CITY-TV

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This article is about the Citytv station in Toronto, Ontario. For the television system, see Citytv

CITY-TV
Toronto, Ontario
Branding	Citytv Toronto
Slogan	Everywhere!
Channels	Analog: 57 (UHF) Digital: 53 (HDTV, UHF)
Translators	31 CITY-TV-2 Woodstock, Ontario 65 CITY-TV-3 Ottawa, Ontario
Affiliations	Citytv
Owner	Rogers Media
Founded	September 28, 1972
Call letters’ meaning	City
Website	www.citytv.com

CITY-TV (Citytv Toronto) (often referred to only as City) is a television station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, owned and operated by Rogers Media. It is the flagship station of the Citytv television system.

Broadcasting for the first time on September 28, 1972, CITY was best known for its unconventional approach to news and local programming, an approach that continues today and has carried over to the other stations in the Citytv system. (See Citytv for more on these practices.)

Originally owned by Channel Seventy-Nine Ltd., a group which consisted of Phyllis Switzer, Moses Znaimer, Jerry Grafstein, Edgar Cowan and others, CITY was in debt by 1975. Multiple Access Ltd. (the owners of CFCF in Montreal, Quebec) purchased 45% of the station. Three years later, it sold its stake to CHUM Limited. CITY was purchased outright by CHUM in 1981 with the sale of Moses Znaimer's interest in the station. Znaimer remained with the station as an executive until 2003, when he retired from his management role but continued to work with the station on some production projects.

[edit] History

Former version of the Citytv logo. Used from 1972 - 2005. The red-blue version no longer appears on-air but it is still present on several CityTV vehicles.

CITY originally broadcast on the UHF band with a 31 kW signal on channel 79, since all the VHF licences in the Toronto area were taken. In 1976, the station began broadcasting at 208 kW from the CN Tower. The channel CITY broadcast on was changed from channel 79 to channel 57 on July 1, 1983, because of complaints that the station was interfering with mobile radio in the Toronto area, and so that channels 70 to 83 could be reclaimed for use by new AMPS mobile phones in the Americas. On September 1, 1986, a transmitter was put into operation in Woodstock, Ontario (CITY-TV-2 on channel 31, also serves nearby London, Ontario), and another was set up in Ottawa, Ontario in 1996 (CITY-TV-3 on channel 65).

CITY was also the first digital television station in Canada, using the ATSC DTV standard. It is still continuing its analogue broadcasts. The signal was first broadcast on January 16, 2003, and became a regular signal on March 3 of that same year.

On March 2, 2008, CITY aired its first live sports event in the form of a Toronto Blue Jays spring training baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds.^[1] Citytv and the Blue Jays share common ownership by Rogers Media. This is not the first time that a live sport event has aired on a Citytv network station, however, as CKVU-TV aired National Football League games during the 2007 NFL season using the Rogers Sportsnet NFL licence.

[edit] Relocation and expansion

CHUM-City Building, currently home of Citytv Toronto. The CHUM and other Citytv signs were removed (except at the Citytv sign front of the building) after CTVglobemedia bought out CHUM Limited, but the studios will remain at its present location until March 2009.

Citytv's landmark mural, the landmark mural is scheduled to be given an overhaul once Citytv moves out of the building.

In 1987 CITY and the other CHUM-owned television stations moved to their current headquarters at the CHUM-City Building, making it one of the most recognizable landmarks in the city.

For almost thirty years, CITY was an independent station in Canada (therefore making Citytv and CITY interchangeable names for the station). In 2001, however, Citytv became a two-station system when CHUM purchased Vancouver's CKVU from Canwest Global. In 2005, three more Citytv stations were added in Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg after CHUM purchased the A-Channel television stations and the other assets owned by Craig Media. On the day when the three Prairie stations were rebranded as Citytv stations, the flagship CityPulse newscast was rebranded CityNews.

On July 12, 2006, it was announced that CTVglobemedia (CTVgm) would acquire CHUM Limited and its assets, including the Citytv stations, and related cable properties. ^[2] One year later, in June 2007, Rogers Communications announced it would purchase Citytv, a sale required by conditions the CRTC placed upon CTV when approving the CHUM purchase. A stipulation of the sale to Rogers was that CTV will keep ownership of the CHUM-City Building (where CHUM's speciality channels now owned by CTV such as CablePulse24, MuchMusic, Star!, Bravo! and Space would remain). Rogers announced that it would keep the station's operations at the CHUM-City Building until it moves to 35 Dundas Street East around March 2009. Rogers announced on October 22, 2007 an agreement to purchase 35 Dundas Street East, the former Olympic Spirit building located at the edge of Dundas Square, to house the operations of Citytv, and OMNI Television.^[3][4][5]

Some cablesystems in Canada, such as Videotron in Montreal, carry CITY as a superstation.

[edit] Remote camera use

In addition to the Freeway Management System - COMPASS and RESCU cameras, CITY TV operates Bell EYES cameras located at:

• CN Tower
• Toronto City Hall
• Yorkdale
• Toronto Pearson International Airport
• Rogers Centre
• Toronto City Hall
• Don Valley Parkway

[edit] Programming

• List of programs broadcast by Citytv

[edit] Famous alumni

Comedian Dan Aykroyd moonlighted as CityTV's announcer from 1972 until 1975 while working at Toronto's Second City before he moved to New York City to join Saturday Night Live.

Former CBS News anchor and current co-host of CNN's American Morning John Roberts first got his start at CITY, where he was known on-air as "J.D. Roberts". Roberts also was an entertainment reporter on CityPulse at 6 in the early 1980s and a host of The New Music, before becoming the anchor of CityPulse Tonight in 1987.

Afternoon CTV host Dini Petty got her start on Citytv as the co-host of CityPulse and later as host of CityLine.

[edit] Coverage

CITY-TV can be viewed in these stations on the following cable providers, on the channel(s) shown below:

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Citytv Toronto
• CityNews
• Museum of Broadcast Communications: CITY-TV

Coordinates: 43.649701° N 79.390233° W