| Toronto, Paris, London, Ottawa, and Southern Ontario | |
|---|---|
| City of license | Toronto, Ontario |
| Branding | Global Toronto |
| Slogan | We Know Toronto |
| Channels | Digital: 41 (UHF) Virtual: 41.1 (PSIP) |
| Translators | see Transmitters and facilities |
| Affiliations | Global |
| Owner | Shaw Media (Shaw Television Limited Partnership) |
| First air date | January 6, 1974 (in Paris; moved to Toronto in 2009) |
| Call letters' meaning | C III - Canada's third television network, and the station's cable 3 position on many cable systems in Ontario |
| Former callsigns | CKGN-TV (1974-1984) CIII-TV (1984-2011) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 41 (1988-2011) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1974-1990) |
| Transmitter power | 100 kW |
| Height | 503.0 m |
| Website | Global Toronto |
CIII-DT-41 (commonly known as Global Toronto) is a television station owned by Shaw Communications that serves much of the population of the Canadian province of Ontario. It is a flagship station of the Global Television Network. From its launch in 1974 until 2009, the station's main transmitter was licensed to Paris, a small town near Brantford, but following a licence amendment in 2009, Toronto is now the station's primary city of licence.[1] Through its entire history, however, the station's main studio has always been in Toronto. Most cable television systems in Ontario carry the station, normally on channel 3.
Upon launching in 1974, the station was known as the "Global Television Network", a name which reflected its then-unprecedented coverage of several Ontario markets through a network of satellite-fed transmitters. The name would be adopted nationally by the Canwest (now Shaw Media) station group in 1997, at which point CIII became known internally as "Global Ontario", but generally avoided the name on-air, even after most other Global stations began using regional branding in 2006. The Ontario station began to identify as "Global Toronto" in 2009 following the aforementioned licence amendment, but continues to use only the main Global logo in its bug, unlike other Global stations.
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The station was launched on January 6, 1974 under the CKGN-TV call letters, but has always been known on-air as Global. It had been hoped to be distinct from CBC and CTV by airing a number of its own Canadian-made programs. Three months later, the station was in deep financial trouble, and had cancelled many of its own programs. To survive, the network essentially became a clone of CTV, airing as much non-Canadian content as allowed (at the time, Canadian content regulations required 50 percent overall, with 60 percent in prime time). The station's financial difficulties continued until it was bailed out by two conglomerates in 1977, one based in Ontario, the other in western Canada. Several years later, both tried to buy out the other's interest, and the CRTC ended the contest by allowing the western group to take full ownership, a landmark change in Canadian broadcasting that ended the dominance of central Canada.
The callsign CKGN-TV was changed to CIII-TV in January 1984, to mark the 10th anniversary of the station. The Windsor/Cottam transmitter would be an exception for a few years as it continued to be identified in CRTC documents as CKGN-TV-1, perhaps because of licensing issues with nearby Detroit broadcasters (see "Transmitters and Facilities" below). ("CKGN" was a former callsign for a television station in North Bay, Ontario from 1955 to 1962, known today as CKNY-TV. The "CKGN" calls are now used by a Kapuskasing, Ontario radio station, CKGN-FM.)
CIII has evolved into a much more Toronto-centric station in recent years. Previously, it employed a number of freelance journalists from across the province who filed reports for Global News. This, along with extensive provincewide weather coverage, gave the station a distinctive Ontario feel for many years. In the late 1990s, its focus turned almost exclusively toward Toronto.
CIII was originally owned by Global Communications, which was fully acquired by Izzy Asper in 1989. Asper's stations, including U. TV in Vancouver, STV (CFRE-TV/CFSK-TV) in Saskatchewan, CKND-TV in Winnipeg, and MITV in the Maritimes, formed a mini-network for a number of years, which evolved into the Global that Canadians know today. All of these stations began using the "Global" brand, in addition to CIII, in 1997.
CIII-DT currently produces a total of 28 hours of local newscasts each week (with five hours on weekdays and 1½ hours on weekends).
Early on, its flagship news program Global News was developed under the guidance of Bill Cunningham, a CBC News veteran, and in the beginning it was anchored by Peter Trueman in Toronto and Peter Desbarats in Ottawa. In the early years it was one of the most successful and important programs the station had.[2] Peter Trueman has noted in his memoir that the program was groundbreaking: "Our newsroom-studio combination ... served as a model for the new CHAN-TV facilities in Vancouver, and it is currently [1979] the inspiration for Ted Turner's new Cablenews operation in Atlanta". The CBC also looked to it for inspiration when it changed its national news format in the early 1980s.[3] The program also pioneered the use of "regional correspondents", usually print or radio journalists, who would regularly advise the station about stories in their part of Ontario. This allowed field producers and a Global crew to target key stories of the day. "This is the main reason that much of Global's ex-urban coverage has been so effective", Trueman wrote in 1979.[4]
During the 1980s, Global greatly expanded its news operation, with an hour-and-a-half of news starting at 5:30 p.m., plus news at noon and at 11 p.m. By the end of the 1980s, the noon news was simply called News at Noon, the 5:30 news was called First News, the 6:00 news was called The Six O'Clock Report, and the 11:00 news was called The World Tonight. Trueman left in 1988. Other anchors over the years have included Mike Anscombe, Beverly Thomson, John Dawe, Jane Gilbert, Peter Kent, Loretta Sullivan, Bob McAdorey, Thalia Assuras, and Anne-Marie Mediwake.
In keeping with the avoidance of regional branding noted above, CIII, up until recently used "Global News", as opposed to a regional name such as "Global Ontario", as its main news brand. In the fall of 2009, however, for news programming, it began using "Global Toronto", since its newscasts focus primarily on that city. Individual newscasts are titled News Hour, News Final, etc. Global Toronto doesn't have its own entertainment or sports reporters. Entertainment news is provided by Entertainment Tonight Canada and sports news is provided by the all sports channel The Score Television Network.
From 1994 to 2001, CIII also produced First National, which was anchored by Peter Kent and seen at 6:30 p.m. weeknights. In 2001, the program was replaced by Canada Tonight, which in turn was replaced that fall with Global National, anchored by Kevin Newman, it originated from Global BC in Vancouver before moving to a dedicated studio in Ottawa in February 2008. From February to August 2009, CIII simulcast CHCH-TV's Morning Live, originating in Hamilton, Ont., from 7:00 AM to 9:00 a.m. CIII previously produced its own morning show called Global News Morning, but dropped it after low ratings and as a cost-cutting measure. The Noon News Hour was cancelled as well. The CHCH simulcast was later dropped after Canwest sold the Hamilton station to Channel Zero, with CIII now airing second-run lifestyle programming in the morning timeslot. CIII currently reruns the previous night's News Hour Final.
On October 11, 2011 CIII-TV launched a three-hour morning newscast titled The Morning Show. Hosted by Liza Fromer and Dave Gerry (both former hosts of Citytv's Breakfast Television programme in Toronto and Vancouver, respectively), production of the show takes place in a new storefront studio at Shaw Media's Bloor Street building in Downtown Toronto; Kris Reyes serves as the news anchor of the show, and Daru Dhillon provides weather forecasts. The new programme runs from 6 to 9 a.m. ET. The announcement also coincided with the announcements of new local morning shows for other Global stations across Canada.[5] The station also moved its early-evening newscast, News Hour, a half-hour earlier to 5:30 p.m. to coincide with a shift of Global National to the 6:30 p.m. slot, joining Montreal's CKMI-DT and Halifax's CIHF-DT as the only Global stations to carry the network's national newscast in that timeslot.[6]
Anchors
Local program hosts
Weather team
Traffic
Reporters
Former on-air staff
| Station | City of licence | Channel | ERP | HAAT | Transmitter Coordinates |
| CIII-DT | Paris | 6 (VHF) Virtual: 6.1 (PSIP) |
4 kW | 311.3 m | |
| CIII-TV-2 | Bancroft | 2 (VHF) | 100 kW | 390 m | |
| CIII-TV-4 | Owen Sound | 4 (VHF) | 37 kW | 130.8 m | |
| CIII-DT-6 | Ottawa | 6 (VHF) Virtual: 6.1 (PSIP) |
3.3 kW | 261.3 m | |
| CIII-DT-7 | Midland | 7 (VHF) Virtual: 7.1 (PSIP) |
6.75 kW | 346.7 m | |
| CIII-TV-12 | Sault Ste. Marie | 12 (VHF) | 5 kW | 135.1 m | |
| CIII-TV-13 | Timmins | 13 (VHF) | 25 kW | 176.9 m | |
| CIII-DT-22 | Stevenson | 22 (UHF) Virtual: 22.1 (PSIP) |
49 kW | 110 m | |
| CIII-TV-27 | Peterborough | 27 (UHF) | 2535 kW | 278.5 m | |
| CIII-TV-29 | Sarnia-Oil Springs | 29 (UHF) | 370 kW | 208.8 m | |
| CIII-DT-41 | Toronto | 41 (UHF) Virtual: 41.1 (PSIP) |
100 kW | 503.0 m | |
| CFGC-TV | Sudbury | 11 (VHF) | 25 kW | 137 m | |
| CFGC-TV-2 | North Bay | 2 (VHF) | 3.4 kW | 90.2 m |
Studios and offices are located at 81 Barber Greene Road in the Don Mills section of Toronto, the same address from which broadcasts began in 1974. Secondary studio and news bureau facilities are located at the National Press Centre in Ottawa.
A series of rebroadcast transmitters relay the CIII signal to much of Ontario. Most of these use the call sign CIII followed by a number to denote their status as rebroadcasters, except in Sudbury and North Bay where the CFGC call sign is assigned. The most likely explanation for using CFGC is that the close resemblance between the number 1 and the letter I would make CIII-TV-11 an undesirable call sign for Sudbury, while North Bay couldn't use CIII-TV-2 as that call sign is already in use in Bancroft.
These six transmitters formed the original 1974 service:
The Cottam transmitter was frequently blank during the airing of prime-time American imports as the signal reached into Detroit; Windsor is reckoned as part of the Detroit market for purposes of programming rights. This also affected CBC's station in Windsor, CBET, which frequently had to air alternative programs. For more information on this, see Media in Windsor, Ontario and Media in Detroit.
In 1986, the CRTC approved the relocation of the Windsor-area transmitter from Cottam to Stevenson.[10] This transmitter (then CIII-TV-1) was silent for several years following a transmitter fire in the late 1970s. Some time after this, the CIII-TV-22 call letters from the now-disused Uxbridge transmitter were re-assigned to the Stevenson transmitter. The transmitter is located southwest of Wheatley, between Wheatley and Leamington, but its signal is aimed northeast (towards Chatham–Kent), and barely reaches Windsor and Detroit—presumably to protect the Detroit stations.
CIII-TV-22 (the transmitter in Uxbridge) had an effective radiated power of 5 MW, making it Canada's most-powerful transmitter.[11][12]
The Uxbridge transmitter was eliminated in 1988, replaced by CIII-TV-41, broadcasting from the CN Tower in Toronto.[13] For all intents and purposes, given that the station is based in Toronto, this was CIII's main transmitter and Global's flagship even before the station officially moved its licence to Toronto in 2009. This was the case with the Uxbridge transmitter as well. Starting in 2008, CIII began sending its signal to the Toronto transmitter first, since the Paris transmitter does not yet have digital capability.
Other transmitters were gradually introduced, including (launch dates in parenthesis):
CIII is not available in Thunder Bay, but Thunder Bay Television station CHFD broadcasts a large amount of Global programming and uses the Global branding. TBTV's owners, the Dougall family, were concerned about Global threatening their local television monopoly (DougallMedia controls all local network television output for the Thunder Bay region[14] and had previously lobbied the CRTC to cease CHCH-TV's cable transmissions in the mid-1990s[15]) and pressured the CRTC to deny Global's application to build a transmitter there. However, in 2009, Thunder Bay Television switched the affiliation of CHFD from CTV to Global. As a result, Global programming is available in Thunder Bay, just not via CIII-TV's province-wide network of repeaters. Similarly, in Kenora, the Shaw-owned former CTV affiliate, CJBN-TV, switched to full-time Global programming in late 2011.
Initial attempts to cover Peterborough and Kingston from the Bancroft transmitter had yielded poor to marginal results; this signal has since been largely supplanted (for Peterborough only) by the more-powerful CIII-TV-27.
Global's CIII-TV-41 Toronto, along with CHCH Hamilton and Global BC began over-the-air high-definition broadcasts in 2008.[16]
In the early 1990s, additional transmitters were added to expand Global's footprint in Ontario.[17]
| Digital Channel | Virtual Channel | Programming |
|---|---|---|
| 41 | 41.1 | main CIII-TV-41 programming / Global (HD) |
| 41 | 41.2 | main CIII-TV-41 programming / Global (SD) |
In July 2009, CIII-DT-41 in Toronto began broadcasting.
After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which took place on August 31, 2011,[18] CIII-DT-41 moved from channel 65 to its current analog channel number, 41, following transition, because of the phaseout of channels 52-69.
Global transitioned its CIII-TV Paris, CIII-TV-6 Ottawa and CIII-TV-7 Midland (serving Barrie) transmitters to digital by August 31, 2011. Global has decided to transition Midland's transmitter after the deadline and by 2016. CIII-DT-41 Toronto increased coverage area to serve the Barrie area between the transition deadline and when the Midland transmitter begins broadcasting in digital.
CIII-TV-22 Stevenson (Windsor and Chatham) converted to digital August 8, 2011. The transmitter is reduced in power and viewing area has shrunk.
CIII-TV-55 Fort Erie vacated its channel frequency as of August 31, 2011. Global decided to shut down this transmitter. Coverage to the areas in Canada served by the Fort Erie transmitter are provided by CIII-DT-41 Toronto.
Global plans on transitioning its remaining transmitters to digital by 2016.
Shortly after the 2011 digital transition, an additional digital subchannel (41.2) was launched, carrying the SD feed of Global Toronto also provided to cable and satellite providers, which fully duplicates the existing programming on 41.1. However (unlike other Toronto-area stations) this SD feed is not simply a letterboxed or cropped version of the HD feed, instead having different placement for promotional graphics and a separate on-screen bug (without an "HD" annotation). It is thus possible that the SD feed needs to be broadcast over-the-air in order to continue carriage of this dedicated SD feed on cable and satellite. (However, it also serves as a benefit to some over-the-air viewers with 4:3 TVs and digital converters, insofar as it allows those viewers to avoid older 4:3 programs appearing both letterboxed and pillarboxed.)
| 1997–2006 | 2006–2009 | 2009–present |
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