CITY-TV

:''This article is about the Citytv station in Toronto, Ontario. For the television system, see Citytv''
'CITY-TV' ('Citytv Toronto') (often referred to only as 'City') is a television station based in Toronto, Ontario. It is Canada's third-oldest UHF television station and the flagship station of the Citytv system. The station is presently being held in trust for Rogers Communications.
Broadcasting for the first time on September 28, 1972, CITY was best known for its unconventional approach to news and local programming, an approach that continues today and has carried over to the other stations in the Citytv system. ''(See Citytv for more on these practices.)''
Originally owned by Channel Seventy-Nine Ltd., a group which consisted of Phyllis Switzer, Moses Znaimer, Jerry Grafstein, Edgar Cowan and others, CITY was in debt by 1975. Multiple Access Ltd. (the owners of CFCF in Montreal, Quebec) purchased 45% of the station. Three years later, it sold its stake to CHUM. CITY was purchased outright by CHUM in 1981 with the sale of Moses Znaimer's interest in the station. Znaimer would remain 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.

Contents

History

Relocation and expansion

Remote camera use

See also

Trivia

External links

History

CITY originally broadcast on the UHF band with a 31 kW signal on channel 79, since all the VHF licences in the Toronto area were taken. In 1976, the station began broadcasting at 208 kW from the CN Tower. The channel CITY broadcast on was changed from channel 79 to channel 57 on July 1, 1983, because of complaints that the station was interfering with mobile radio in the Toronto area, and so that channels 70 to 83 could be reclaimed for use by new AMPS mobile phones in the Americas. On September 1, 1986, a transmitter was put into operation in Woodstock, Ontario, and another was set up in Ottawa, Ontario in 1996.
CITY was also the first digital television station in Canada, using the ATSC DTV standard. It is still continuing its analogue broadcasts, and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has made digital service completely voluntary. The signal was first broadcast on January 16, 2003, and became a regular signal on March 3 of that same year.

Relocation and expansion

In 1987 CITY and the other CHUM-owned television stations moved to their current headquarters at the CHUM-City Building, making it one of the most recognizable landmarks in the city.
For almost thirty years, CITY was the only Citytv station in Canada (therefore making Citytv and CITY interchangeable names for the station). In 2001, however, Citytv became a two-station system when CHUM purchased Vancouver's CKVU from Global. In 2005, three more Citytv stations were added in Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg after CHUM purchased the A-Channel television stations owned by Craig Media. On the day the three Prairie Citytv stations signed on, the flagship ''CityPulse'' newscast was rebranded ''CityNews''.
On July 12, 2006, it was announced that CTVglobemedia would acquire CHUM Limited and its assets, including the Citytv family. [1]. The following year, it was announced that Rogers Communications would buy the stations of the Citytv system to satisfy conditions placed upon CTVgm for the CRTC approval of the CHUM purchase. A stipulation of the sale (which is still subject to CRTC approval) is that CTVgm will keep ownership of the CHUM-City Building; to that end, Rogers announced plans to move Citytv operations out of the CHUM-City Building, keeping operations there for up to three years or until new faciliies for Citytv are established.[2][3]
Some cablesystems in Canada, such as Videotron in Montreal, carry CITY as a superstation.

Remote camera use

In addition to the Freeway Management System - COMPASS and RESCU cameras,
CITY TV operates Bell EYES cameras located at:

★ CN Tower

★ City Hall

★ Yorkdale

★ PIA

★ Dome

★ East

★ DVP

See also

★ List of programs broadcast by Citytv

Trivia

Comedian Dan Aykroyd moonlighted as CityTV's announcer from 1972 until 1975 while working at Toronto's Second City before he moved to New York City to join ''Saturday Night Live''.
Former CBS News anchor and current co-host of CNN's ''American Morning'' John Roberts first got his start at CITY, where he was known on-air as "J.D. Roberts"; his main role was that of VJ on the station's popular music video program, ''Toronto Rocks''. Roberts also was an entertainment reporter on ''CityPulse'' at 6 in the early 1980s, before becoming the anchor of ''CityPulse Tonight'' in 1987.
Afternoon CTV host Dini Petty got her start on Citytv as the co-host of ''CityPulse'' and later as host of ''CityLine''.

External links

★ Citytv Toronto

★ CITY-TV on MBC