CKVR-TV
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| CKVR-TV | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Barrie / Toronto, Ontario | |
| City of license | Barrie, Ontario |
| Branding | A-Channel Barrie/Toronto |
| Slogan | Come Home To A-Channel News |
| Channels | Analog: 3 (VHF) Digital: not yet on air |
| Translators | CKVR-1 12 (Parry Sound) |
| Affiliations | A-Channel (1995-present, previously known as The New VR until 2005) |
| Owner | CTVglobemedia CTV Limited |
| Founded | 1955 |
| Call letters’ meaning | C K Valerie and Ralph Snelgrove |
| Former affiliations | CBC (1955-1995) |
| Website | www.achannel.ca |
CKVR-TV (A-Channel Barrie/Toronto; formerly The New VR) is a television station in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. Owned and operated by CTVglobemedia, it is the flagship station of CTVglobemedia's secondary broadcast service A-Channel, with facilities located at 33 Beacon Road in Barrie. Its signal reaches well into parts of the Toronto television market and the station has long been available on cable across Toronto and southern Ontario.
CKVR is famous for its camera overlooking the city of Barrie, Lake Simcoe, and its environs. The camera is situated on the station's broadcast tower. CKVR-TV also has news bureaus in Collingwood and Orillia.
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[edit] History
The station was founded by Ralph Snelgrove, whose first initial and that of his wife, Valerie, form part of the station's callsign. It had been a longtime privately owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) affiliate since its inception in 1955. In 1995, it ended its affiliation with the CBC and rebranded as The New VR, becoming the first station in CHUM's NewNet system. CKVR has been owned by CHUM since 1969, longer than any of the company's other TV stations.
In February 2005, CHUM announced plans to consolidate the master control departments for CKVR, CFPL, CHRO, CHWI and CKNX in the CHUM-City Building in Toronto, as well as consolidating the traffic and programming departments at CFPL in London, resulting in the loss of approximately nine staff members from CKVR. On June 3, 2005, at approximately 10:00 a.m., the Barrie master control signal came to an end, as the new consolidated master control took to air.
On August 2, 2005, CKVR and the rest of the NewNet stations were renamed A-Channel.
On July 12, 2006, CTV owner CTVglobemedia (formerly Bell Globemedia) announced plans to purchase A-Channel owner CHUM Limited for $C1.7 Billion, with plans to divest itself of the A-Channel and Access Alberta stations[1].
On April 9, 2007, Rogers Communications announced the purchase of all of the A-Channel stations (including CKVR), SexTV: The Channel, Access Alberta, Canadian Learning Television and CKX-TV Brandon. The transaction is said to cost $137 million, which will be paid in cash by Rogers.[2]
On June 8, 2007, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced its approval of CTVglobemedia's purchase of CHUM Limited, but added a condition that CTVglobemedia must sell off CHUM's Citytv stations to another buyer, while being permitted to keep the A-Channel stations (including CKVR), in effect cancelling the planned sale of A-Channel to Rogers Media. [3]
CTVglobemedia took control of the A-Channel stations and the rest of CHUM Limited's assets on June 22, 2007, excluding the Citytv stations.
On July 26, 2007, CTVglobemedia named Richard Gray the head of news for the A-Channel stations and CKX-TV. Gray will report to the CTVgm corporate group, not CTV News, to preserve independent news presentation and management. Gray will now oversee CKVR and the other news departments; CHRO, CFPL, CKNX, CHWI, CIVI-TV and CKX-TV.[4]
It was announced on June 2, 2008, that the A-Channel stations including CKVR would become known as "A" in the fall of 2008. The Atlantic Satellite Network and Access Alberta stations will also become affiliates of A. The A name was officially revealed at CTV's fall upfronts presentation in Toronto. [5]
[edit] Criticism
Before The New VR was renamed A-Channel, CKVR's emphasis was on Barrie, Simcoe County and Muskoka. However, since "The New VR" was renamed "A-Channel", the focus had shifted to Toronto's suburban York Region. As a result, loyal CKVR viewers from the Barrie area complained that the newscasts was more about Toronto and less (if at all) about Barrie. CHUM announced, however, that the station would return its focus to the Barrie market on July 12, 2006, the same day that CHUM Limited announced that it would be taken over by CTVglobemedia. The station has since then shifted its focus to Barrie and Simcoe County, and added far away spots like Haliburton, the Kawartha Lakes, and a bit into York Region and Dufferin County, but the weather always features Toronto and York region first, mentioning Barrie, its host city, as an afterthought.
[edit] Station presentation
 Older logo from the 1960s and 1970s. |
 Older logo from the 1970s and 1980s, with slogan "Television On Target" |
 Older logo from the 1980s and 1990s. Final logo as a CBC affiliate. |
 Logo as The New VR |
[edit] Transmitters
The current CKVR Television Tower is a 304.8 metre high guyed mast for FM and TV transmission located at 44°21′1.06″N, 79°41′43.06″W, in Barrie. It was built in 1978, after a light plane crashed into the smaller incarnation of the tower the previous year.
CKVR previously operated low-power rebroadcast transmitters in the communities of Parry Sound, Huntsville, and Haliburton, on Channels 11, 8, and 5, respectively. The Parry Sound transmitter switched to Channel 12 in the mid-1970s before CKCO-TV opened a rebroadcast transmitter in Huntsville on Channel 11. The Haliburton transmitter was located very close to another CBC affiliate transmitter, CHEX-TV Peterborough, located at Minden and broadcasting on Channel 7. It is not known exactly when the Haliburton transmitter shut down. The Huntsville transmitter increased to full power in 1991 to better cover much of Muskoka and Haliburton County, but it was bought by the CBC in 1995 as part of the disaffiliation of CKVR from the CBC, and now rebroadcasts CBLT from Toronto. CKVR kept its Parry Sound transmitter, and CBC established CBLT transmitters in Barrie and Parry Sound at that time, on Channels 16 and 18, respectively.
[edit] Coverage
CKVR-TV can be viewed in these stations on the following cable providers, on the channel(s) shown below:
| Station | Network | Ch. | City | ExpressVu | Star Choice |
Rogers Greater Toronto Area | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto/ Etobicoke |
Scarborough/ Pickering |
Ajax/ Whitby/ Oshawa/ Pine Ridge |
Newmarket & areas north |
||||||
| CKVR-TV | A-Channel | 3 | Barrie | 219 | 346 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 5 |
| Cogeco | VCR Plus | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hamilton/Oakville | Niagara Falls | Horseshoe L. | Peterborough | Kawartha Lakes | ||
| 25 | 19 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 03 | |
[edit] References
- ^ Bell Globemedia makes $1.7B bid for CHUM. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (2006-07-12). Retrieved on 2006-07-12.
- ^ CRTC expected to OK Rogers' $137.5M buy of CTVglobemedia TV channels. Canadian Press via Yahoo! Canada News (2007-04-09). Retrieved on 2007-04-09.
- ^ CRTC tells CTVglobemedia to sell 5 Citytv stations. cbc.ca via Yahoo! Canada News (2007-06-08). Retrieved on 2007-06-08.
- ^ CTVglobemedia
- ^ [1]
[edit] External links
- A-Channel Barrie/Toronto
- A-Channel Breakfast Television
- Bright Lights, Small City, a critique of VR News (Ryerson Review of Journalism, summer 1999)
- CTVglobemedia
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