CKWS-DT

Channel 11 was hoping to be on the air for October 1 with 257,000 watts video using a 10,000 watt transmitter. The tower would be 400 feet above average terrain (930 feet above main sea level) – located at Camden East, 16 miles north west of the city. A 12 slot Wave stack antenna would be used.

Bell Telephone Co. of Canada was awarded the contract to extend CBC-TV network service to Peterborough via microwave. Bell had now completed the extension to Kingston for the soon to open CKWS-TV. The addition of the two private stations would bring to ten, the number of points on the network.

On December 9, CKWS-TV quietly started operations with CBC network programming. This was to be followed a few days later with film service and live camera operation. Official opening ceremonies were scheduled for early 1955. At that time, CKWS radio and television would be combined under one roof at 170 Queen Street. The new building would have some 22,000 square feet on two floors. Jack Davidson was manager of both CHEX Peterborough and CKWS Kingston. Bill Luxton was program director and Bert Cullen was an announcer. CKWS was a joint venture between Roy Thomson and the Davies family, owners of the Kingston Whig Standard. (the “KWS” in the call sign).

The early program schedule started at 4:30 p.m. and ran to midnight. The first live efforts from the largest local studio yet built were news, weather & sports delivered by announcers from CKWS-AM. Two Pye cameras from England were used to produce such programs as “At Home with Jane Sherman” who incorporated three hours in the afternoon to intro cooking, movies and local community events, with interviews and other guests. Vaudeville acts predominated the live shows, and “The CKWS Supper Club” with Bill Luxton and Ted Curl was very popular along with “Club Eleven”, “Mostly Music”, “Teen Age Dance Party” with Brian Olney, and Gary “Gizz” Watts and his live Country Band. The first video efforts were somewhat primitive with Polaroid pictures, mounted on cardboard and shot with the TV camera in black and white.

Doug Scanlan was manager of radio and Roy Hofstetter was TV manager.

Jane Sherman hosted At Home with Jane on CKWS-TV.

Canadian Professional Football games, including the Grey Cup final, would be seen live from Vancouver on inter-connected Eastern stations. Delayed telecasts would be seen on all other stations on either the Sunday or Monday following the game. The 10 connected stations in the East were: CBLT, CBOT, CBMT, CHCH, CFPL, CKCO, CKLW, CKWS, CHEX, and CKVR. These stations would carry 20-26 games. Fourteen games would be seen on CKSO, CJIC and CFPA…stations not connected to the microwave. In the West, seven stations would carry kinescopes of the games to be played in Western Interprovincial Football: CBWT, CKX, CKCK, CFQC, CHCT, CFRN and CBUT.

Slogan: There’s only one Canadian TV station that reaches the wealthy market between Brighton and Brockville – CKWS-TV.

Floyd Patterson joined CKWS.

A new 870 foot tower and transmitter was established on Wolfe Island , five miles south of Kingston, and connected to the studio by microwave.

Max Jackson was named sports director for CKWS radio & television, succeeding Pete Handley who moved on to CFCH in North Bay.

Ad: CKWS-TV is the local station…the friendly station. It is “our station” to over 30,000 TV homes in the rich Brighton-Kingston-Brockville market.

139 microwave units across Canada went into operation on July 1, carrying TV signals 3,900 miles over the longest microwave network in the world. The CBC’s Dominion Day program “Memo to Champlain” inaugurated the system. The network linked together Canada’s 40 privately owned TV stations and 8 CBC stations, providing live TV to 80% of the Canadian population between Victoria, B.C. and Sydney, N.S. Newfoundland was expected to be on the network in 1959. The CBC, in cooperation with CFRN-TV Edmonton, CKCK-TV Regina, CKLW-TV Windsor and CHSJ-TV Saint John, used the inaugural program as an electronic travelogue to visit 15 Canadian cities. The microwave network was called the Trans-Canada Skyway.

Ad slogans: In the lucrative Kingston area, the hot selling is done via CKWS-Radio and CKWS-TV. / CKWS-TV is the local station…the friendly station. It is “our station” to over 30,000 TV homes in the rich Brighton-Kingston-Brockville market.

A.G. Cobb left CKWS Radio and Television after ten years to be technical director at the new CJAY-TV in Winnipeg. Professor Arthur Phelps was moderator and producer of the weekly “It’s Debatable” program which had now increased in length from 15 to 30 minutes. Don Nairn, former program director and national sales supervisor, left CKWS-TV for the new CJAY-TV in Winnipeg.

CKWS-TV now had the highest TV tower in Canada. It was located on Wolfe Island, 3 miles south of the city. The tower was 825 feet high and was made up of 30 – 25 foot sections, topped by a 75 foot radiating Wavestack antenna. Work on the 75 acre site started in September of last year with the building of the transmitter house. Six guy anchors were used to hold the 21 cables which enabled the tower to withstand a wind velocity of 100 m.p.h. Two red obstruction lights were placed every 100 feet and the tower was topped by two 500 watt beacons. In the spring, programming was switched to the new tower, once all equipment had been moved from the old site. A stand-by transmitter was used during the transfer to prevent loss of programming. The height of the new tower was double that of the old one. An estimated 25% increase in the number of households served was the expected result.

CKWS-TV increased effective radiated power to 250,000 watts video and 130,000 watts audio. It had been 130,000 watts video and 78,000 watts audio. Senator W. Rupert Davies was president of Frontenac Broadcasting Co. Ltd. and Roy Hofstetter was CKWS-TV’s manager.

The CKWS-TV staff worked closely with the Military because of the Canadian Forces base in Kingston, and followed the peace-keeping efforts of the many regiments in such places as the Mid-East, Cyprus, Israel, Africa, Egypt and the Sinai. The reports were shot on film and poste-haste flown back to the station for airing.

D.R. Lawrie, director of broadcasting operations at Northern Broadcasting Ltd. announced the appointment of Allan J. Brooks as station manager (CKWS Radio & Television) as of February 1. He had been sales manager for CKWS-TV for seven years. He succeeded Roy Hoffstetter who retired as AM-FM-TV manager on January 31 after 27 years with Northern.

It was announced that the broadcast interests of Lord Roy Thomson and the late Senator Rupert Davies’ families would be sold to Bushnell TV Co. Ltd. of Ottawa (CJOH-TV). The plan was subject to CRTC approval. The sale would include CKWS-AM-FM-TV Kingston, CHEX-AM-FM-TV Peterborough, CFCH-AM-TV North Bay, CKGB-AM-FM Timmins and CJKL Kirkland Lake.

Roy Hofstetter retired January 31. He had been in the business 27 years and manager since 1945. Hofstetter started in radio at CKGB in Timmins in 1941, transferred to CKWS Radio when it opened in 1942, then became a national sales rep in Montreal for a time, returning to CKWS in 1945 as manager.

On July 6, the Thomson and Davies families were given permission to sell their stations to Bushnell Communications Ltd. of Ottawa. The sale included stations in Timmins, Peterborough, Kirkland Lake & New Liskeard, and North Bay. Frontenac Broadcasting Co. Ltd. (CKWS-AM-FM-TV) was part of the deal. The sale was conditional on the transfer of CFCH-AM-TV North Bay & Cablevue to
another party. The sale to Bushnell was never completed.

CKWS-FM became known as CFMK.

A numbered company owned by Paul Desmarais, Claude Pratte and J. G. Porteous received CRTC approval to purchase Frontenac Broadcasting Co. Ltd. (CKWS-AM-TV and CFMK-FM) and Kawartha Broadcasting Co. Ltd. (CHEX-AM-TV and CFMP-FM) from the Rupert Davies Estate (51%), and the Thomson Estate (49%). The new owners were to survey the programming needs of each area, and CKWS-TV was to improve news coverage, either by upgrading its film facilities or by utilizing electronic news gathering equipment similar to that used by CHEX-TV. Both stations were to expand their local news and public affairs programming.

Don Lawrie became president of Katenac holdings, owner of Frontenac Broadcasting and Kawartha Broadcasting.

A Sudbury judge threw out the CRTC’s case against CICI-TV in that city, regarding Canadian Content rules. Because of the ruling, technically, Canadian TV stations didn’t have to follow the Canadian content rules. The judge pointed out that the Broadcasting Act defined a station as the holder of a licence under the Radio Act, but the Radio Act was replaced by the Broadcasting Act in 1967. CRTC lawyers were expected to drop similar charges against CKWS-TV while seeking immediate changes in the wording of the Act.

CKWS-TV executive vice president Lorne Freed left the station.

John F. Tucker was appointed executive vice president of CKWS-TV. He would also continue on as vice president of sales.

Floyd Patterson was vice president of news.

On January 29, the CRTC approved the applications for authority to transfer effective control of Frontenac Broadcasting Company Limited and Kawartha Broadcasting Company Limited through the transfer of 200 common voting shares (100%) of Katenac Holdings Limited from Paul G. Desmarais (90), Claude Pratte (90) and three minority shareholders (20) to Power Corporation of Canada, which was indirectly controlled by Mr. Desmarais. As a result of this transaction, Power Corporation would acquire 100% control of Katenac Holdings Limited which held effective control of Frontenac Broadcasting Company Limited, licensee of CKWS, CFMK-FM and CKWS-TV Kingston and Kawartha Broadcasting Company Limited, licensee of CHEX, CHEX-TV, CFMP-FM Peterborough and two rebroadcasting stations, and CKCB Collingwood and CKBB Barrie.

CKWS-AM changed its name to CFFX.

Tom Brennan was now news director at CKWS-TV.

Don Lawrie retired as president of Katenac Holdings after almost 44 years in broadcasting.

Donald R. Lawrie was appointed honorary director of Power Broadcasting Inc. The Rt. Hon. Jeanne Sauve and Anthony R. Graham were named directors.

CKWS-TV opened a studio and office in Belleville.

On January 22, the CRTC approved the application by Power Broadcasting Inc. for a licence for a transmitter undertaking at Prescott, on channel 26 with an effective radiated power of 5,100 watts to rebroadcast some of the programs of CKWS-TV Kingston, received over-the-air. The applicant indicated that it would broadcast locally-produced news and information programming from a studio which it proposed to operate at Brockville. The Commission issued a licence expiring 31 August 1994. This term would enable the Commission to consider renewal of this licence at the same time as that of CKWS-TV. The Department of Communications advised that the undertaking would use channel 26 rather than channel 45 as indicated in the CRTC Notice of Public Hearing. Power did not implement the authority granted in Decision CRTC 89-841 to Frontenac Broadcasting Company Limited, the previous licensee of CKWS-TV, which would have allowed the station’s coverage to extend to the northeast in the direction of Brockville. As an alternate method, Power decided to submit this application to enable it to “reacquire its historical cable priority status and permit a new opportunity for local programming to the region”.

A rebroadcast transmitter was approved for Brighton, operating on channel 66 with an effective radiated power of 87,000 watts. The transmitter would rebroadcast channel 11 from Kingston but offer locally produced news, sports and weather from an existing studio in Belleville.

CKWS opened the Prescott transmitter, operating on channel 26 with an effective radiated power of 4,424 watts video. The Brockville studio also opened.

A re-broadcaster opened near Brighton on channel 66 with 87,000 watts video.

John Tucker was appointed president of CKWS-TV, CFFX-AM, and CFMK-FM. Mike Tiernay was named retail sales manager. (Roy Hofstetter was the first Manager of CKWS-TV, presiding over both radio and television stations. He retired in 1969, when Allan Brooks, the former TV sales manager succeeded him.)

Bill Hutchins (news anchor) joined CKWS-TV. Bill Hall (weather) joined the station in March.

Joanne Langlois joined CKWS-TV as promotions manager.

CKWS engineer Dave Travers retired.

On January 23, the CRTC approved the application to amend the licence for CKWS-TV by adding to the licence the following condition of licence: In addition to the 12 minutes of advertising material permitted by subsection 11(1) of the Television Broadcasting Regulations, 1987, the licensee may broadcast more than 12 minutes of advertising material in any clock hour in a broadcast day, in order to broadcast infomercials as defined in Public Notice CRTC 1994-139 and in accordance with the criteria contained in that public notice, as amended.

On March 24, the CRTC renewed the licence for CKWS-TV Kingston, CKWS-TV-1 Brighton and CKWS-TV-2 Prescott, until August 31, 1999. This term would enable the Commission to monitor and to review at an early date the licensee’s performance in implementing its commitments and in responding to concerns. In its last application for licence renewal in 1989, the licensee made a commitment to broadcast a minimum average of 10 hours and 38 minutes of original local news each week. According to the Commission’s monitoring of CKWS-TV’s logs, the station, in fact, broadcast an average of approximately 8 hours of original local news weekly in the 1991-1992 and 1992-1993 broadcast years. In response to questioning on this issue, the licensee stated that it met its commitment during the first years of the current licence term until early 1992. According to the licensee, the shortfall in the amount of original local news programming broadcast by CKWS-TV was attributable to a number of factors, including increased competition from new Canadian and U.S. specialty programming services, internal realignment of staff and a labour disruption during the licence term as well as the “continuing failure of the CBC and its affiliates to reach an agreement.” The licensee stressed that the impact of “severely-reduced revenues” in local and national sales during the economic recession of the 1990s forced it to cut operating expenditures. The Commission noted, however, that CKWS-TV had maintained a level of profitability throughout its licence term that was higher than most private television stations. The Commission expected the licensee to adhere to the commitment made in its application to broadcast a minimum average of 9 hours and 10 minutes of original local news weekly on CKWS-TV Kingston during the new licence term.

During the licence term, the licensee also failed to fulfil its commitments to provide 12 minutes of original local news daily, Monday to Friday, specifically for broadcast on its undertakings serving the Belleville-Trenton and Brockville-Prescott areas. Beginning only in late summer 1994, the licensee instituted separate weekly, half-hour, news reviews for broadcast over these undertakings. The licensee stated that, during the term, individual, full-time reporters assigned to cover the communities in the Brockville-Prescott and Belleville-Trenton areas had provided reports of local events in these localities for inclusion in CKWS-TV’s local newscasts. For the new term, the licensee made a commitment to maintain the news reviews. The Commission noted with concern that this commitment represented only half the amount of separate programming that the licensee undertook to broadcast when it applied for authority to operate the Brighton and Prescott undertakings. Moreover, the Commission noted that, at the hearing, the licensee acknowledged that the proposed half-hour news journal would consist largely of news items already aired by CKWS-TV over the preceding seven days. Such programs would not serve the Belleville-Trenton and Brockville-Prescott areas with timely news reporting to the extent that the licensee’s originally proposed “split-feed” newscasts would, especially given the fact that these areas had no other source of local television news. The Commission expected the licensee, during the new licence term, to re-examine fully the feasibility of providing separate news feeds on CKWS-TV-1 Brighton and CKWS-TV-2 Prescott, as originally proposed.

In its last renewal application, the licensee made a commitment to broadcast a minimum average of 16 hours and 23 minutes of original local programming weekly, of which 5 hours and 45 minutes was to be in programming categories other than news. The Commission noted that CKWS-TV’s programming logs for 1991-1992 revealed that the station broadcast an average of approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes weekly of original local productions in categories other than news, and an average of just over 2 hours weekly in the broadcast year 1992-1993. As noted earlier, the licensee claimed that it reduced the amount of local programming after mid-1992 because of the reduction in revenues caused by the recession. The Commission noted with concern that, even more significantly, the scope of the programming had narrowed. During the 1992-1993 broadcast year, most of the station’s local programming production consisted of a religious program and an instructional show. In its renewal application, the licensee identified plans for only two programs as original, regularly-scheduled local productions apart from news, namely, “Life”, a religious program produced in association with the Kingston Gospel Temple, and “Kinsmen Big Money Bingo”. Each program would have 52 half-hour episodes. The Commission was concerned that the scope of the local productions proposed by the station did not adequately reflect the variety of activities pursued by the citizens of the communities CKWS-TV was licensed to serve. The Commission expected the licensee to develop, early in the new licence term, a wider range of local productions that would better reflect the particular needs and interests of viewers in the Kingston, Brockville and Belleville areas.

Claude Pratte died in Quebec City on July 15. He had been prominent in several Quebec-based broadcasting companies. Between 1977 and 1987, he was a part owner of Frontenac Broadcasting Co. Ltd.

Power Broadcasting named John Tucker as vice president and regional director for Ontario television, responsible for CKWS-TV Kingston and CHEX-TV Peterborough. The company also made Joe McNevin local sales marketing director for CKWS-TV.

General Sales Manager Mike Tierney moved to CKCO-TV Kitchener to take up the same position.

CKWS-TV had the following operations: Kingston (Wolfe Island) – maximum effective radiated power of 325,000 watts video and 32,500 watts audio (average of 162,000 watts video and 16,200 watts audio) – antenna height of 311.9 metres EHAAT. The transmitter was a 16 kW watt Larcan Model TEC-3VH. CKWS-TV-1 Brighton had a maximum effective radiated power of 22,400 watts video and 2,240 watts audio (average of 8,700 watts video and 870 watts audio). Antenna height was 159.5 metres EHAAT. A Harris 1 kW Model UTV-1000 was in operation at Brighton. CKWS-TV-2 Prescott used the same brand and model of transmitter. Maximum effective radiated power was 7,200 watts video and 720 watts audio (average of 4,424 watts video and 442.4 watts audio). Antenna height was 118.2 metres EHAAT.

Late in the year, Corus Radio Company purchased the stations of Power Broadcasting, which included CKWS-TV, subject to CRTC approval which was granted on March 24th, 2000.

The CKWS Smiths Falls transmitter went on the air June 30.

Floyd Patterson, a 43-year news veteran at CKWS-TV announced he would retire on June 18. When he joined the station in 1956, he’d taken still pictures with a Polaroid camera. The photos were then shown on the nightly newscast.

On-air staff included news anchors Carol Bond and Bill Hutchins, Bill Hall (weather), Rob McDonald (sports) and Floyd Patterson.

Bryan Ellis became group vice president for Corus Television, responsible for specialty channels and for CKWS-TV and CHEX-TV.

On August 31 the CRTC renewed the licence of CKWS-TV until August 31, 2011. The renewal included CKWS-TV-1 Brighton, CKWS-TV-2 Prescott and CKWS-TV-3 Smiths Falls. The Commission approved the deletion from the licence of CKWS-TV Kingston of its transmitters CKWS-TV-1 Brighton and CKWS-TV-2 Prescott, and for licences to continue the operation of the Brighton and Prescott facilities as new television programming undertakings to broadcast locally-produced programming split fed from that broadcast on CKWS-TV Kingston. Historically, CKWS-TV had been expected to provide a weekly minimum of 9 hours 10 minutes of local programming. Most of this programming now consists of local new

There were a number of changes at Corus Entertainment related to its organization review to streamline decision-making and clarify roles and mandates. Among the changes: Reporting to Hal Blackadar, Executive Vice President and interim President of Corus Radio – Suzanne Carpenter, VP/GM, Corus Radio, Eastern Ontario and VP/GM, CHEX TV Peterborough and CKWS-TV Kingston; JJ Johnston, GM, Corus Radio Cornwall, Kingston and Peterborough (was GM at Corus Radio Vancouver) and Michael Harris, GM, CKWS-TV and CHEX TV (was GM of CHEX TV only). Corus Radio-TV Kingston GM Mike Ferguson was no longer with the company. Former Corus Radio Peterborough GM Brian Armstrong became GSM.

In December, Corus Entertainment announced the appointment of Suzanne Carpenter as general manager of the Corus Toronto radio stations, effective January 3, 2011. She had been vice president and general manager of Corus Radio Eastern Ontario, CHEX TV and CKWS TV.

Suzanne Carpenter became GM at Corus Radio Toronto on January 3. She also retained her VP role at Corus Entertainment. Carpenter had been VP/GM, Corus Radio Eastern Ontario, CHEX-TV Peterborough and CKWS-TV Kingston.

The CRTC approved an amendment to the licence for CKWS-TV-1, to add a post-transition digital transmitter in Brighton. CKWS-TV-1 Brighton was an analog over-the-air television station operating on channel 66. Brighton was a non-mandatory market for the purposes of the over-the-air analog to digital transition. In Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2010-485, the Commission reiterated the requirement that all Canadian television stations operating on channels 52 to 69 in areas outside mandatory markets would be required to cease analog transmission by no later than August 31st, 2011. The digital transmitter would operate on channel 30 with a maximum effective radiated power of 938 watts (average ERP of 361 watts). The existing 158.6 metre tower would be used, with directional antenna. Programming would be provided to the transmitter via fibre-optic cable.

On July 27, the CRTC renewed the licenses of CKWS-DT-1 Brighton, CKWS-TV Kingston and its transmitters CKWS-TV-3 Smiths Falls and CKWS-TV-2 Prescott, until August 31, 2016. Additional condition of licence for CKWS-DT-1 Brighton: the licensee may broadcast a maximum of 6.5% of the commercial availabilities on the Brighton station separately from those broadcast on CKWS-TV Kingston for each hour of original station-produced programming it broadcasts exclusively on its Brighton station each week.

The deadline for the conversion of analog television to digital in mandatory markets was August 31. Kingston was not a mandatory market so CKWS-TV was not required to switch to digital at this time. The station did convert its Brighton transmitter to digital because channel 66 was in the high end of the UHF band which was being reallocated for other purposes. On August 31, analog CKWS-TV-1 Brighton moved from channel 66 to digital channel 30 (CKWS-DT-1) with virtual channel of 66.1. The Brighton DT signal would not be in HD as CKWS had not yet installed Hi Def equipment at the studios.

CKWS-TV Chief Engineer Roger Cole took on added responsibility for CHEX-TV Peterborough as well.

Norm (Harold) Haines died at age 73. He started his broadcast career as an announcer at CFTJ Galt in 1958 and worked at CKCR Kitchener, CFCO Chatham, CKWS-Radio-TV Kingston and CFOX Montreal. Haines moved to Calgary where he was president of Voice of the Prairies Ltd. (CFCN Radio). He took on CFCN in 1973, and in time, developed CJAY-FM, Canada’s first new generation FM station.

John McFadyen died at age 73. His early days in broadcast news included CKPC Brantford before he moved to CKFM Toronto where he serv

It was announced in May that CKWS-TV would change network affiliation from CBC to CTV on August 31. On August 27, the CRTC approved applications by 591987 B.C. Ltd. to disaffiliate the conventional television stations CHEX-DT Peterborough and its transmitter CHEX-TV-1 Bancroft, CHEX-TV-2 Oshawa, CKWS-DT Kingston and its transmitter CKWS-TV-3 Smiths Falls, CKWS-DT-1 Brighton, and CKWS-TV-2 Prescott from the English-language television network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC had indicated that it would not renew the existing affiliation agreement with the licensee. The licensee had therefore concluded a program supply agreement with Bell Media Inc. to use CTV programming so that the stations had programming to supplement their local programming. The change in programming service would be effective 30 August 2015.

In September, CKWS added Global TV news to its schedule while keeping the program supply agreement with CTV. CKWS and CHEX Peterborough would also start their own versions of Global’s The Morning Show.

Dick Trotter (79) died on December 27. Over his career Trotter worked in Peterborough radio and television, CKLB/CKQS-FM Oshawa (General Manager), CHIN-FM Toronto, and did sports at CKWS-TV. He later became permanent evening news anchor at CKWS-TV. Trotter retired in 1993.

When the CKWS-DT licence was renewed in May, the CRTC revoked the broadcasting licence for CKWS-TV-2 Prescott, and approved Corus’s request to add that transmitter to the broadcasting licence for CKWS-DT Kingston as a rebroadcasting transmitter. The existing licence would expire August 31, 2017.

On August 27, CKWS-DT became part of Global (both Corus-owned). All CTV programming was dropped and replaced with programs from Global. CKWS became Global Kingston with local newscasts rebranded as CKWS News on Global Kingston.

On June 13, the CRTC approved the deletion of the following CKWS-DT rebroadcast transmitter at the request of Corus Entertainment Inc. – CKWS-TV-3 Smiths Falls.