Paul Jeffries wrote:

I seem to recall CITY-TV having SNL for at least a brief period during the Dick Ebersol years in the early '80s. Could be wrong, my memory might be playing tricks on me. 


PJ

You could 'See It On City' from '81, until Global Got It a couple of years later. Fun fact: NBC briefly simulcast the show on FM in fall '81. WGR's then-sister WGRQ ran it here. A couple of years later of course NBC and the other networks had stereo TV.

Glen Warren wrote:

Ida Spencer wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

It's been off the air for months, but now the paperwork is official, and 97-year-old CHML is no longer in existence. 

CHML Licence Revocation 

Now that the death certificate's been issued, (nearly 3 months after Corus requested it; 5 months after it went dark)
the transmitter site at 1179 Valens Rd in Flamborough is being decommissioned. First step, topple the towers. As you can see below, that part's been done. The tuning shacks at the tower bases are still there:



At 875 Main St West (formerly named Radio Centre), a 'For Lease' sign is up - and so is the CHML lettering. Bright lights were seen from some of the upper floors; presumably spaces being emptied and repainted for future use. Amazingly, there's also a 900 CHML vehicle in the parking lot. It seems Corus is so tight they can't pay to get the vehicle reskinned, or the CHML lettering off the building.

If my memory is correct, the Valens CHML site was built in the late 70s or very early 80s...  Valens was the new site to replace the previous Vine Ridge site in Stoney Creek  or maybe Winona? 

Bob Burger was the Chief Engineer and Ted Townsend was the Ass't. Chief Engineer.  Burger later left CHML / CKDS and went into Broadcast Equipment sales.  Ted Townsend stayed with CHML / CKDS and his next principal project was the design and engineering of the new Radio Centre facility in 875 Main St. W (Westdale).

Look at Ida's first picture with the diesel fuel tank on the exterior of the building...  I don't think that tank would have been in standards compliance for the last 10 or 15 years at least.
 

Late 70s! But the Vinemount site (Green Mountain Road at 8th Road Eas

mace wrote:

If I am not mistaken. 875 Main St. W. is the former site of the Westdale Hotel. Home of Paddy Green's Tavern complete with the "Gentlemens" and "Ladies & Escorts" separate entrances, directly across the street from Westdale High School.

That's right! I remember Paddy Green's from when I took summer school at Westdale in 1980. CHML at the time was at 848 Main East, with the iconic 'Dial 900 CHML' neon sign. That building still stands and contains medical offices.

paterson1 wrote:

My apology, I didn't write my post very well.  Bill Maher was off for a few weeks 4 or 5 weeks ago for a summer break and CNN ran Forensic Files in his timeslot.  According to Rogers own schedule his show was on last Saturday and is scheduled for this coming week.  As you say, let's see if Real Time is on Rogers this week.  

And there we have it: another episode of Forensic Files. EDIT: there are clips of last night's episode on YouTube.

RadioActive wrote:

For those who don't get HBO or Crave and are curious about Real Time, CNN shows a rebroadcast of Maher's long running program every Saturday night at 8 PM, breaking news excepted. 

Depends on your carrier. My shop gets its CNN through Rogers and every Saturday night instead of Real Time, CNN subs with Forensic Files. Presumably both WBD and Bell Media are protecting Canadian rights holder Crave.

RadioActive wrote:

I'm not sure why, but this surprises me. YES TV is a relatively small player in Canadian television, a faith based outlet located in Burlington. Yet somehow it's managed to secure yet another four year exclusive deal for "Wheel of Fortune" (which is getting a ton of publicity for incoming host Ryan Seacrest) and "Jeopardy!", both game shows that do very well in North American syndication. 

I might have thought some of the bigger outlets, like a Global, a CTV, a City or even CHCH, would have tried to obtain them when they were up for grabs. Which leads to the question: did they even bother trying or has the glow disappeared from these longtime TV staples? 

Over its history Wheel has been on CTV, then Global. Jeopardy!, not so much. I was at CHCH when they had the rights (2010-12) to both, until CBC scooped them away. 

Demos are an issue. The sales manager used to joke about 'Wheelchair of Fortune.' Also, rights and other fees meant there was only a narrow margin to be made. It didn't pay for CHCH to run it; apparently, it works for YES (which has a wider OTA footprint to amortize the cost.) 

RadioActive wrote:

Today, August 15th, is the 80th anniversary of the day CKNW in Vancouver first went on the air. (The official sign-on wasn't until September, but they started test transmissions on this day in 1944.) How ironic it happens at a Corus station the day after they turned off the transmitter of a place that would have turned 97 next month. 

Given everything this company has done lately, you have to wonder: Will CKNW live to celebrate 81?

Ironic, yes. Did it matter? No.

RadioActive wrote:

The Bay Observer picked up the story about the Hamilton stations. It contains one very interesting bit of information.

"One of the reasons for the purchase of the FM stations stated in the application is the plan by auto manufacturers to remove AM radio from the new generations of electric vehicle. Should that happen, as it appears to be the case, Golden Horseshoe is exploring the potential use the relatively new IBOC-HD transmission technology on the CKLH-FM transmitter, to continue to broadcast the programming of the two AM stations it owns."

Expanding on that, there's this nugget in the application:

[b][i]19. For the Applicant, this transaction is an opportunity to increase the company’s
English-language radio presence in Southern Ontario and to establish a presence in
Hamilton and St. Catharines, which are near Oakville, Ontario, where the Applicant's
business headquarters are located. The acquisition of three successful FM stations, will
ensure that the Caine family members, will have the opportunity to operate radio
stations which will not be impacted by the potential removal of AM radio reception from
electrically-powered automobiles. It is the Applicant's expectation that CJMR and CJYE
(multicultural and Christian AM stations) will continue to operate for years to come and
quickly transition to IBOC-HD to improve coverage to listeners in each city of licence.

20. CJYE and CJMR’s transmitter site is located on Dundas Street in Oakville, just west
of Sixteen Mile Creek. Its proximity to a steep ravine and twin three lane bridges for
Dundas Street make this site very difficult for directional AM stations due to the resulting
backscatter and reradiation. In addition, urban development is rapidly encroaching on
the site. A new twin two lane bridge is being built on an expropriated portion of the
transmitter land and residential and commercial development has begun to be built
directly adjacent

CN_Brendan wrote:

Thanks for those pictures Glen. Would you or anyone else have pictures of the old tower that was sitting beside the tower just demolished? It was a short tower I remember seeing as a kid. I believe it was removed sometime in the late 1990's? Secondly, what was its purpose? 

Second question first. It was the aforementioned wavestack antenna, the station's original tower. When TV started in Canada, there was a rule that B contours couldn't overlap, which ruled out an omni antenna in the early years. Of course Toronto was where the money was so they had to find a way to work within those rules. And most of Toronto got enough of a signal to make it a two-station market. I have a reception report from 1957 or so comparing CH reception to VR, WGR, WBEN and WBUF. (WKBW-TV didn't exist yet.) But it wasn't until the big tower went up that they were able to send a full-power signal in all directions, thanks to the BBG (which succeeded the CBC as regulator in the Diefenbaker era.)

CN_Brendan wrote:

I believe the entire tower was demolished early this morning.

Indeed it has. There's a video on the former employees' FB page which will probably be posted on CHCH.com later today.

I still have my copy. It was an insert in the Monday, February 28, 1977 edition of the Hamilton Spectator. There was also a great series of one-hour specials focusing on each decade... Something that wouldn't happen today. I recorded each one but interference compromised quality.

RadioActive wrote:

In the days before VCRs (and simsub) Canadian stations were often the best way to catch a show you couldn't see because it was on opposite another one you wanted to watch. And this was the only real way to view both of them. And in some cases, primetime started at 7:30 PM, giving viewers an extra half hour of choice, with the CBC & CTV often airing American shows before they ran on the Big 3 Networks stateside.

The cable rules pretty much put the kibosh on that, and now almost everything is run concurrently with the U.S. stations.

dieter wrote:

CBC carried a lot of those Saturday shows, but on different nights because of Hockey Night in Canada.

Here's a look at what the CBC was running in that classic year of 1972. Notice where the CBS Saturday classics discussed above wound up. All In The Family and M*A*S*H were both on Friday, while Mary Tyler Moore came up on Tuesday. And Carol Burnett didn't air until Thursday.

CBC ran those shows as pre-releases - meaning we got to enjoy them twice. (Back then though, filmed shows sent to all the Canadian networks and stations were on 16mm as opposed to the 35mm versions the Amnets ran! Not only were they grainer, the film chains used to run them were often dark and dirty - and not in a fun way.)

I remember all three of the Amnet intros. ABC & CBS discontinued theirs around 1970 but NBC was using its intro until 1976 when they brought in the ill-advised, ill-fated 'N'. And while they used it on the Tonight Show, it wasn't used on the first SNLs, save for the Star Trek cancellation sketch (which is on YouTube.)

I also remember the CBC and CTV intros running well into the 70s. CBC stopped theirs around 1974 when they brought in the original exploding 'C'.

I remember finding the CHCH Ultra colour intro in their archives - but it was silent! Audio was run off a cart instead of from the film.

And for once, the CRTC isn't to blame for the delayed introduction of colour. That one's on its predecessor, the BBG. CFTO actually bought some of the earliest models from RCA when it built the Agincourt studio. And according to articles from that era, CFPL London was prepared to put colour on the air with 90 minutes' notice. But the BBG apparently decided that wasn't fair to the other stations - especially those in small markets that were still trying to pay for their original gear! So colour wasn't official launched here until 1966 - coincidentally, the same year all the Amnets ramped up their colo(u)r programming.

RadioActive wrote:

Speaking of CKDS, why didn't this happen?

Back then, the CRTC was actually concerned with media concentration. Also, Hamilton wasn't yet a Toronto exurb.

turkeytop wrote:

One of my favourite Canadian sitcome was Corner Gas. Did any of the US netwarks pick that up?

WGN America, the U.S. cable version of the Chicago independent. WGN owner Nexstar has since morphed it into NewsNation. Canada's received the WGN local feed (presumably with some rights exceptions) since 1991.