CITY-DT

CITY-DT

Toronto/Ottawa/London, Ontario
City of license	Toronto, Ontario
Branding	City Toronto; City (general) CityNews (newscasts)
Slogan	Everywhere! (general) Toronto's News (newscasts)
Channels	Digital: 44 (UHF) Virtual: 57.1 (PSIP)
Translators	see below
Affiliations	City
Owner	Rogers Media (Rogers Broadcasting, Ltd.)
First air date	September 28, 1972
Call letters' meaning	CITY (also refers to the City network)
Sister station(s)	TV: CFMT, CJMT Radio: CFTR, CHFI, CJCL, CKIS
Former callsigns	CITY-TV (1972–2011)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 79 (UHF, 1972–1983) 57 (UHF, 1983–2011) Digital: 53 (UHF, 2003–2011)
Former affiliations	Independent (1972–2002)
Transmitter power	21 kW
Height	501.4 m
Transmitter coordinates	43°38′33″N 79°23′14″W / 43.64250°N 79.38722°W / 43.64250; -79.38722
Website	City Toronto

CITY-DT, virtual channel 57 (UHF digital channel 44), is a City owned-and-operated television station located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The station is owned by Rogers Media, as part of the company's only conventional television triplestick with Omni Television stations CFMT-DT (channel 47) and CJMT-DT (channel 40). The three stations share studios at 33 Dundas Street East on Yonge-Dundas Square in downtown Toronto, and CITY's transmitter is located atop the CN Tower in downtown Toronto.

CITY can also be seen on Rogers Cable (owned by parent Rogers Communications) channels 7 and 133, and in high definition on digital channel 519; it is also available on Bell TV channel 214 and in high definition on channel 1053. The station was best known for its unconventional approach to news and local programming, creating the basis upon which the City television network (of which CITY-DT serves as the flagship station) was built.

History

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

CITY signed on air for the first time on September 28, 1972, as an independent station. It originally transmitted a 31 kW signal on UHF channel 79, since all the VHF licences in the Toronto area were taken. The founding ownership group Channel Seventy-Nine Ltd. consisted of – among others – Phyllis Switzer, Moses Znaimer, Jerry Grafstein and Edgar Cowan. The four principal owners raised over $2 million to help start up the station, with Grafstein raising about 50% of the required funds, Znaimer raising around 25%, and the remainder accrued by Switzer and Cowan. The Channel 79 licence was granted to the company on November 25, 1971.^[1] The station's original studio was located at 99 Queen Street East near Church Street on the former Electric Circus nightclub.

The station was in debt by 1975. Multiple Access Ltd. (the owners of CFCF in Montreal) purchased 45% of the station, and sold its stake to CHUM Limited three years later. 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.^[2]

In 1976, the station's main transmitter began broadcasting at 208 kW from the CN Tower. The station moved from channel 79 to channel 57 on July 1, 1983 because Industry Canada reassigned frequencies (TV channels 70 - 83) to the new cellular phone systems AMPS mobile phones as a result of a CCIR international convention in 1982. On September 1, 1986, a transmitter was put into operation in Woodstock (CITY-TV-2 on channel 31, also serving nearby London), and another was set up in Ottawa in 1996 (CITY-TV-3 on channel 65).

299 Queen Street West, the former home of Citytv Toronto.

In 1987, CITY and the other CHUM-owned television stations moved to the headquarters at 299 Queen Street West, which became one of the most recognizable landmarks in the city. On March 30, 1998, CHUM launched CablePulse 24 (CP24), a local cable news channel whose programming was originally anchored and featured reports from CITY-TV's news staff, rebroadcasts of the station's CityPulse newscasts and select programming from CITY and other CHUM stations. CITY launched a test broadcast of its digital signal using the ATSC DTV standard on January 16, 2003, and began regular digital transmission on March 3 of the same year, becoming the first digital television station in Canada.

Despite efforts to extend the brand to other major markets, for 30 years CITY was the only Canadian station to identify on-air as "Citytv", making "Citytv" and "CITY" interchangeable names for the station. In 2001, however, CHUM purchased Vancouver's CKVU-TV from Canwest Global Communications. CKVU changed its branding to Citytv in 2002, making Citytv a two-station system). In 2005, three more Citytv stations were added in Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg after CHUM purchased the A-Channel television stations and other assets owned by Craig Media, the existing A-Channel brand was revamped and was transferred to CHUM's former NewNet stations. On the day that the three A-Channel stations switched to the Citytv brand, the flagship CityPulse newscast was renamed CityNews.

Sale to Rogers Media

Citytv logo used from 2005-2012. Some vehicles still have this logo.

On July 12, 2006, CTVglobemedia announced its offer to acquire CHUM Limited and its assets, including the Citytv stations, and related cable properties.^[3] Since CTV already owned local stations in all Citytv markets (including Toronto, where CTV owns and operates CFTO), the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) stipulated the sale of the Citytv stations as a condition for the approval of the CHUM purchase. The Citytv stations (including CITY) were subsequently sold to Rogers Communications, with the sale approved by the CRTC on September 28, 2007, and Rogers officially taking ownership on October 31 of the same year. CTV kept ownership of 299 Queen Street West, where CHUM's specialty television channels now owned by CTV (such as CP24, MuchMusic, Star!, Bravo! and Space) would remain. As such, Rogers had to find a new home for CITY-TV. Rogers subsequently purchased 33 Dundas Street East, the former Olympic Spirit building located at the edge of Dundas Square, for the use of its Toronto television stations, and CITY-TV moved into the new facility on September 8, 2009.^[4][5]

The Citytv system expanded into Western Canada in 2009 when Jim Pattison Group signed a deal to carry the system's programming in Kamloops, Prince George and Medicine Hat;^[6] Rogers signed a long-term affiliation renewal agreement for the Pattison stations in September 2012.^[7] However, Rogers gained two more stations in Saskatchewan and Montreal to broaden and expand its national coverage beginning in 2013 effectively transforming City from a television system to a television network.^{[8][9][10][11]}

On October 3, 2011, Rogers Media launched CityNews Channel, a 24-hour regional news channel for the Toronto area utilizing the resources of CITY-DT, and other Rogers-owned news and media properties such as CFTR radio (known by its brand "680News") and Maclean's magazine. The channel used the same news wheel format as CFTR with traffic and weather reports one minute after every hour, sports news at 15 and 45 minutes past the hour and business news at 26 and 56 minutes past the hour. In addition to rolling news programming, CityNews Channel aired simulcasts of Citytv Toronto's news programming and audio feed from CFTR during the overnight hours.^[12] Due to financial difficulties, Rogers ceased live broadcasts of the CityNews Channel on May 30, 2013, and the channel permanently shut down on June 30, 2013.^[13][14]

In November 2012, the station started edging away from the "Citytv" branding in its voiceovers, and began calling itself "City Television", although the "Citytv" branding was still seen on promos and bugs on the lower-right portion of the screen. Throughout the decades, announcers have informally referred to the station as "City" during select voiceover announcements; however, throughout December of that year, the station's (and entire system's) website phased in the "City" branding completely. The first full-time usage of the sole branding of "City" occurred on-air on December 31, 2012, coinciding with the City New Year's Bash broadcast.

Programming

Citytv has traditionally pursued a programming strategy targeting hip, young and urban audiences, and featuring science fiction series (such as the Stargate and Star Trek franchises) with significant cult followings. The system has also sometimes aired more adult-oriented fare than most television stations, including Baby Blue Movies and the television edition of Naked News, both shown very late at night. Citytv also aired The Oprah Winfrey Show from its debut in 1986 until the start of the 1992-1993 season when the show's broadcast rights were bought by CTV and its local affiliate CFTO-TV, which aired the show until the end of its run in 2011.

The station has also produced much more local programming than most other Canadian television stations, including the daily talk show CityLine (hosted first by Dini Petty, then Marilyn Denis, and now Tracy Moore); magazine series such as The NewMusic, Toronto Rocks, FashionTelevision, Life on Venus Ave. and MovieTelevision; and interactive series such as Speakers' Corner. As well, the station often pursued synergies with its sister cable networks, sharing programming with MuchMusic, Bravo!, Space and CP24.

Shortly after its takeover by Rogers, Citytv's Great Movies block was cancelled in favour of more series. Late night reruns of the Great Movies block were replaced by infomercials.

On March 2, 2008, CITY aired its first Toronto Blue Jays baseball game, a spring training game against the Cincinnati Reds.^[15] 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, it also was the Canadian broadcaster for ABC's Monday Night Football until its move to ESPN in 2006. Beginning in the 2007 NFL season as part of Rogers Media's broadcast rights with the NFL; two late regular season games are shown by CITY and Vancouver sister station CKVU-TV weekly, the opposite games air regionally on their respective Sportsnet feed. As a part of a series of games played at the Rogers Centre, CITY also became a part of the television network of the Buffalo Bills, adding that team's preseason games to its lineup in the 2008 season.^[16]

News operation

CITY-DT presently broadcasts 34½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6½ hours on weekdays and two hours on weekends). It is the only remaining owned-and-operated station of the City network that operates a full-fledged news department, as local midday and evening newscasts on its Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver sister stations were cancelled between 2006 and 2010; outside of Toronto, locally-produced programming on Citytv's O&O sister stations is now limited to local versions of morning news and talk program franchise Breakfast Television (a program that originated on CITY in September 1989).

On January 19, 2010, Rogers Media announced the cancellation of CityNews at Noon, CityOnline, CityNews at Five, Citytv's national and international newscast CityNews International, and the weekend newscasts, effective immediately as part of massive restructuring and layoffs at the Citytv stations. Among those laid off were long-time 6 p.m. co-anchor Anne Mroczkowski and reporters Farah Nasser, Jee Yun Lee, Laura Di Battista, Marianne Dimain, Merella Fernandez and Michael Serapio; Pam Seatle was also let go but returned one month later.^[17][18]

The weekend newscasts returned in March 2011, followed by the return of the weekday CityNews at Five and the half-hour expansion of Breakfast Television (with its start time moved up to 5:30 a.m., and expanding to 3½ hours as a result) on September 5, 2011.^[19]

On October 3, 2011, the station began producing half-hour extensions of its weekday morning program Breakfast Television and nightly 11 p.m. newscast, CityNews Tonight, for exclusive broadcast on CityNews Channel (these, along with a half-hour extension of the weekend 6 p.m. newscast also began airing on CITY-DT the following year). On April 14, 2012, CITY-DT began simulcasting CityNews Channel's weekend morning news programming from 7-8 a.m. on Saturday mornings and from 7-9 a.m. on Sunday mornings; this ended when CityNews Channel discontinued live broadcasts in May 2013.^[20] On August 13, 2012, the station expanded its nightly 11 p.m. newscast, CityNews Tonight, to one hour, making the program the only hour-long late evening newscast in the Toronto market.^[21]

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• CityPulse (1972–2005)^[22]
• CityPulse Tonight (1972–2005; 11 p.m. newscast)^[23]
• Breakfast Television (1989–present; morning newscast)
• CityNews (2005–present)^[24]
• CityNews Tonight (2005–present; 11 p.m. newscast)

Station slogans

• "Everywhere!" (1972–present)^[25]
• "This is Toronto Television, Citytv" (1972–1983?)
• "Everywhere! All The Time!" (early 1990s)
• "Toronto's News" (newscast slogan; 1972–2002 and 2003–present)
• "Where Else?!" (alternate slogan; 2002–2003)
• "What Toronto's Talking About Today" (newscast slogan; 2002–2003)
• "Out of the Newsroom, On the Street. CityNews, Everywhere!" (alternate newscast slogan; 2007–present)

News music packages

• Masterpiece by The Temptations (1972–mid-1980s)
• Gonna Fly Now by Bill Conti (Rocky & Rocky II versions)/Maynard Ferguson (1977–1990)^[26][27]
• Pentatus by Graham Shaw (mid-1980s–1994)

News team

Current on-air staff^[28]

Anchors

• Francis D'Souza - also reporter
• Tom Hayes - co-anchor, The 5 (weeknights at 5 p.m.); also reporter
• Kevin Frankish - Breakfast Television (weekday mornings, 5:30-9 a.m.)
• Gord Martineau - weeknights at 6 p.m.
• Melanie Ng - co-anchor, The 5 (weeknights at 5 p.m.); also reporter
• Roger Petersen - CityNews Tonight (weeknights at 11 p.m.)
• Dina Pugliese - Breakfast Television (weekday mornings, 7-9 a.m.)
• Pam Seatle - weekends at 6 and CityNews Tonight at 11 p.m.; also weeknight reporter

Weather team

• Adam Stiles (NWA Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 5:30 and CityNews Tonight at 11 p.m.
• Frank Ferragine - weather specialist; Breakfast Television (weekday mornings, 5:30-9 a.m.), also gardening specialist
• Stella Acquisto - weather specialist; weekends at 6 and CityNews Tonight at 11 p.m.
• Natasha Ramsahai (CMOS-endorsed weathercaster) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 6 p.m.

Sports team

• Kathryn Humphreys - lead sports anchor; weeknights at 5, 6 and CityNews Tonight at 11 p.m.
• Hugh Burrill - sports anchor/reporter; weekends at 6 and CityNews Tonight at 11 p.m.

Traffic

• Russ Holden - traffic specialist; weekday mornings Breakfast Television (5:30-9 a.m.)
• Jessica Martin - 680 News traffic specialist; weekday mornings Breakfast Television (5:30-9 a.m.)
• Stella Aquisto - traffic specialist; weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.
• Jennifer Young - traffic specialist; weeknights at 5 p.m.

Reporters

• Audra Brown - videojournalist
• Avery Haines - general assignment reporter
• Shauna Hunt - general assignment reporter
• Jim Junkin - crime specialist
• Rima Kar - general assignment reporter
• Peter Kim - general assignment reporter
• Saphia Khambalia - general assignment reporter
• Cynthia Mulligan - general assignment reporter
• Andrea Piunno - general assignment reporter
• Galit Solomon - general assignment reporter
• Jennifer Valentyne - "Live Eye" reporter for Breakfast Television (5:30-9 a.m.)
• Anna Vlachos - general assignment reporter

CityLine

• Tracy Moore - host

Notable foremer staff

Transmitters

Digital television

Digital channel

Analogue-to-digital conversion

CITY-TV shut down its analogue signal, over UHF channel 57, on August 31, 2011, the date in which Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatory markets transitioned from analogue to digital broadcasts. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 53 to its post-transition UHF channel 44.^[32] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analogue channel 57, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.

References

External links

• City Toronto
• Canadian Communications Foundation - CITY-TV History
• Museum of Broadcast Communications: CITY-TV
• Query the REC's Canadian station database for CITY-TV
• Query TV Fool's coverage map for CITY

Coordinates: 43°38′59″N 79°23′25″W / 43.649701°N 79.390233°W / 43.649701; -79.390233