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'CKVR-TV' ('A-Channel Barrie/Toronto'; formerly '''The New VR''') is a television station in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. Owned by CTVglobemedia, it is the flagship station of the current A-Channel system, with facilities located at 33 Beacon Road in Barrie. Its signal reaches well into the Toronto area, and overlaps Citytv Toronto; cross-promotions are seen on both channels as a result.
CKVR is famous for its camera overlooking the city of Barrie, Lake Simcoe, and its environs. The camera is situated on the station's broadcast tower. CKVR-TV also has news bureaus in Collingwood and Orillia.

Contents

History

Criticism

Transmitters

References

External links

History

The station was founded by Ralph Snelgrove, whose first initial and that of his wife, Valerie, form part of the station's callsign. It had been a longtime privately owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) affiliate since its inception in 1955. In 1995, it ended its affiliation with the CBC and rebranded as ''The New VR'', becoming the first station in CHUM's NewNet system. CKVR has been owned by CHUM since 1969, longer than any of the company's other TV stations.

In February 2005, CHUM announced plans to consolidate the master control departments for CKVR, CFPL, CHRO, CHWI and CKNX in the CHUM-City Building in Toronto, as well as consolidating the traffic and programming departments at CFPL in London, resulting in the loss of approximately nine staff members from CKVR. On June 3, 2005, at approximately 10:00 a.m., the Barrie master control signal came to an end, as the new consolidated master control took to air.
On August 2, 2005, CKVR and the rest of the NewNet stations were renamed "A-Channel".
On July 12,2006, CTV owner CTVglobemedia announced plans to purchase CHUM Ltd. for $C1.7 Billion, with plans to divest itself of the A-Channel and Access Alberta stations Bell Globemedia makes $1.7B bid for CHUM .
On April 9 2007, Rogers Communications announced the purchase of all of the A-Channel stations (including CKVR), , Access Alberta, Canadian Learning Television and CKX-TV Brandon. The transaction is said to cost $137 million, which will be paid in cash by Rogers. CRTC expected to OK Rogers' $137.5M buy of CTVglobemedia TV channels
On June 8, 2007, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced its approval of CTVglobemedia's purchase of CHUM Limited, but added a condition that CTVglobemedia must sell off CHUM's Citytv stations to another buyer, while being permitted to keep the A-Channel stations (including CKVR), in effect cancelling the planned sale of A-Channel to Rogers Media. CRTC tells CTVglobemedia to sell 5 Citytv stations
The A-Channel stations and the rest of CHUM Limited's assets were taken over by CTVglobemedia on June 22, 2007, excluding the Citytv stations. CTVglobemedia plans to rebrand the A-Channel stations including CKVR-TV with a new name and identity by 2008. As of September 2007, the name MuchTV is being tested in focus groups as a possible new name. The brand would be an extension of Muchmusic, the popular Canadian cable network now under the ownership of CTVglobemedia and the programming on local MuchTV stations would be tied to the style of the existing cable property. The idea of extending a cable brand to a group of conventional local over-the-air broadcast stations is already being tried by CanWest Global which has rebranded its CH local stations in Canada with the American cable network E! brand. CTV expected to rebrand A Channel .
On July 26, 2007, CTVglobemedia named Richard Gray the head of news for the A-Channel stations and CKX-TV. Gray will report to the CTVgm corporate group, not CTV News, to preserve independent news presentation and management. Gray will now oversee CKVR and the other news departments; CHRO, CFPL, CKNX, CHWI, CIVI-TV and CKX-TV.^[1]

Criticism

Prior to the change, CKVR's emphasis was on Barrie, Simcoe County and Muskoka. However, since "The New VR" was renamed "A-Channel", the focus had shifted to Toronto's suburban York Region. As a result, loyal CKVR viewers from the Barrie area complained that the newscasts was more about Toronto and less (if at all) about Barrie. CHUM announced, however, that the station would return its focus to the Barrie market on July 12, 2006, the same day that CHUM Limited announced that it would be taken over by CTVglobemedia. The station has since then shifted its focus to Barrie and Simcoe County, and added far away spots like Haliburton, the Kawartha Lakes, and a bit into York Region and Dufferin County, but the weather always features Toronto and York region first, mentioning Barrie, its host city, as an afterthought.

Transmitters

The current CKVR Television Tower is a 304.8 metre high guyed mast for FM and TV transmission located at 44°21′1.06″N, 79°41′43.06″W, in Barrie. It was built in 1978, after a light plane crashed into the smaller incarnation of the tower the previous year.
CKVR previously operated low-power rebroadcast transmitters in the communities of Parry Sound, Huntsville, and Haliburton, on Channels 11, 8, and 5, respectively. The Parry Sound transmitter switched to Channel 12 in the mid-1970s before CKCO-TV opened a rebroadcast transmitter in Huntsville on Channel 11. The Haliburton transmitter was located very close to another CBC affiliate transmitter, CHEX-TV Peterborough, located at Minden and broadcasting on Channel 7. It is not known exactly when the Haliburton transmitter shut down. The Huntsville transmitter increased to full power in 1991 to better cover much of Muskoka and Haliburton County, but it was bought by the CBC in 1995 as part of the disaffiliation of CKVR from the CBC, and now rebroadcasts CBLT from Toronto. CKVR kept its Parry Sound transmitter, and CBC established CBLT transmitters in Barrie and Parry Sound at that time, on Channels 16 and 18, respectively.

References

1. [1]

External links

★ A-Channel Barrie/Toronto

★ A-Channel Breakfast Television

★ Bright Lights, Small City, a critique of VR News (''Ryerson Review of Journalism'', summer 1999)

★ CTVglobemedia