Growing up our family rarely watched CKCO  because the majority of their primetime programming was the same, and clearer, on CFTO. The one thing I do remember is the bright red jackets that the news staff wore on air from 1967-89. Apparently they were introduced to let viewers know they were watching a program in colour. I think they succeeded.

Local affiliates weren't tied to their networks nearly as much as today.  Stations had many hours to fill with both local and US programming.  I hope The CKCO History Page continues to add more of the shows that channel 13 produced over the years.  They were a very active station.

A friend of mine had a tour of CTV Kitchener's newish facilities in the south end of town.  He was surprised how nice the set up was inside.  Very modern and he said bigger than what he thought it would be.  The old downtown property at 864 King has been demolished and a 45 floor apartment building is planned. But the new space is in a large business park and the actual facilities are almost hidden at the back.  No street presence and not built to have the public come to the studio/offices. 

MJ Vancouver wrote:

zed wrote:

CKCO had 4 transmitters across southwestern and central Ontario with a huge coverage area from Windsor to Huntsville. I remember they covered lots of parades and local kids shows. 

I’m a little young to remember the red jackets, but I’m just old enough to remember some of their local shows that were still being produced in the early 90s - Romper Room (with Fran Pappert), Bowling for Dollars, Big Top Talent, and Sunday AM.

I always found it odd they had a transmitter in Huntsville, which was closer to not only Toronto than Kitchener but also North Bay which had its own CTV affiliate. I remember vacationing with my family in Muskoka in the mid-90s and the antenna picked up both CFTO on the channel 21 transmitter, and CKCO on the channel 11 transmitter at Huntsville. Then in 1998 channel 11 was switched to MCTV in North Bay, which seemed to make more sense for that area.

I read because prior to Channel 11 Huntsville - the mighty Channel 2 VHF Wiarton/Georgian Bay was setup but by the time it go across to the Muskoka area the signal was weakened.  The whole microwave network system to feed these transmitters was a whole other system on its own too.  Eventually Channel 2 ended like this:

Bell Media shuts down CTV transmitter in Wiarton, Ont., after spat with neighbour over trees | Fagstein
 

Last edited by markow202 (September 12, 2025 3:50 pm)