The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / Sub-Carrier Channels Prove CHCH Is On The Right Track

**Posted by RadioActive** September 10, 2025 8:13 am

If all you have is Canadian cable, you may have never heard of stations like Cozi, Antenna TV, Comet or MeTV. Some of these channels are available in the GTA, but you'll need an antenna to get them - they're over-the-air only. And they have one other thing in common - they all carry classic TV sitcoms and dramas.

A story in the Detroit Free Press looks at how they've restored a longing for the good-old-days and have been finding success with viewers. (For Windsor viewers, they also list what they can get with an antenna.)

But as I read the article, I thought of CHCH and its attempt to cash in on the trend, one of the few full power OTA stations to do this in North America. If you believe the conclusions put forth in the story, they're on the right track. And by continually rotating the kinds of shows they have, CH doesn't let them get stale. (They recently added "All In The Family," the show that changed TV forever.)

For some here, all these shows are "new," because they weren't around when they were on. For the rest of us, they're the comfort food of TV watching. And as streamers like Xumo, (VPN-only), Pluto TV and Tubi offer more and more free viewing options, you may find that everything old is new again.

Classic TV shows provide comfort viewing on free over-the-air subchannels like MeTV, Cozi

**Posted by Forward Power** September 10, 2025 8:57 am

Seeing CHCH airing all these classics brings back memories of Barrie's CKVR during its "Classic Television" years, including reruns of All In The Family right after the 6pm edition of Total News. 'VR had an excellent trio of shows leading into the 12:30 news on weekdays... I Love Lucy at 11, The Andy Griffith Show at 11:30, and Leave It To Beaver at noon. Of course there were many other vintage series, such as the original Star Trek, as well as Batman, Perry Mason, Gilligan's Island, and even some not-so-old (at the time) shows like WKRP In Cincinnati.

On the topic of AITF, the "retronewfoundland" channel on YouTube recently shared the credit roll from an episode of that show, as aired recently on CHCH, complete with Viacom's unforgettable "V of Doom" logo which still gives me the chills to this day... as a child, it didn't help that CKVR (which got the most viewing on my family's TV growing up) aired so many shows that were syndicated by the big V and had that 1976-vintage logo at the end.

**Posted by RadioActive** September 10, 2025 9:03 am

Not to forget the great All Night Show on CFMT.

**Posted by markow202** September 10, 2025 9:44 am

They should really do with again with CKVR up here in Barrie but Bell has its grasp on CTV2 informercials and Corner Gas.

**Posted by Fitz** Yesterday 7:49 am

Sub channel use in Canada is almost non existent but I wonder why some Canadian and more US stations don't use the sub channels for radio like WNED FM does, where ownership aligns. Seems like a good way to get a stereo broadcast on air . The system is also compatible with surround sound which radio is not. They could experiment with that.

My guess is the answer is the low penetration of OTA but it's another way to get radio signals out to people that don't have radios. Not sure how expensive it is to have a radio sub channel on TV.

**Posted by haydenmatthews14** Today 1:16 am

markow202 wrote:
They should really do with again with CKVR up here in Barrie but Bell has its grasp on CTV2 informercials and Corner Gas.

I think CTV2 should ditch the Informercials on weekday mornings and pick up syndicated programming instead.