinder Bindra: Reporter, now at CNN
*Rob Brown: Reporter, now with CTV National News as Vancouver Bureau Chief
*Mike Chisholm: Reporter, now at CHAN-TV
*Rob Christie: Weathercaster, now at CKRA-FM
*Kate Corcoran: Reporter
*Nicola Crosbie: Weathercaster, now at CITV-TV
*Monika Deol: Anchor
*Janet Dirks: Reporter, now with CTV National News as Calgary Bureau Chief
*Jasmin Doobay: Weathercaster and traffic reporter
*Vicki Gabereau: Talk show host
*Kristi Gordon: Weathercaster, now at CHAN-TV
*Claudine Grant
*Aamer Haleem: Breakfast host, now at VH1
*Kimberly Halkett: Anchor, now with Al Jazeera English
*David Jones: Weathercaster, now at CBUT
*Karen Khunkhun: Weathercaster
*Dave Lefebvre: Reporter, now a spokesman for Corrections Canada
*Robert Mason Lee: Talk show host
*Paul Mennier: Anchor, now at CKEM-TV
*Dagmar Midcap: Weathercaster and traffic reporter, now at WGCL-TV
*Chris Nelson: Reporter, now at MuchMusic
*Craig Nielsen: Sports anchor
*Sonja Nordahl: Anchor
*Elisha Odowichuk: Reporter, now Elisha Moreno, Director of Communications at Plutonic Power Corporation
*Blake Price: Sports anchor
*Katie Rebak: Traffic reporter
*Michelle Simick: Reporter
*Jody Vance: Sports anchor, now at Rogers Sportsnet
*John Vennavally-Rao: Reporter, now with CTV National News as Toronto Bureau Chief
*Ed Watson: Reporter

Digital television and high definition

After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on August 31, 2011 http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/oca-bc.nsf/en/ca02336e.html] , CIVT-TV will continue digital broadcasts on its current pre-transition channel number, 33. However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display CIVT-TV virtual channel as 32.

tation presentation

ee also

*2001 Vancouver, British Columbia TV realignment

References

External links

* [http://www.ctvbc.ca/ CTV British Columbia]
* [http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/listings_and_histories/television/histories.php?id=61&historyID=17 Canadian Communications Foundation - CIVT-TV History]
*RecnetCanada|CIVT-TV