CICT-TV
CICT-TV
- For the present-day CHCT in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, see CHCT-TV.
The station first went on air in 1954, making it the oldest station in the Network. It serves as the master control hub for all Global and E! owned and operated stations across the country.
History
CICT-TV signed on October 8 1954 as CHCT, an affiliate of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), and the first television station in Alberta. The studios, offices and antenna were located on a hill seven miles west of the city. The station’s owners, Calgary Television Ltd., were a consortium of the three Calgary radio stations CFCN, CFAC and CKXL. The CT in CHCT stood for Calgary Television.
During the construction of the transmitter, the 70 foot, 5 ton antenna was being hoisted on the top of the 600 foot tower when the cable snapped and the antenna fell all the way down the tower to imbed itself 15 feet in the ground. Fortunately no one was injured, and the antenna was able to be repaired, but the station’s launch was delayed by 10 days.
A year later, CHCT moved its studios and offices from the transmitter site on Old Banff Coach Road, to a renovated badminton club/sea cadet drill hall on 955 Rideau Road S.W. Calgary.
Notable productions at the original studio include:
- Klara’s Korner: a cooking show that was in national syndication for many years
- Yan Can Cook: another cooking show, this time hosted by Martin Yan, over 600 shows were produced, it too was successful in syndication throughout North America.
- Stampede Wrestling: produced for over 20 years, finding loyal audiences worldwide
- It Figures: the show originated at the station and it was produced for nearly 20 years
In 1957, CKXL Ltd. sold its share in Calgary Television Ltd., to Fredrick Shaw, who had recently sold his share in CKXL-AM to Tel-Ray Ltd. Just over a decade later, CHCT was purchased by Selkirk Broadcasting, and the station’s call sign was changed to CFAC-TV, linking it to co-owned CFAC-AM.
On September 1, 1975, CFAC-TV disaffiliated from the network, becoming independent. This led to the CBC launching its own station, CBRT. In 1979, the station branded itself as Channel 2&7, referring to its cable location. For a number of years afterwards, it continued to use the old CFAC "star" logo alongside the 2&7 logo.
1981 saw the station move to its new home, the Calgary Television Center, a move reflecting its growth since its disaffiliation from the CBC. After obtaining the television rights to the Calgary Flames National Hockey League franchise the year before, the station purchased a seven camera mobile soon after. The station has been the Flames’ television partner since 1980.
In the fall of 1982, the station began broadcasting 24 hours a day, a first for Calgary. Overnight shows consisted of Late Night movies and reruns of the Jackie Gleason Show amongst others.
In 1989, Maclean Hunter Ltd. purchased Selkirk Communications, but due to ownership regulations at the time (Maclean-Hunter already owned CFCN-TV), CFAC-TV was sold to Western International Communications (WIC).
In March 1990, CFAC-TV was again given a new call sign, this time CKKX-TV. In 1992, CKKX’s news operations were expanded with the acquisitions of a satellite uplink truck and a fleet of electronic news gathering microwave trucks.
On September 7, 1993, CKKX was recalled CICT-TV, and also took on the brand of Calgary 7, referring to the station’s cable channel.
The Griffiths family holdings in WIC were sold to Shaw Communications Inc. and Canwest in 1998. This move required Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approval, the plans for which were filed in 1999 and approved in 2000. The assets were split between Canwest, Shaw and its radio offshoot Corus Entertainment.
On September 4, 2000, CICT joined the Global Television Network, along with fellow Alberta stations CITV-TV and CISA. By 2001, CICT-TV began relays in Drumheller (CICT-TV-1) and Banff (CICT-TV-2). The station had been airing some Global shows since 1988.
On April 11, 2007, the station became the first in Calgary with a news helicopter. Named Global 1, it provides traffic reports on the Morning News in combination with studio traffic segments. It is also intended to provide breaking news coverage. The helicopter is also shared with AM 770 CHQR during the morning and afternoon rush hour.
Newscasts
Global Calgary airs 38 hours of local news a week.
- Morning News (5:30 a.m.-9:00 a.m.)
- Bruce McCalister
- Angela Kokott
- Todd Gallant - Weather
- Leslie Horton - Traffic Central (Tuesday-Friday)
- Tish Boychuk - Traffic Central (Mondays)
- Josh Groberman - Global 1 Chopper Traffic
- Cara Fullerton - Live News Reporter/Relief Anchor
- Noon News Hour (12:00 noon -1:00 p.m.)
- Cara Fullerton
- Bruce McCalister
- Todd Gallant - Weather
- Leslie Horton - Community Events Reporter (Tuesday-Friday)
- Tish Boychuk - Community Events Reporter (Mondays)
- Early News (5:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m.)
- Gord Gillies
- Paul Dunphy - Weather
- Michelle Schurman - Health Beat
- Gemma Lynne - Global 1 Chopper Traffic
- News Hour (6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.)
- Gord Gillies
- Brienne Hurlburt
- Paul Dunphy - Weather
- Grant Pollock - Sports
- Tony Tighe - Consumer Beat
- News Hour Final (11:00 p.m.-12:03 a.m.)
- Brienne Hurlburt
- Paul Dunphy - Weather
- Kevin Smith - Sports
- Saturday Morning News (8-10 a.m.)
- Leslie Horton
- Heather Yourex - News
- Tish Boychuk - Community Live Reporter
- News Hour (6:00 p.m.)/News Final (11:00 p.m.) (Weekends)
- Jayme Doll
- Michelle Jobin - Weather
- Ryan Leslie - Sports
- Global News Calgary reporters
- David Boushy
- Jill Croteau
- Jayme Doll
- Nancy Hixt (Crime Specialist)
- Carolyn Kury de Castillo
- Vanessa Lee
- Ryan Leslie (Sports)
- Linda Olsen (Woman of Vision/Relief Anchor)
- Lisa Ostrikoff
- Michelle Schurman (Health Beat)
- Mia Sosiak
- Kevin Smith (Sports)
- Tony Tighe (Consumer Advocate/Relief Anchor)
- Doug Vaessen
- Dallas Flexhaug
- Heather Yourex
- Bindu Suri
- Reid Fiest
- Former Reporters/Personalities
Programming
CICT airs the same schedule as Global Edmonton. All non-news programming and some Calgary-based newscasts are also aired on Global Lethbridge.Transmitters
| Station | City of licence | Channel | ERP | HAAT | Transmitter Coordinates |
| CICT-TV-1 | Drumheller | 8 (VHF) | 0.009 kW | NA | |
| CICT-TV-2 | Banff | 13 (VHF) | 0.009 kW | NA | |
Logos
Slogans
- Hello Calgary! (1979-1990; re-introduced in 2004 for the station's 50th anniversary, and again as part of a promotional campaign commencing in December 2006.)
- Spirit of Calgary (late 1990s)
External links
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Friday October 10, 2008 at 03:49:12 PDT (GMT -0700)
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