CHLT-DT

CHLT-DT
Sherbrooke, Quebec
Branding TVA
Slogan C'est vrai
Channels Digital: 7 (VHF)
Virtual: 7 (PSIP)
Affiliations TVA
Owner Groupe TVA
(Quebecor Media)
First air date August 12, 1956
Call letters' meaning CHerbrooke (uses C instead of S) La Tribune (local newspaper, original owner)
Former callsigns CHLT-TV (1956-2011)
Former channel number(s) Analogue:
7 (VHF, 1956-2011)
Former affiliations Radio-Canada (1956–1974)
CBC (secondary, 1956–1974)
Transmitter power 4 kW
Height 588.1 m
Transmitter coordinates 45°18′43″N 72°14′30″W / 45.31194°N 72.24167°W
Website TVA Sherbrooke

CHLT-DT is the TVA owned-and-operated television station in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. It broadcasts a high-definition digital signal on VHF channel 7 from a transmitter in Orford.

Owned by the Groupe TVA subsidiary of Quebecor Media, its studios are located on Rue King Ouest (near Route 112) in Sherbrooke. This station can also be seen on Vidéotron channel 4 and in high definition on digital channel 604.

History

The station went on the air for the first time on August 12, 1956. It was owned by La Tribune, the city's major newspaper, along with CHLT radio. Like most television stations in Quebec, it was a dual affiliate of both CBC and Radio-Canada. It usually went on the air sooner than other Quebec stations, forcing it to fill the schedule with local shows. La Tribune was eventually acquired by Power Corporation of Canada, which sold CHLT to Telemedia in 1968.

When CKSH-TV went on the air in 1974, it took all Radio-Canada programming away from CHLT. Sherbrooke's anglophone population was too small for CHLT to be viable as a privately owned CBC Television affiliate. As a result, it joined TVA later in the year after CBMT in Montreal opened a translator in Sherbrooke. Five years later, Pathonic Communications acquired CHLT and four other stations from Telemedia. Pathonic's stations aired a schedule radically different from that offered on TVA flagship CFTM-TV in Montreal. As a result, since CHLT's over-the-air signal reaches Montreal, it was carried on CF Cable and Vidéotron in that city.

However, CFTM's owner, Télé-Metropole, bought full control of TVA in 1990. Since then, CHLT has been basically a semi-satellite of CFTM, except for newscasts and commercials. CF Cable stopped carrying CHLT in the early 1990s, and Vidéotron followed suit in 1995.

CHLT is one of TVA's most powerful stations; its terrestrial footprint extends as far as northwestern Maine. Also, as with CKSH-DT, CHLT enjoys cable coverage throughout selected areas of Northern New England, as far east as Augusta and Rockland, Maine, and as far south as Barre, St. Johnsbury and Chelsea, Vermont.[1]

References

  1. ↑ Per Zap2it, zip codes 04841 (Rockland), 05819 (St. Johnsbury) and 05038 (Chelsea).

External links