- Magic Tom - CFCF 12 - Courtesy of Dan Kowal, CTV Montreal
Those who have been following up on the 50th anniversary of the CTV stations in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, among other places, may have accidentally stumbled upon this awkwardly worded CTV national PR campaign stating that they are celebrating 50 years of providing local news. You’ll notice on the web page that, strangely enough, there’s no mention of when the CTV network itself actually went on the air or what exactly happened 50 years ago that led to the creation CTV’s local news.
But the kicker is the date on the web page: April 15, 2008. In other words, the people at national headquarters celebrated 50 years of local news three years ago. Some of us may even remember seeing the campaign. Unfortunately, the problem with all of this is that it would mean that CTV local news has now been around for 53 years, or since 1958. That requires a pretty liberal definition as to what exactly constitutes CTV.
So Just How Did CTV Begin Anyway?
The television network didn’t launch until October 1, 1961, when a group of independent TV stations formed an alliance and even then, it was originally known as CTN for a brief period. In addition, the CBC was Canada’s only television option until September 9, 1960. That’s when CFCN-TV in Calgary went on the air for the very first time, making that market the very first Canadian city to have a station that was neither owned nor affiliated with the public broadcaster.
Even if you consider CFCN’s launch as the birth of a second English-language option, that’s still off by about two years. So then how did they justify their so-called 50 years of existence way back in 2008? They did so in a vague non-specific way via this web page which lists the original launch dates of various CTV and /A\ heritage stations.
- 1953 - CFPL-TV, London
- 1953 - CKCO-TV, Kitchener
- 1954 - CKCK-TV, Regina
- 1954 - CJCB-TV, Sydney
- 1954 - CFRN-TV, Edmonton
- 1954 - CFQC-TV, Saskatoon
- 1955 - CKX-TV, Brandon
- 1955 - CKNX-TV, Wingham
- 1955 - CKNY-TV, North Bay
- 1955 - CKVR-TV, Barrie
So there it is, proof that the private broadcaster has been around since 1958, assuming that you ignore two minor problems. The first one being that the web page fails to note that all of these stations were still CBC affiliates back in the 50s. The earliest one to disaffiliate was CFRN and that wasn’t until 1961.
CTV Network is a Relative Term
Things are already awkward enough with various local CTV stations currently celebrating 50 years, in spite of them no longer using their call letters. It’s a nostalgic yet also painful reminder that local television is dead, not to mention that CTV itself didn’t exist 50 years ago, neither as a network nor even as a brand name. But to argue that they’ve been around since 1958 because they’ve decided to count the years that some of its stations were with the competition, well that seems like a bit much.
The other problem is that the list still contains no mention of the magic number, 1958, the year which would logically be the beginning of CTV’s local news existence, according to them. The dates indicate that these stations actually signed on well before 1958. With CFPL and CKCO launched in 1953, this list actually insinuates that CTV is as old as... well... as old as CBC Television.
A possible explanation might be that it was in 1958 that Prime Minister John Diefenbaker passed a new Broadcasting Act which effectively put an end to the CBC’s TV monopoly, according to Susan Gittins’ CTV The Television Wars. But even then, this requires buying the logic that CTV magically appeared as soon as the ink was dry.
Happy Birthday, Whatever the Number
A final explanation may be that CTV just needed any excuse to make people feel proud about local TV, back in 2008, as they began to put pressure on the CRTC for new legislation in support of the broadcast outlets. Note the Local News Matters article right on the main page of the 50 years of news website, among other links.
But now that CFCF, CJOH and CFTO just celebrated 50 years of local TV, some network executives must be feeling a little silly about the campaign they held three years ago. Or maybe, they’re just hoping that Canadian viewers have a short attention span.
At any rate, heartfelt congratulations on 53 years of local news go out to CBC... er... I mean CTV.
Source:
Susan Gittins, CTV The Television Wars, Stoddart Publishing
Steve Hatton - Steve Hatton is a Montreal-based freelance writer and journalist who covers the television industry, including TV show reviews and media ...
