CKVU-DT

On July 18, Western Approaches Ltd. was awarded the third television licence for Vancouver (after CBUT-1953 and CHAN-1961) over applications by Channel Seventynine Ltd. (CITY-TV of Toronto), Ten Television Ltd. (Dr. Charles Allard and family of Edmonton), Pacific Rim and Broadcasting Ltd. (consortium including I. H. Asper of Winnipeg).

All applications were for the use of channel 10 except for Channel Seventynine Ltd. who wanted to use channel 26, and Western Approaches applied for either channel 10 or 26. The CRTC decided Western Approaches would use channel 26.

Western Approaches was controlled by DKL, which included TV producer Daryl Duke, writer Norman Klenman and lawyer Gordon Lyall. The other 45% of the stock was held by a group of more than 40 Vancouver businessmen.

Robert Fiorillo joined CKVU as a sales rep in July. He had been in sales with CFUN and then CKWX.

On February 2, Western Approaches Ltd. was authorized to change the channel of its proposed station from 26 to 21 and to increase effective radiated power from 790,000 to 880,000 watts.

CKVU-TV went on-air on September 1, on UHF channel 21.

Robert Fiorillo was appointed retail sales manager in June of 1978.

Allarcom purchase approximately 5% of CKVU’s common stock, and 7% of its preferred. I.H. “Izzy” Asper, through CanWest Pacific, a subsidiary of CanWest Broadcasting Ltd. became involved when he loaned DKL some $ 4 million to thwart a takeover by Allarcom.

CKVU has its license renewed by the CRTC for only 18 months instead of the usual five years. CKVU had been rebroadcasting newscasts from the Global Television Network in Ontario instead of producing its own news programs. The CRTC ordered CKVU to discontinue this practice and start producing its own news.

Peter Viner became vice president and general manager of CKVU-TV. He had been vice president of Global TV in Toronto.

In May of 1981, Robert Fiorillo was named general sales manager.

Asper loaned DKL a further $ 8 million to enable them to reduce debt, but attached a condition that CanWest would have an option to eventually buy DKL’s shares.

DKL later disputed this option, which led to several years of litigation between DKL, Allarcom and CanWest along with a complex CRTC process.

On January 11, the CRTC renewed CKVU-TV’s licence until September 30, 1985.

VU13 expanded “Vancouver Live” to an hour. The program was hosted by Maria LeRose and Wayne Cox. Joanna Piros returned to “1st News” after being on maternity leave. Laurier LaPierre started a new afternoon phone-in show – “On the Air”.

Wayne Cox was now hosting a guide to Vancouver’s entertainment scene – TGIF – on Friday’s.

Laurier LaPierre was host of VU13’s People Will Talk.

CKVU newsman George Duthie passed away at 45 after a brief illness.

Long-time CJOR producer/broadcaster Fanny Kiefer now had a feature (Expose) on VU13.

Following the settlement of further legal wrangles, CanWest finally obtained control, and finally 100% ownership, of CKVU-TV Vancouver.

On July 13th, “Izzy” Asper, Chairman of the CanWest Group of Companies announced that after ten long, rather difficult years, his company was now in full control, and Donald Brinton, President of CanWest Broadcasting Ltd. was the new President & CEO of CKVU-TV. Brinton was named president and CEO of CanWest Broadcasting, CanWest Pacific Television Inc., and Western Approaches Ltd. He moved to Vancouver from Winnipeg where he had headed the launching of CKND-TV in 1975.

During this ten year period the station’s audience and profits rose as a result of very ambitious award-winning program production.

Russ Froese was named anchor of the hour-long evening news package, First News.

George Froelich joined CKVU as executive producer of news and current affairs. He had been senior desk editor at CBC-TV’s “The Journal”.

In November, general sales manager Robert Fiorillo left CKVU.

Jack Tomik was appointed general sales manager.

Barry Millar was named promotions manager.

Sharol Josephson joined Russ Froese as co-anchor of First News at 5:30 p.m.

Dave Randorf was appointed one of the hosts of Sports Page.

Diane Johnson was named publicity and promotions manager.

Don Brinton was succeeded by long-time associate, Peter Viner. When Viner left to head-up CanWest’s interests in Australia and New Zealand, he was succeeded by James Rusnak, a well-known Saskatchewan broadcaster.

CKVU opened a Fraser Valley news bureau. Reporter Julia Foy would be based at one of 17 newspapers in the Metro Valley Group, which was cooperating in VU News.

At the end of July, CKVU-TV was forced to go to taped programming because of flooding at the studio facility.

CKVU-TV, along with CKND-TV Winnipeg, CFRE-TV Regina and CFSK-TV Saskatoon were amalgamated into CanWest Television Inc. (a subsidiary of CanWest Global Communications Inc.) with Jim Rusnak as President.

Suzette Meyers was named co-anchor with Russ Froese of “U News at Six”. Tamara Stanners resigned from the UTV newsroom to spend more time with her family.

Howard Slutsken moved from the position of U.TV program director to national program manager at CanWest Global.

On March 10, the CRTC announced an ammendment for CKVU-TV concerning the airing of infomercials. 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 CKVU-TV Vancouver and its transmitter CKVU-TV-1 Courtenay. By majority vote, the licence term was for a five-year period only, from September 1, 1995 to August 31, 2000. This term would enable the Commission to monitor, and to review at an early date, the licensee’s performance in implementing all of its commitments, particularly those with regard to local news. The Commission discussed with the licensee its failure during two years of the existing licence term to fulfil the commitment it made at the time of CKVU-TV’s last licence renewal, approved in 1989, to broadcast a minimum average of 11 hours and 10 minutes of local original news programming each week. According to the station’s logs, CKVU-TV broadcast a weekly average of 10 hours and 24 minutes of local original news in the 1992-1993 broadcast year, and a weekly average of only 7 hours and 42 minutes in the 1991 -1992 broadcast year. When asked at the hearing to explain the shortfall occurring in these two years, the licensee stated that it had failed to fulfil this commitment due to changes made in the schedule of CKVU-TV’s newscasts. The licensee indicated that it had implemented corrective measures and had operated in compliance since September 1993. CKVU-TV’s logs confirmed that the station broadcast a weekly average of 11 hours and 39 minutes of original local news during the 1993-1994 broadcast year. The licensee also stated that it increased its “investment in news and the prime time hours devoted to news” and that it “put in place disciplines and procedures to ensure total compliance.” For the future, the Commission expected the licensee to adhere to the commitment made in its licence renewal application to broadcast a minimum weekly average of 10 hours and 57 minutes of local original news on CKVU-TV during the new licence term.

Maureen Cameron became U.TV’s Manager of Promotions and Publicity as of July 31. She succeeded Diane Johnson who left for the new Western Canadian division of Walt Disney International. Tamara Poirier became Creative Services Director.

U.TV reported that the fall ratings gave it seven out of the top ten regular shows seen in Vancouver. The number one show was “Seinfeld” with 33% of the viewers.

U.TV set up a new Valley Bureau at the Abbotsford Times newspaper to further increase news coverage of Fraser Valley communities.

On June 1, Debbie Millette succeeded Susan Brinton as program manager of CKVU. Janice Talbot moved from the post of Assistant PD to become Production Manager. Brinton went back to university.

U. TV’s President was Jim Rusnak. Marrett Green was a reporter and weekend anchor at U.TV. The following left U.TV: Tom Climie VP of Operations; Mike Footz VP of Engineering and Craig Roskin VP of Sales.

The station’s fall slogan: “U Want it? U got it. U.TV”.

CKVU-TV, which had operated on-air as UTV, adopted the Global logo. A new graphics package was added at U.TV, enabling the station to produce more automation for on-air sports and promotions.

1998
On October 8 the CRTC approved an application by Canadian Satellite Communications Inc. (Cancom) to add the signal of CKVU-TV to the list of signals that it was authorized to distribute.

Global Vancouver announced Jennifer Mather would join Russ Froese as co-anchor of its News at 6:00 p.m. Mather had been at BCTV.

Leonard Asper was named President/CEO of CanWest Global Communications at the age of 35. He had been executive VP and COO. He was also now Chairman of the Global Television Network and other CanWest Global subsidiaries. At the end of August, CanWest President Peter Viner became Vice-Chairman, based in Toronto. He had been working out of the Winnipeg office.

On October 5 the CRTC approved an application by Star Choice Television Network Incorporated (Star Choice) to add CKVU-TV to their national satellite relay distribution undertaking. Bell ExpressVu had been authorized to carry the signal earlier in the year.

On July 6 the CRTC issued a directive to CanWest Television Inc. to divest itself of ownership of CKVU-TV and its Courtenay retransmitter CKVU-TV-1 as part of the Commission’s approval of CanWest Television Inc. to acquire CHAN-TV Vancouver and CHEK-TV Victoria.

On December 21 the CRTC approved the application for authority to transfer the assets of CKVU-TV Vancouver and its retransmitter to its wholly owned subsidiary CKVU Sub Inc. The transfer permitted CanWest to place CKVU-TV in trust.

On July 26 the CRTC announced that CHUM Limited had applied to seek control of CKVU Sub Inc., licensee of CKVU-TV. CHUM proposed spending $8.03M on B.C. independent production, $5.95M on local news and information programming, and $1.37M on local culture, social policy, and talent development over a seven-year period. The company stated it would program the station much like its CITY-TV operation in Toronto. The purchase of CKVU-TV by CHUM would amount to a second dual ownership of TV stations in the Vancouver/Victoria market where CanWest Global already operated CHAN-TV/CHEK-TV.

On September 1 the Global affiliation moved from CKVU-TV to CHAN-TV as part of a three-way network shuffle among Vancouver television stations, leaving CKVU-TV without a major network. The station branding changed from Global to ckvu13, with “13” designating the cable position in southwestern B.C. One of CKVU-TV’s most popular local programs, “Sports Page”, aired nightly at 11, moved over to CHEK-TV Victoria as part of the ownership change.

On October 15 the CRTC approved the application by CHUM Limited for authority to acquire effective control of CKVU Sub Inc. As CHUM already operated CIVI-TV Victoria, conditions for dual ownership in the market were specified, including separate management of news and no more than 10% of programming overlap between their two stations.

In July, CHUM Limited ‘relaunched’ CKVU as City-TV Vancouver, to take advantage of cross-promotional and creative opportunities with sister station CITY-TV Toronto.

Allan Waters, the founder of CHUM Limited, owner of City-TV Vancouver, passed away at the age of 84, on December 3rd.

On July 12 CKVU-TV announced that it was eliminating all of its dinner hour, late night, and weekend newscasts, effective immediately, to be replaced by a centrally produced daily half-hour national and international news package. The change resulted in the layoff of 47 staff members, some of whom had been with the station for close to 30 years. The station’s local “Breakfast Television” program was retained. Meanwhile, 17 technical and support positions were cut at sister station CIVI-TV “A-Channel” in Victoria, as its breakfast program was eliminated. However, it was announced that a two-hour news program would be produced along with the retention of the station’s “Vancouver Island” report.

On the same day, it was announced that Bellglobemedia would pay C$1.7 billion for CHUM Ltd., in a deal that will see the company merged into a BCE-owned media conglomerate, subject to CRTC approval. The deal included CKVU-TV, along with the other City-TV stations in Canada; CIVI-TV Victoria plus its other national A-Channel TV stations; as well as three Vancouver and two Victoria radio stations, included in its total Canadian radio holdings. Bell Globemedia also held title to CTV British Columbia (CIVT-TV) in Vancouver. On August 31, the two companies announced that BGM had been successful in its offer to acquire approximately 6.7 million common shares of and approximately 19.2 million non-voting Class B shares of CHUM. The shares were to be placed in the hands of an independent trustee pursuant to a voting trust agreement approved by the CRTC.

On October 3 former President Peter Viner was chosen by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters to receive its 2006 Gold Ribbon Award for outstanding service to Canadian private broadcasting. Producer Daryl Duke, one of the station’s original founders, died in West Vancouver October 21 at age 77.

On November 22, the CRTC approved transfer of effective control of CHUM Limited from Mr. Allan Waters to his estate, following his death in December 2005. The approval represented the preliminary step to enable the transfer of CHUM’s shares to a trust, which received approval on July 12. This transfer was not related to a pending sale of CHUM to Bellglobemedia. Prior to his death, Mr. Waters was the sole shareholder of Allan Waters Ltd., which in turn, owned approximately 87% of CHUM’s voting shares. The executors of the estate were James Allan Waters, Ronald Allan Waters, Sheryl Bourne and Robert Sutherland.

On June 8 the CRTC approved the takeover of CHUM Ltd. by CTVglobemedia, on condition that CTV sell off five City-TV stations, CITY-TV Toronto, CHMI-TV Portage La Prairie/Winnipeg, CKEM-TV Edmonton, CKAL-TV Calgary and CKVU-TV Vancouver. Rogers Communications announced on June 25th that a deal had been reached for them to buy these stations from CTV, subject to CRTC approval. Among the CHUM assets acquired by CTVglobemedia in the deal were seven television stations, 21 specialty channels and some 33 radio stations.

Early on the morning of December 2nd, Ted Rogers, founder and former Chief Executive of Rogers Communications, owners of CKVU-TV, died at his home in Toronto, after having suffered from congestive heart failure for some time.

On May 15th, following a hearing that began on April 27th, the CRTC announced a one-year licence renewal, effective September 1st 2009, for the Rogers Citytv stations, including CKVU-TV Vancouver, “….to give these broadcasters some flexibility during the current period of economic uncertainty.” Group-based licence renewals would then be addressed in the spring of 2010. The Commission also stated that it recognized the impracticability of imposing any conditions relative to 1-1 ratios between Canadian and non-Canadian programming in the ensuing year, given the programming commitments that were already in place.

The Commission would however continue to explore various regulatory measures “…to ensure that English-language television broadcasters devote an appropriate proportion of their expenditures to Canadian programming.”

Rogers cut newscasts at Citytv stations in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto Tuesday, dismissing 60 staffers – including many on-air personalities, writers, producers, editors and camera people.. “Simple economics” got the blame. A Rogers spokesperson said OTA stations have been bleeding ad revenues since the recession began. Further, said the spokesperson, Rogers was forced to cut underperforming programs because “it’s about delivering results”. Citytv in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver will no longer produce a 6 p.m. newscast. Rogers Media Television CEO Leslie Sole was quoted as saying: “(The) changes, although difficult, are necessary to align our operations with the economic and regulatory realities of our industry”…

Paul Carson passed away at age 60. He had been associated at one time with CKVU-TV.

On February 23, the CRTC approved in part an application by Rogers Broadcasting Limited for a licence to operate a transitional digital television programming undertaking associated with CKVU-TV Vancouver. In Revised licensing framework for over-the-air digital television services, Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2010-69, 10 February 2010, the Commission announced that it would no longer issue separate broadcasting licences for DTV programming undertakings. Instead, the operation of DTV transmitters would be authorized by way of an amendment to the broadcasting licences of existing services, authorizing the simulcast, on a digital transmitter, of the programming broadcast by the associated station. The new transmitter will operate on channel 47 with an average effective radiated power of 4,300 watts (maximum ERP of 8,300 watts with an effective height of the antenna above average terrain of 670 metres).

CKVU-DT channel 47 began broadcasting on March 2.

Over the Labour Day Weekend, OMNI BC moved from 88 East Pender Street to join Citytv at 180 West 2nd Avenue in Vancouver.

On October 7, the CRTC denied applications by Rogers Broadcasting Limited to reduce the overall minimum level of Canadian programming that must be broadcast by the Citytv and OMNI stations from 60% to 55%.

On November 8, the CRTC approved the application by Rogers Broadcasting Limited to amend the licence for CKVU-TV Vancouver to add post-transition digital transmitters in order to serve the population of Vancouver and Victoria. The Vancouver transmitter would operate on channel 33 with an average effective radiated power of 4,300 watts (maximum ERP of 8,300 watts with an effective height of antenna above average terrain (EHAAT) of 670 metres). The Victoria transmitter would operate on channel 27 with an ERP of 1,647 watts (maximum ERP of 2,750 watts with an EHAAT of 99.6 meters).

On March 29, the CRTC administratively renewed the licence for a number of conventional television and transitional digital television stations until August 31, 2011. MORE…

On July 27, the CRTC renewed the licences of CKVU-DT Vancouver and its transmitters CKVU-TV-1 Courtenay and CKVU-DT-2 Victoria, until August 31, 2014. This short-term renewal would permit the Commission to reassess the applicability of the group-based policy and Rogers Media’s commitments to spending on Canadian programming and programs of national interest.

The analog to digital conversion deadline for mandatory markets was August 31. On this date, CKVU-TV channel 10 left the air and was replaced by digital channel 33 (virtual channel 10.1). It had been using transitional channel 47. CIVT-DT had been using channel 33 up to this time. On the same date, CKVU-DT established a digital rebroadcaster at Victoria.

Jody Vance joined Citytv Vancouver as host of Breakfast Television. She had been afternoon drive host at Shore 104 FM.

Doriana Temolo was promoted to News Director of Global National. She had been Managing Editor of the national package. Global National hired Michael Hennigar as Senior Producer. He was a former CBC reporter/producer. Succeeding Temolo as Managing Editor was Doug Sydora, a long-time broadcast journalist at Global BC.

After ten years of hosting Global BC Noon News Hour, Randene Neill and Squire Barnes moved to News Hour Final at 11:00 p.m. on November 21. Succeeding Neill and Barnes on the Noon News Hour was current Morning News co-anchor Sophie Lui and sportscaster Jay Durant. Returning from maternity leave, Lynn Colliar was the host of the Saturday Morning News and Sunday Morning News, as well as the Weekend Noon News Hour as of November 26. Jill Krop moved from News Hour Final to head the creation of a new online news-gathering source scheduled to launch in 2012.

Renato Zane, vice president and general manager at Citytv/OMNI Vancouver, returned to Toronto for national OMNI Television news and diversity productions. It was in July 2009 that Zane moved from VP news at OMNI Toronto to become VP & general manager at Citytv Vancouver / OMNI B.C. Tamara Poirier, director of operations, was no longer with Citytv/OMNI Vancouver. The Calgary operations of the master control hub for Citytv and OMNI Television in the west would move to Toronto. Those operations had reported to Calgary GM Paula Davies but would now be handled by Virginia Gibberd, VP of Operations in Toronto. Gibberd, responsible for network operations and engineering, also had operational responsibilities for Citytv, OMNI Television, Specialty Television and Sportsnet.

Effective with the start of the new year, Citytv quietly dropped the ‘TV’ from the end of its brand name – right across the country. The stations were now simply known as City. Rogers, noting that it wasn’t just TV anymore, revamped the on-air imagery, advertising and logos.

Rae-Anne Morin died at age 44. Morin had been a senior news producer, responsible for creating and launching Global BC’s Morning News and News Hour Final newscasts. Previously, the multiple RTNDA and LEO Award winner worked at ITV Edmonton, RDTV Red Deer and PGTV Prince George.

Joe Balango retired from Rogers’s OMNI and City in Vancouver. He’d been with Rogers for over eight years.

Gwendolyn Green-Earl succeeded Rob Twarynski as supervisor, media operations at the City and OMNI stations in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. She began her broadcast career at CKX-TV (then A Channel) Brandon in 2000, transferring to Calgary (within Craig Broadcasting) in 2004.

When CKVU’s licence was renewed in May, Rogers Media was given approval to discontinue the use of CKVU-TV-1 Courtenay, an analog rebroadcasting transmitter. As a result, the authority for CKVU-TV-1 would lapse. The existing licence would expire August 31, 2017.

It was announced in June that City Vancouver would begin producing two one-hour daily versions of CityNews (6:00 and 11:00 p.m.), beginning in the winter.

In the summer, City Vancouver announced it would launch CityNews at Six and CityNews Tonight at 11 p.m. as of September 3.