CBRT-DT

CBRT-DT
Calgary, Alberta
Canada
Branding CBC Calgary (general)
CBC Calgary News (newscasts)
Slogan Love CBC
Channels Digital: 21 (UHF)
Virtual: 9.1 (PSIP)
Affiliations CBC
Owner Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
First air date September 1, 1975
Call letters' meaning Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation
CalgaRy
Television
Sister station(s) CBR (AM), CBR-FM
Former callsigns CBRT (1975–2011)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
9 (VHF, 1975–2011)
Transmitter power 23.5 kW
Height 276.3 m
Transmitter coordinates 51°3′53″N 114°12′51″W / 51.06472°N 114.21417°W / 51.06472; -114.21417 (CBRT)
Website CBC Calgary

CBRT-DT, virtual channel 9 (UHF digital channel 21), is a CBC Television owned-and-operated television station located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The station is owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. CBRT's studios are located on Westmount Boulevard and Memorial Drive (near the Bow River), just north of downtown Calgary, and its transmitter is located near Old Banff Coach Road/Highway 563 and 85 Street on the southwest side of Calgary. This station can also be seen on Shaw Cable channel 6 and in high definition on digital channel 209. This station is also available on Bell TV channel 245 and on high definition on channel 1130.

History

CBRT first signed on the air at 6 p.m. on September 1, 1975. Before then, CBC programming had aired on private affiliate CFAC-TV (channel 2, now CICT), making Calgary the largest market in Canada without a CBC owned-and-operated station. The station initially branded as "CBC 9" or "CBC Calgary", later branding as "CBRT", then returning to "CBC 9" by 1982. CBRT was one of the first, if not the first, to use the network-channel number branding that has become commonplace in the United States since the mid-1990s.

Up until 2008, CBRT's Calgary studios were used by the 24-hour news channel CBC Newsworld as a production centre for programs including Newsworld Today, Your Call, and a Newsworld edition of Canada Now.[1]

News programming

As of October 5, 2015, CBRT airs over 11 hours a week of local news programming. On weekdays, "CBC Calgary News" broadcasts six 1-minute news updates at :59 past the hour from 2:00 PM to 10:00 PM. A thirty-minute evening news magazine airs at 6:00 PM, and a late evening newscast is shown at 11:00 PM, following The National. On weekends, "CBC Alberta News", originating from CBC Edmonton (CBXT), is broadcast on Saturday evenings after Hockey Night in Canada, and at 11:00 PM on Sunday evenings.

CBRT also simulcasts CBC Radio One's local morning news and current affairs program, "The Calgary Eyeopener", from 6:00 AM to 7:00 AM weekday mornings.

The station also produces "Our Calgary", a thirty-minute weekly local current affairs program on Saturday mornings at 10:00 AM and repeated on Sunday afternoons at 1:00 PM.

CBC Calgary's first supper-hour newscast on CBRT was named Evening Eye-Opener and later, The CBC Evening News. The original late-night news was called Night Final. In 1991, the CBC cancelled the local newscast on CBRT due to corporate budget cuts and began producing a provincial newscast, CBC Alberta News, co-produced and presented from Calgary and CBXT-DT in Edmonton. Following a sharp drop in ratings, localised newscasts from Calgary were restored in 1997.

The local supper-hour programs were cut to 30 minutes length in 2000 with the launch of a national and international news program, Canada Now from Vancouver. Seven years later, the sole Calgary newscast returned to its hour-long format under the umbrella title of CBC News at Six.

Transmitters

CBRT operated 16 analog television rebroadcasters in certain Southern Alberta communities. Due to federal funding reductions to the CBC, in April 2012, the CBC responded with substantial budget cuts, which included shutting down CBC's and Radio-Canada's remaining analog transmitters on July 31, 2012.[2]

CBRT-6 in Lethbridge, a mandatory market, was required to go digital or be taken off the air by the transition deadline of August 31, 2011. CBC had originally decided that none of its rebroadcasters will transition to digital. On August 16, 2011, the CRTC granted the CBC permission to continue operating 22 repeaters in mandatory markets, including CBRT-6, in analog until August 31, 2012, at which point the transmitter had to be converted to digital or shut down.

Notable current on-air staff

Digital television

Digital channel

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[3]
9.1 720p 16:9 CBRT-DT Main CBRT-DT programming / CBC Television

Analogue-to-digital conversion

On April 1, 2011, CBRT began broadcasting its digital signal on channel 21. On August 31, 2011, when Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatory markets transitioned from analogue to digital broadcasts,[4] the station's digital signal remained on UHF channel 21. However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display CBRT-DT's virtual channel as 9.1.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.cmg.ca/newsresults.asp?ID=1159&BranchID=1&SubjectID=14
  2. ↑ Speaking notes for Hubert T. Lacroix regarding measures announced in the context of the Deficit Reduction Action Plan
  3. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for CBRT
  4. ↑ Digital Television - Office of Consumer Affairs (OCA)
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