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Why City TV & CHCH Are Unique In The GTHA TV Market
The reason isn't the programming - it's what goes on before it starts.
Both City and CHCH are the only television stations left in the GTHA that still use their call letters as a part of their everyday broadcasting. City is almost a brand in itself and CHCH has previously been known by other names - most notably "ONTV" during a terrible period when they were owned by WIC. (They were also "E!" and "CH" during various periods, both of which thankfully didn't last long.)
As for the others, when was the last time you ever heard CBLT, CFTO, CICA (aka TVO),CIII (Global), CFMT or CJMT (The Omnis) or CKVR (now CTV2) referred to by those letters on air? Branding has become all important and viewers probably don't care, but I was always under the impression that Canadian TV stations were required by law to identify themselves at least once during a 24-hour broadcast day. (Or as some old radio DJs used to say, "We have to break the station!")
I believe radio stations have to do this at some point, usually at the top of the hour. Why not TV?
I tried to pin this down with the CRTC once, and waited forever for a response, which essentially said "ask Industry Canada." But that department never replied to my query. So I'm still not sure if there is a legal requirement to use a legal ID at least once a day. If there is, most of the players in this market never obey it.
- MJ Vancouver
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Re: Why City TV & CHCH Are Unique In The GTHA TV Market
Technically, the TV stations ID nowadays using the PSIP data which OTA viewers can see. When I lived in Toronto five years ago and had an OTA setup, channels 5, 9 and 41 IDed that way as CBLT-DT, CFTO and CIII-HD respectively. 19 IDed as TVO. Can’t remember what the Omni channels did.
- RadioActive
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Re: Why City TV & CHCH Are Unique In The GTHA TV Market
If there's a rule that it must be verbally stated on air (and I'm not sure if there is) does that suffice?
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Thread Starter- ED1
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Re: Why City TV & CHCH Are Unique In The GTHA TV Market
RadioActive wrote:
If there's a rule that it must be verbally stated on air (and I'm not sure if there is) does that suffice?
I don't believe it HAS to be verbally stated. I don't even think the United States has a rule that it has to be an aural ID. Most TV stations there just super the call sign and city of license in (very) small letters either on top of programming, or baked into promos right before the next show.
- torontostan
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Re: Why City TV & CHCH Are Unique In The GTHA TV Market
Here are the requirements. Technically PSIP IDs are not allowed (nor do they include the name of the city) but nobody complains about it. No idea why it is that radio stations insist on keeping this practice alive while their TV counterparts haven't been following the rules for over a decade. CBC Radio also rarely announces their callsigns. The whole practice is dated and serves little purpose when PSIP and RDS exist.
- markow202
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Re: Why City TV & CHCH Are Unique In The GTHA TV Market
And for radio, CHFI and CHUM would be the only ones from the top of my head leading call letters.
- RadioActive
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Re: Why City TV & CHCH Are Unique In The GTHA TV Market
I believe you're right, but most radio stations here still do a full call sign ID at the top of each hour, regardless of the format or branding. And both, coincidentally or not, are age old almost heritage call letters in this city, with CHUM especially woven into the fabric of Toronto broadcast history. Plus, it has the bonus of being an actual pronounceable word, which is always a good thing.
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Thread Starter- markow202
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Re: Why City TV & CHCH Are Unique In The GTHA TV Market
I believe you're right, but most radio stations here still do a full call sign ID at the top of each hour, regardless of the format or branding. And both, coincidentally or not, are age old almost heritage call letters in this city, with CHUM especially woven into the fabric of Toronto broadcast history. Plus, it has the bonus of being an actual pronounceable word, which is always a good thing.
Yes I noticed literally every radio station even if its somewhere else in ontario, does the top of the hour call letter/city/town they belong to especially in the last 10 years. Almost thought its a new requirement that they do this.
- Radiowiz
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Re: Why City TV & CHCH Are Unique In The GTHA TV Market
I believe you're right, but most radio stations here still do a full call sign ID at the top of each hour, regardless of the format or branding. And both, coincidentally or not, are age old almost heritage call letters in this city, with CHUM especially woven into the fabric of Toronto broadcast history. Plus, it has the bonus of being an actual pronounceable word, which is always a good thing.
I LOVE the way CHBM does it the best. "Technically, we are CHBM, but our friends call us Boom 97three."
RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person.
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.
- markow202
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Re: Why City TV & CHCH Are Unique In The GTHA TV Market
I believe you're right, but most radio stations here still do a full call sign ID at the top of each hour, regardless of the format or branding. And both, coincidentally or not, are age old almost heritage call letters in this city, with CHUM especially woven into the fabric of Toronto broadcast history. Plus, it has the bonus of being an actual pronounceable word, which is always a good thing.
I LOVE the way CHBM does it the best. "Technically, we are CHBM, but our friends call us Boom 97three."
Honestly the best station ever.
- Glen Warren
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Re: Why City TV & CHCH Are Unique In The GTHA TV Market
TVO / TV Ontario never referenced the station/channel call letters, just the actual channel number during the voicer for the IDs.
The reason was due to TVO having three sets of call letters for the analog transmitter network across the province. They were CICA, CICO, and CICE. The majority of the high power transmitters were assigned either the CICA or CICO calls. The low power transmitters were predominantly CICE.
TVO at build out had 23 High and Medium power class transmitters, and 100 Low power transmitters.
John DeLazzer voiced the majority of the IDs for TVO as he was a staff announcer / producer. Susan Mitchell was also used as an alternate voice talent for station IDs, and promo voicers.
Most of the IDs were referencing Channel 19 in Toronto, and a secondary site/channel... ie. Channel 19 in Toronto, Channel 59 in Chatham. Alternately, the ID voicer would omit Toronto, and mention two other areas of the province.
John DeLazzer
Susan Mitchell
Last edited by Glen Warren (November 11, 2023 1:44 am)