CKVR-DT
CKVR-DT is a television station in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the CTV2 system. It is owned and operated by Bell Media alongside Toronto-based CTV flagship CFTO-DT, channel 9 ; it is also sister to 24-hour regional news channel CP24. CKVR-DT's studios and transmitter are co-located at 33 Beacon Road in Barrie.
The station was founded by Ralph Snelgrove on September 28, 1955; Barrie was the smallest community in North America to have its own television station. CKVR was a longtime CBC affiliate, having been so for forty years from its inception. CHUM Limited acquired the station in 1969, becoming one of the first privately owned stations by the company. The station ended its affiliation with the CBC in 1995 and the station was rebranded as The New VR. During its short time as an independent station, CKVR's heavy intense news and other locally produced programming were modeled after its longstanding Citytv station in Toronto. CHUM later used CKVR-TV as the basis and flagship station of a television system, acquiring and establishing new stations under the NewNet name, which became more conventional after CHUM acquired the assets of Craig Media in 2004 while CKVR and the rest of the NewNet system was relaunched as A-Channel in 2005.
In July 2006, CTVglobemedia announced its intent to acquire CHUM Limited, but was required to divest the Citytv stations due to conflicts with CTV stations it already owned in the same markets. CTV chose to keep the A-Channel stations including CKVR, as well as CKVR-TV's sister news channel CP24 and its other cable channels MuchMusic, but divested CITY-TV and its sister stations to Rogers Media. CKVR was rebranded thrice to A in 2008, followed by CTV Two in 2011 and again as CTV2 in 2018 and since its eventual acquisition by Bell, CKVR's programming became more conventional in nature.
CBC Television affiliate
Early history
, the owner of CKBB was awarded a television license in 1954 by the CBC Board of Governors to operate in Barrie. The station first signed on the air on September 28, 1955, and the callsign was derived from Snelgrove whose first initial and that of his wife, Valerie, form part of the station's callsign though it was originally to be called CKBB-TV after a radio station. It originally operated as a privately owned affiliate of CBC Television.In 1969, the station was purchased by CHUM Limited, becoming one of the first television stations owned by the company.
On September 7, 1977, a private aircraft, owned by Falconbridge Nickel Mines Ltd., dropped altitude to in dense fog and struck CKVR's transmitter tower, killing all five people aboard the plane and destroying the tower and antenna. The station's auxiliary tower was also destroyed and there was some damage to the main studio building. The tower also supported the antennae for CHAY-FM and a rebroadcaster of Radio-Canada station CBLFT in Toronto, the studio/transmitter link of CKBB, as well as paging and other communications systems. The CKVR antenna was an RCA six-bay turnstile. On the following morning, the CBC secured the use of a tower for CKVR. The first sections of the new temporary tower were lifted into place on September 10. On September 19, CKVR's antenna was hoisted into place on the new tower, along with those for CBLFT and CHAY-FM, with the transmission line also being put in place. After work on the tower was completed, tests were made to the transmitter's signal. At 8:35 p.m. that evening, the transmitter was turned on with a colour bar test pattern being broadcast. At 8:55 p.m., CKVR vice president and general manager Jack Mattenley went on the air in a live broadcast with a message of sympathy and words of gratitude to viewers. CKVR returned to the air at a reduced power of 40,000 watts until a new tower was built in 1978.
1985 Barrie tornado
On May 31, 1985, an F4 tornado, one of the most powerful and devastating tornadoes in Canadian history, struck Barrie, just a short distance from CKVR's studio facility and transmitter tower, killing 12 people, injuring 600 people and destroying many homes and businesses in Barrie. CKVR broadcast extensive coverage of the storm's aftermath for several days, and spent that summer helping the people of Barrie recover and rebuild. The station also held a day-long telethon in June of that year to raise funds for the tornado victims.Programming changes
Once the CN Tower in Toronto was completed in 1976, atop which CBC flagship CBLT transmits from, the signal coverage areas of CKVR and CBLT overlapped considerably. CKVR management began to consider a different course for the station that took several years to become realized. By the late 1980s, programming outside of CBC and local news was mostly classic reruns such as I Love Lucy, Star Trek, The Addams Family and others, to the point where the station was often branded as CKVR Classic Television. Thanks to the acquisition of Toronto's CITY-TV by CHUM in 1979, CKVR was part of a twinstick, and Citytv programming began to air in limited timeslots.The New VR and A-Channel
Eventually, the station's financial situation became untenable; then-general manager Doug Garraway explained in a presentation to the CRTC in spring 1994, "the CBC no longer wants us, in point of fact we can no longer afford to remain affiliated with them." CKVR was expected to have lost $5 million by the end of 1995. As a result, the station made the decision to drop CBC programming and go in a new direction.On September 1, 1995, CKVR ended its affiliation with the CBC and converted into an independent station as "The New VR", and began targeting its programming towards younger viewers. As part of the relaunch, newscasts were overhauled to be similar in format to Toronto sister station CITY-TV, classic shows were dropped in favour of newer programs, and the station became an official broadcaster of the Toronto Raptors NBA franchise. Over $1 million was invested into new equipment for the station.
The new direction was successful—as CHUM Limited began replicating CKVR's format on its other stations, including several that it had acquired from Baton Broadcasting in 1997, which formed the basis for a television system originally known as NewNet. At various times during the late 1990s and early 2000s, CKVR also broadcast mid-week games from the Raptors, as well as games from the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs. The Maple Leafs and Raptors games were carried on all of NewNet's stations across Ontario with the exception of CHRO-TV, which did not carry Maple Leafs games due to the fact that CHRO is in the home market of the Ottawa Senators. CKVR also broadcast WWF Monday Night Raw for a time in the late 1990s as well.
In the early 2000s, plans were being created for CKVR to move from their original facility to a new, state-of-the-art broadcast centre in Barrie's historic Allandale Station, much as other CHUM properties had street-side studios located in city centres. CHUM purchased the of land, including the station buildings, for C$1,050,000 in 2000. CHUM planned to restore the Allandale Station building as part of their plan, but changed their plan in 2004. In 2007, CHUM agreed to sell the property to the City for the same amount CHUM originally paid. CHUM received a Charitable Donation tax receipt reflecting the increased value of the property since 2000 largely due to the restoration and site works completed by CHUM.
In February 2005, CHUM announced plans to consolidate the master control departments for CKVR, CFPL, CHRO, CHWI and CKNX at 299 Queen Street West in Toronto, and to consolidate the traffic and programming departments of the other stations at CFPL's facilities in London, resulting in the loss of approximately nine staff members from CKVR. Those operations were migrated to the Toronto facilities on June 3, 2005.
After CHUM's acquisition of Craig Media, its A-Channel stations in Western Canada were converted to owned-and-operated stations of the Citytv system on August 2, 2005. On the same day, the previous brand was transferred to the NewNet stations, resulting in CKVR rebranding under the A-Channel name.
Bell ownership
On July 12, 2006, CTV owner Bell Globemedia announced plans to purchase CHUM Limited for C$1.7 billion, with plans to divest itself of the A-Channel stations and the Access Alberta educational-commercial stations and cable channel. That same day, CHUM laid off over 281 employees and CKVR was mostly not affected, which CHUM intends to return the station to its local focus.On April 9, 2007, it was announced that Rogers Communications would acquire the A-Channel network of stations, along with several other CHUM's speciality channels from CTVglobemedia as part of its pending take over CHUM Limited. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said it would only approve CTVglobemedia's purchase of CHUM if it sold off the latter company's Citytv stations instead, while being permitted to keep the A-Channel stations. CTVglobemedia took control of the A-Channel stations and the rest of CHUM Limited's assets on June 22, 2007. Richard Gray was named head of news for the A-Channel stations and CKX-TV in Brandon, Manitoba. Gray reported directly to the CTVgm corporate group instead of CTV News to preserve autonomy in news presentation and management. Gray began to oversee CKVR and the other news departments; CHRO, CFPL, CKX-TV, CKNX-TV, CHWI and CIVI in Victoria, British Columbia. On August 11, 2008, the A-Channel system were rebranded as "A".
On September 10, 2010, Bell Canada announced plans to re-acquire 100% of CTVglobemedia, a deal which was approved by the CRTC on March 7, 2011; the deal was finalized on April 1, 2011, with CTVglobemedia being absorbed into Bell Media.
On May 30, 2011, Bell Media announced that the A system would be relaunched as CTV Two effective on August 29, 2011. Along with the relaunch came the rebranding of CKVR's newscasts as CTV News, and the implementation of an anchor desk for its newscasts as well as the addition of a high definition feed on its new digital signal.