| City of license | Toronto, Ontario |
|---|---|
| Branding | CBC Television |
| Slogan | Canada Lives Here |
| Channels | Digital: 20 (UHF) Virtual: 5.1 (PSIP) |
| Translators | see below |
| Affiliations | CBC |
| Owner | Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |
| First air date | September 8, 1952 |
| Call letters' meaning | Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Great Lakes Television |
| Sister station(s) | CBL-FM, CBLA-FM |
| Former callsigns | CBLT (1952-2011) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 9 (VHF, 1952-1956) 6 (VHF, 1956-1972) 5 (VHF, 1972-2011) |
| Transmitter power | 106.9 kW |
| Height | 491.0 m |
| Website | CBC Toronto |
CBLT-DT is a television station serving Toronto, Ontario and outlying regions and is an owned and operated station of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is the oldest television station in Ontario, and the second oldest in Canada after Radio-Canada flagship station CBFT-DT 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 News Network.
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CBLT launched on September 8, 1952, on channel 9. The station's first broadcast was prefaced by the inadvertent incorrect display of the CBC's national network logo. 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.[1]
On January 19, 1953, a microwave link between Buffalo, New York and Toronto was activated, allowing 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.
In 1956 the station moved to Channel 6 and increased its effective radiated power from 25 to 100 kW. This was done to accommodate the eventual licensing of a second privately owned local station for Toronto, which eventually became CFTO when that station was licensed at the end of 1960. Then in 1972, it switched to Channel 5 in order to allow two new stations (CKGN in Paris and a CJOH repeater in Deseronto) to use the frequency.
The CN Tower opened in 1976, and CBLT moved its transmitter to the facility and started transmitting from it on May 31, 1976. It currently broadcasts from studios at the Canadian Broadcasting 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 old transmitter.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (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 name 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. As with most Canadian television stations, the use of the analog channel placement was phased out of the station's logo and advertising, as most cable placements didn't match up with its VHF frequency.
CBLT-DT currently produces a total of eight hours, 40 minutes of local newscasts each week (with one hour, 40 minutes on weekdays, a half-hour on Saturdays and ten minutes on Sundays); the lowest amount of newscasts out of any local station in the immediate Toronto market. 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.
Between September 10, 1984 and April 4, 1986, CBLT had one of the only locally produced morning television shows in Canada, CBLT Morning, which was broadcast from 7 to 9 a.m. weekdays. The program was co-hosted by Dale Goldhawk and Leslie Jones, with news reported by Kevin Marsh.[2] At the time of the cancellation of the program it had 20,000 viewers, more than the Canadian viewership of ABC's Good Morning America, but less than CTV's Canada AM.[3]
In 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.
On October 15, 2011, CBLT debuted a half-hour 6 p.m. newscast on Saturdays, and launched a ten-minute news bulletin on Sundays at 10:55 p.m. the following day; the expansion was part of a five-year strategic plan by the CBC called "2015: Everyone, Every Way", which will feature local service improvements across CBC's television, radio and internet platforms.[4]
Anchors
Weather team
Reporters
The station's signal from the CN Tower adequately covers the immediate Greater Toronto Area, from Oshawa in the east, out to Halton Hills/Georgetown in the west, and from Hamilton and Niagara Falls in the south, to roughly Bradford. The station is also carried on cable in several American communities, similar to CBUT, CBET and CBMT.
In the Caribbean, CBLT is carried on cable systems in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Barbados, Bermuda, Grenada, Turks and Caicos Islands and Jamaica.
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.[7] 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.
Semi-satellite are in bold italics
| Station | City of licence | Channel | ERP | HAAT | Transmitter Coordinates | Notes |
| CBLT-2 | Huntsville | 8 (VHF) | 145 kW | 189.6 m | formerly CKVR-TV-2 | |
| CBLT-3 | Parry Sound | 18 (UHF) | 0.1 kW | 63.2 m | signed on September 1, 1995 when CKVR-TV dropped CBC affiliation | |
| CBLT-4 | North Bay | 4 (VHF) | 100 kW | 223.1 m | formerly CHNB-TV | |
| CBLT-5 | Sault Ste. Marie | 5 (VHF) | 75.7 kW | 182.9 m | formerly CJIC-TV | |
| CBLT-6 | Sudbury | 9 (VHF) | 198.1 kW | 221 m | formerly CKNC-TV | |
| CBLT-7 | Timmins | 6 (VHF) | 100 kW | 174.6 m | formerly CFCL-TV | |
| CBLT-8 | Kearns | 2 (VHF) | 70 kW | 212.4 m | formerly CFCL-TV-2 | |
| CBLT-9 | Kapuskasing | 2 (VHF) | 4.6 kW | 121.1 m | formerly CFCL-TV-3 | |
| CBCC-TV | Hearst | 5 (VHF) | 8.11 kW | 146.6 m | formerly relayed CFCL-TV; formerly CBLJT; originally CFCL-TV-4 on channel 4 | |
| CBCE-TV | Little Current | 16 (UHF) | 59.2 kW | 254 m | formerly relayed CKNC-TV | |
| CBCO-TV-1 | Moosonee | 9 (VHF) | 0.009 kW | NA | formerly relayed CFCL-TV | |
| CBCQ-TV-1 | Temagami | 15 (UHF) | 28.8 kW | 60.4 m | formerly relayed CBC North | |
| CBCU-TV | Chapleau | 7 (VHF) | 3.996 kW | 128 m | formerly relayed CFCL-TV; originally CFCL-TV-6 | |
| CBEC-TV | Elliot Lake | 7 (VHF) | 67.9 kW | 173.5 m | formerly relayed CKNC-TV; originally CKNC-TV-1 | |
| CBLAT-1 | Manitouwadge | 8 (VHF) | 40 kW | 182.6 m | ||
| CBLAT-2 | White River | 12 (VHF) | 0.94 kW | 232 m | ||
| CBLAT-3 | Wawa | 9 (VHF) | 32 kW | 187.3 m | ||
| CBLAT-4 | Marathon | 11 (VHF) | 18.73 kW | 284.1 m | ||
| CBLAT-5 | Beardmore | 9 (VHF) | 0.008 kW | NA | ||
| CBLAT-6 | Hornepayne | 13 (VHF) | 0.009 kW | NA | ||
| CBLCT | Fraserdale | 7 (VHF) | 0.01 kW | NA | ||
| CBLDT | Fort Albany | 8 (VHF) | 2.455 kW | 41.1 m | ||
| CBLET | Attawapiskat | 12 (VHF) | 0.01 kW | NA | ||
| CBLGT | Geraldton | 13 (VHF) | 43 kW | 182.3 m | formerly CBLAT | |
| CBLHT | Fort Hope | 12 (VHF) | 0.01 kW | NA | ||
| CBLIT | Armstrong | 10 (VHF) | 0.01 kW | NA | ||
| CBLN-TV 1 | London | 23 (UHF) | 24 kW | 262.9 m | signed on September 1, 1988 when CFPL-TV dropped CBC affiliation | |
| CBLN-TV-1 | Paris | 29 (UHF) | 60 kW | 259.9 m | signed on September 1, 1988 when CFPL-TV dropped CBC affiliation | |
| CBLN-TV-2 | Sarnia | 34 (UHF) | 10 kW | 98 m | signed on September 1, 1988 when CFPL-TV dropped CBC affiliation | |
| CBLN-TV-3 | Chatham | 55 (UHF) | 1.1 kW | 193.6 m | signed on September 1, 1988 when CFPL-TV dropped CBC affiliation | |
| CBLN-TV-4 | Wingham | 45 (UHF) | 828 kW | 226.2 m | signed on September 1, 1988 when CKNX-TV dropped CBC affiliation | |
| CBLN-TV-5 | Wiarton | 20 (UHF) | 760 kW | 244.2 m | signed on September 1, 1988 when CKNX-TV dropped CBC affiliation | |
| CBLN-TV-6 | Normandale | 44 (UHF) | 5.859 kW | 101 m | signed on ca. 1992 |
1 -- Originally a repeater for CBLFT; Radio-Canada moved to channel 53 to make ch.40 available for CBC.
| Digital Channel | Virtual Channel | Programming |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | 5.1 | main CBLT programming / CBC |
After the analogue to digital conversion took place,[8] CBLT continued digital broadcasts on its existing digital channel, UHF 20.
Regulation originally required the CBC to shut down analogue transmitters in all mandatory markets by August 31, 2011. CBC will also continue broadcasting in analogue in markets not affected by the digital switch. In the mandatory markets of London and Kitchener-Waterloo, the CBC originally planned to remain in analog on a low power transmitter (pending CRTC approval) and would not transition to digital.[9] The Barrie transmitter would also have shut down, as Barrie is part of the Toronto market.[10][11]
However, on August 16, 2011, the CRTC granted the CBC permission to continue operating 22 repeaters in mandatory markets, including in London and Kitchener but excluding its Barrie transmitter, CBLT-1 channel 16, in analogue until August 31, 2012, in which by then they must either convert to digital or close down. This is pending the corporation's license renewal process, which will include an evaluation of its transition plans.[12][13]
The requirement remains for any of the corporation's full power transmitters occupying channels 52 to 69 to either relocate to channels 2 to 51 or become low power transmitters. In some cases, CBC has opted to reduce the power of existing transmitters to low power transmitters, which will result in signal loss for some viewers.[14]
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