CBLT (TV)

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CBLT
Toronto, Ontario
Branding CBC Television
Slogan Canada's Own
Channels 5 (VHF) over the air; 6 via cable analog,
20 (HDTV, UHF) digital
Affiliations CBC Television
Owner Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Founded 1952
Call letters meaning C B C
Great Lakes
Television
Former callsigns None
Former affiliations None
Transmitter Power 100 kW (analog)
Website CBC Toronto

CBLT is the television call sign for the CBC's television station in Toronto, Ontario. It is the oldest television station in Toronto, and the second oldest in Canada after its SRC sister station CBFT in Montreal. It is also the flagship television station of the CBC Television Network, and houses the studios for most of CBC's programs, news, and shares studios with CBC Newsworld.

Contents

[edit] History

CBLT originally broadcast on Channel 9 from its launch date of September 8, 1952. In the late-1950s it moved to Channel 6 to accommodate CFTO.

Channel 6 had been used in the late 1940s and early 1950s by WHAM-TV in Rochester (no relation to the current station with those calls), disallowing the use of 6 in Toronto; indeed, pre-1952 newspaper listings show WHAM 6 listed for Toronto television users. WHAM-TV moved to channel 5 in the early 1950s. It later changed its callsign to WROC-TV and moved to Channel 8.

On January 19, 1953 a microwave link between Buffalo, New York and Toronto was activated. It allowed live airing of programs from the American television networks.

A few months later, on May 14, 1953 CBC Television stations in Montreal and Ottawa became the first connections within the Trans-Canada Microwave System.

Then in 1972, it switched to its current VHF channel, Channel 5 in order to allow two new stations (CKGN in Paris and a CJOH repeater in Deseronto) to use the frequency. It currently broadcasts from the CN Tower from studios at the CBC Broadcast Centre on Front Street. However, it originally broadcast from a series of smaller studios (which now house the National Ballet School) on Jarvis Street next to its transmitter.

The CN Tower opened in 1976, and CBLT moved its transmitter to the facility and started transmitting from it on May 31, 1976.

The CRTC licensed CBLT on January 30, 2004 to use UHF channel 20 for HDTV broadcasting, and CBLT's first HDTV broadcast occurred on March 5, 2005.

CBLT has used a variety of on-air brands since its inception. From 1957 to 1972, it was known as Channel 6. Following its move to Channel 5 in 1972, it became known as "CBLT Five", later shortened to "CBLT/5". In the late 1970s it was known as "Toronto/5". During the 1980s it was known mainly as CBLT-TV, although it used a "CBC 5" logo. Starting in late 1985 the station was identified in print ads as "CBC Television Toronto/5", but the CBLT branding was used for its local programs including its supperhour newscast CBLT Newshour. By the 1990s it was known simply as "CBC Toronto", although the CBLT calls were used from time to time in local programming, and on the CBC website.

[edit] Local news

CBLT newscasts have consistently faced very stiff competition in the Toronto market, consistently behind CTV affiliate CFTO since it surged to the Number One spot in 1970, and behind CITY-TV since 1982. This is in contrast to CBC Winnipeg station CBWT, which has won numerous awards (Genie, ACTRA) for its news & current affairs program, 24Hours in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, primarily for its documentaries. Because of this, 24Hours became the top rated news program in Winnipeg, until the budget cuts of the 1990s.

Between September 10, 1984 and April 4, 1986 CBLT had the only locally produced morning television show in Canada, CBLT Morning, and was broadcast from 7 to 9 a.m. weekdays. The program was co-hosted by Dale Goldhawk and Leslie Jones. At the time of the cancellation of the program it had 20,000 viewers, which was more than the Canadian viewers of ABC's Good Morning America, but less than CTV's Canada AM.[1] The news anchor was Kevin Marsh[2]

As of Spring 1995, according to BBM Canada, CBLT's evening newscast CBC Evening News had 117,000 viewers in the Toronto-Hamilton market, putting it in fourth place behind Global News on CIII at 141,000, CITY's CityPulse at 229,000, and CFTO's World Beat News at 409,000. Only CHCH, the only other station based in the market with a 6 p.m. newscast, had fewer viewers throughout Toronto-Hamilton than CBLT, at 77,000 viewers. (Up-to-date BBM figures are not available.)

[edit] Logos

CBLT logo from 1952–1957

CBLT logo in the 1960s (also used by CBMT and CBWT)

CBLT logo from 1972–1974

CBLT logo from 1974–1977

Screenshot of CBLT ID from 1981

CBLT logo from 1984–1985 (modified from 1981 "grid" logo)

CBLT CBC Evening News logo from 1994-2000

[edit] Current CBLT personalities

  • Nick Czernkovich, CBC News at Six meteorologist
  • Steven DeSousa, CBC News at Six reporter
  • Natasha Ramsahal, CBC News at Six meteorologist
  • Beatrice Stucki, CBC News at Six reporter
  • Diana Swain, news anchor CBC News at Six
  • Mike Wise, CBC News at Six reporter

[edit] Former CBLT personalities

  • Dale Goldhawk, former co-host CBLT Morning (1984–1986)
  • Leslie Jones, former co-host CBLT Morning (1984–1986)
  • Percy Saltzman, CBLT's first weather person (1952–1972)
  • Brian Slemming, former Executive Producer of CBLT Morning (1984–1986)

[edit] Rebroadcasters

CBLT serves much of Ontario through a network of rebroadcast transmitters, including all of Northeastern Ontario and most of Western Ontario with the exception of Windsor. The station only served Southern Ontario and a few rural Northern Ontario communities until 2002, when it took over the CBC affiliates of the MCTV twinstick. CBLGT in Geraldton and the CBLAT transmitters have operated since the early 1970s, while others have been added as other CBC affiliates have disaffiliated from the network or have been bought by CBC.

1 -- Replacement following CKVR-TV flipping to NewNet.
2 -- Replacement following CFPL-TV and CKNX-TV flipping to independent.
3 -- Originally a repeater for CBLFT; Radio-Canada moved to channel 53 to make ch.40 available for CBC.

[edit] Trivia

CBLT's first broadcast on September 8, 1952, was prefaced by the inadvertent incorrect display of the CBC's national network logo, seen here at right. Conflicting accounts say it was either upside-down or backwards, due to incorrect insertion of the slide. No such error was made two days earlier with CBFT in Montreal.

[edit] Chronology

Date Call Ch City of
Licence		 Main
Studio		 Network ERP (W) Altitude RCAGL Tx Latitude/Longitude Owner
08 Sep 1952 CBLT 9 Toronto Toronto CBC 25650 101 m 135 m 43°39′48″N, 79°22′41″W Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
27 Aug 1956 CBLT 6 Toronto Toronto CBC 100000 101 m 135 m 43°39′48″N, 79°22′41″W Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
1972 CBLT 5 Toronto Toronto CBC 77000 101 m 135 m 43°39′48″N, 79°22′41″W Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
31 May 1976 CBLT 5 Toronto Toronto CBC 84000 82 m 488 m 43°38′33″N, 79°23′14″W Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

See also CBLFT, CBLA, List of CBC television stations.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "News, drama programs saved from knife", Globe and Mail, April 4, 1986, p. A18.
  2. ^ McLean, Ross. "New morning show off to shaky start", Globe and Mail, September 22, 1984, p. P13.

[edit] External link


v • d • e
Broadcast television stations in the Toronto / Hamilton / Niagara Falls, ON market
Local television stations

CKVR 3 (A-Channel) - CBLT 5 (CBC) - CFTO 9 (CTV) - CHCH 11 (CH) - Star Ray TV 15 (Pirate) - CICA 19 (TVO) - CHEX-2 22 (CBC, Oshawa) -
CBLFT 25 (SRC) - CITS 36 (CTS) - CIII 41/6/55 (Global) - CFMT 47 (OMNI.1) - CKXT 52/45 (SUN TV) - CITY 57 (Citytv) - CJMT 69 (OMNI.2)
Local cable television channels

CablePulse 24 - Leafs TV - The Weather Network (GTA version) - Fairchild TV - ShopTV Canada - Sportsnet Ontario
Local Buffalo stations available on cable television

WGRZ 2 (NBC) - WIVB 4 (CBS) - WKBW 7 (ABC) - WNED 17 (PBS) - WNLO 23 (The CW)1 - WUTV 29 (FOX) - WNYO 49 (MNTV) 1
1 -- digital cable only
See also broadcast television in the Buffalo, Barrie, Kitchener, London, and Peterborough markets
CBC stations in the province of Ontario

CKPR 2 (Thunder Bay) - CBOT 4 (Ottawa) - CBLT 5 (Toronto) - CBWAT 8 (Kenora)1 - CBET 9 (Windsor) - CKWS 11 (Kingston) -
CHEX 12 (Peterborough) - CHEX-2 22 (Durham Region)

1CBWAT serves as a satellite of CBC O&O CBWT, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Note: Stations in bold text are CBC owned-and-operated stations.
See also: CTV, Global, SRC and Other stations in Ontario
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