CKVR-TV

CKVR-TV is a television station in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. Owned by CTVglobemedia, it is the flagship station of CTVglobemedia's secondary broadcast television system A, with facilities located at 33 Beacon Road in Barrie. Its signal reaches well into parts of the Toronto television market and the station has long been available on cable across Toronto and southern Ontario.

CKVR is famous for its camera overlooking the city of Barrie, Lake Simcoe, and its environs. The camera is situated on the station's broadcast tower. In addition to CKVR-TV's news centre in Barrie, CKVR-TV also has news bureaus in Collingwood, Muskoka and Aurora.

History

The station was founded by Ralph Snelgrove, whose first initial and that of his wife, Valerie, form part of the station's callsign. It had been a longtime privately owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) affiliate since its inception in 1955. In 1995, it ended its affiliation with the CBC and rebranded as The New VR, becoming the first station in CHUM's NewNet system. CKVR has been owned by CHUM since 1969, longer than any of the company's other TV stations.

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, as well as consolidating the traffic and programming departments at CFPL in London, resulting in the loss of approximately nine staff members from CKVR. On June 3, 2005, at approximately 10:00 a.m., the Barrie master control signal came to an end, as the new consolidated master control took to air.

A-Channel

On August 2, 2005, CKVR and the rest of the NewNet stations were renamed A-Channel.

On July 12, 2006, CTV owner CTVglobemedia (formerly Bell Globemedia) announced plans to purchase A-Channel owner CHUM Limited for $C1.7 Billion, with plans to divest itself of the A-Channel and Access Alberta stations.

On April 9, 2007, Rogers Communications announced the purchase of all of the A-Channel stations (including CKVR), SexTV: The Channel, Access Alberta, Canadian Learning Television and CKX-TV Brandon. The transaction is said to cost $137 million, which will be paid in cash by Rogers.

On June 8, 2007, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced its approval of CTVglobemedia's purchase of CHUM Limited, but added a condition that CTVglobemedia must sell off CHUM's Citytv stations to another buyer, while being permitted to keep the A-Channel stations (including CKVR), in effect cancelling the planned sale of A-Channel to Rogers Media.

CTVglobemedia took control of the A-Channel stations and the rest of CHUM Limited's assets on June 22, 2007, excluding the Citytv stations.

On July 26, 2007, CTVglobemedia named Richard Gray the head of news for the A-Channel stations and CKX-TV. Gray will report to the CTVgm corporate group, not CTV News, to preserve independent news presentation and management. Gray will now oversee CKVR and the other news departments; CHRO, CFPL, CKNX, CHWI, CIVI-TV and CKX-TV.

A

On August 11, 2008, CKVR and the rest of the A-Channel stations as well as Atlantic Canada's ASN were rebranded as A. Unofficially, CKVR's newscasts began using the A News name in June 2008 as part of the rebranding campaign to A.

Criticism

Before "The New VR" was renamed "A-Channel", CKVR's emphasis was on Barrie, Simcoe County and Muskoka. Thereafter, the focus shifted to Toronto's suburban York Region. Loyal CKVR viewers from the Barrie area complained that newscasts were more about Toronto and less, if at all, about Barrie. CHUM announced on July 12, 2006, the same day as the announcement that CHUM Limited would be taken over by CTVglobemedia, that the station would return its focus to the Barrie market. It now covers Barrie and Simcoe County, additional points further away such as Haliburton County and the Kawartha Lakes, as well as a bit into York Region and Dufferin County. Before, weather reports always featured Toronto and York region first, mentioning Barrie as an afterthought. However, to please the local viewers, they have changed this. Now the order is Simcoe County, followed by Aurora/Newmarket/Bradford West Gwillimbury, and then Muskoka/Parry Sound/Haliburton.

Station presentation

Transmitters

The current CKVR Television Tower is a high guyed mast for FM and TV transmission located at in Barrie. It was built in 1978, after a light plane crashed into the smaller incarnation of the tower the previous year.

CKVR previously operated low-power rebroadcast transmitters in the communities of Parry Sound, Huntsville, and Haliburton, on Channels 11, 8, and 5, respectively. The Parry Sound transmitter switched to Channel 12 in the mid-1970s before CKCO-TV opened a rebroadcast transmitter in Huntsville on Channel 11. The Haliburton transmitter was located very close to another CBC affiliate transmitter, CHEX-TV Peterborough, located at Minden and broadcasting on Channel 7. It is not known exactly when the Haliburton transmitter shut down. The Huntsville transmitter increased to full power in 1991 to better cover much of Muskoka and Haliburton County, but it was bought by the CBC in 1995 as part of the disaffiliation of CKVR from the CBC, and now rebroadcasts CBLT from Toronto. CKVR kept its Parry Sound transmitter, and CBC established CBLT transmitters in Barrie and Parry Sound at that time, on Channels 16 and 18, respectively.

References

External links

• A Barrie/Toronto
• Canadian Communications Foundation - CKVR-TV History
• Bright Lights, Small City, a critique of VR News (Ryerson Review of Journalism, summer 1999)