CKNX-TV was a

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...

owned by CTVglobemedia (now known as

Bell Media Bell Media Inc. (Canadian French, French: ) is a Canadian media conglomerate that is the mass media subsidiary of BCE Inc. (also known as Bell Canada Enterprises, the owner of telecommunications company Bell Canada). Its operations include nati ...

) which served mid-western

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. It was part of the A television system. The station's offices, studios, and transmission facilities were located at Carling Terrace corner John Street in Wingham. A bureau in

Owen Sound Owen Sound (2021 Canadian Census, 2021 Census population 21,612) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The county seat, seat of government of Grey County, it is located at the mouths of the Pottawatomi River, Pottawatomi and Sydenham River ...

closed down in late 2004. In February 2009, CTV announced it would not renew CKNX's broadcast licence for the 2009-2010 television season and put the station up for sale. In April 2009, CTV announced a deal to sell the station along with two other sister stations in Windsor and Brandon to

Shaw Communications Shaw Communications Inc. was a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian telecommunication, telecommunications company which provided telephone, Internet, television, and mobile services. The company was founded in 1966 as Capital Cable Televisio ...

for a dollar; however, the deal was rejected in June. As a result, CKNX closed down as a separate station on August 31, 2009, with its

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

remaining in operation as an analogue

rebroadcaster A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

CFPL-DT CFPL-DT (channel 10) is a television station in London, Ontario, Canada, part of the CTV 2 system. It is owned and operated by Bell Media alongside Kitchener-based CTV station CKCO-DT (channel 13), although the two stations maintain separate ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

./A\ Windsor Station to Remain Open
, CTVglobemedia press release, July 8, 2009

History

CKNX was founded by W. T. "Doc" Cruickshank and signed on as a

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

affiliate on November 18, 1955. It was based in a former high school along with its sister AM radio station CKNX. After going to air, one of their early identification cards displayed the station's

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

, which was a smiling television camera wearing a large cowboy hat. On March 8, 1962, the building which accommodated the CKNX radio and television stations caught fire. Although nothing could be salvaged, CKNX-TV was on the air again later that night with the help of nearby stations

CKVR-DT CKVR-DT (channel 3) is a television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio w ...

CKCO-DT CKCO-DT (channel 13) is a television station in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside London-based CTV 2 station CFPL-DT (channel 10), although the two ...

, and

CBLT-DT CBLT-DT (channel 5) is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the English-language service of CBC Television. It is part of a duopoly (broadcasting)#In Canada, twinstick with Ici Radio-Canada Télé ...

. CKNX operations continued as such (with various temporary offices set up in Wingham) until they purchased new equipment and moved into a new building in 1963. That year, the station expanded its coverage to Kitchener in response to CKCO-TV's

affiliation Affiliation or affiliate may refer to: * Affiliate (commerce), a legal form of entity relationship used in Business Law * Affiliation (family law), a legal form of family relationship * Affiliate marketing * Affiliate network or affiliation platf ...

with CTV. Staffers were required to be more versatile than ever to better compete, giving them well-rounded knowledge for moving up in the industry. For example, the zany host of the noon cartoon program would often become the serious anchor for the 12:30 newscast.

As an independent and The New NX

CKNX disaffiliated from the CBC on September 4, 1988 and operated an independent station for nearly ten years until

CHUM Limited CHUM Limited was a Canadian media company based in Toronto, Ontario in operation from 1945 to 2007. The company was founded in 1945 as York Broadcasters Limited when it launched CHUM (AM), CHUM-AM 1050 but was acquired by salesman Allan Waters in ...

purchased the station from Baton Broadcasting. Under the ownership of CHUM, the station joined the NewNet system and was accordingly rebranded ''The New NX''. Thenewnx

The New NX's news program, ''NewsNow'', drew the lowest viewership of all NewNet stations (82,000) which is not surprising, since it was in the smallest NewNet market. News programming aired on CKNX was simulcast from CFPL in London, though CKNX viewers still received a separate 11 p.m. news feed (Monday - Friday) which originated from the CFPL studios.

As A-Channel Wingham

On August 2, 2005, CKNX was rebranded "

A-Channel A-Channel (proposed as The Alberta Channel) was a Canadian television system initially owned by Craig Media from September 1997 to 2004, then by CHUM Limited from 2004 to 2005 through A-Channel, Inc. It consisted of Craig's television stations i ...

", along with all of the other NewNet Stations. ''NewsNow at Noon'' was discontinued a month before the rebrand. On July 12, 2006, CTV owner CTVglobemedia announced plans to purchase A-Channel owner

for , with plans to divest itself of the A-Channel and Access Alberta stations. On April 9, 2007, it was announced that

Rogers Communications Rogers Communications Inc. is a Canadian communications and media company operating primarily in the fields of wireless communications, cable television, telephony and Internet, with significant additional telecommunications and mass media ass ...

filed with the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...

(CRTC) to purchase all of the A-Channel stations, including CKNX,

CKX-TV CKX-TV (channel 5) was a television station in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, which served as a private affiliate of CBC Television. Owned by CTVglobemedia, it was the first privately owned television station in Manitoba. It shared its call letters ...

, Access Alberta and several

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

channels being put up for sale in the wake of CTVglobemedia's pending acquisition of the CHUM group. On June 8, 2007, the CRTC announced its approval of CTVglobemedia's purchase of CHUM Limited, but added a condition that CTVglobemedia must sell off CHUM's

Citytv Citytv (sometimes shortened to City, which was the network's official branding from 2012 to 2018) is a Television in Canada, Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The network consis ...

stations to another buyer while keeping the A-Channel stations (including CKNX), in effect cancelling the planned sale of A-Channel to

Rogers Media Rogers Media Inc., operating as Rogers Sports & Media, is a Canadian subsidiary of Rogers Communications that owns the company's mass media and sports properties. Operations Current television brands owned by Rogers include two television sys ...

. All of the CHUM Limited channels (with the exception of Citytv) were taken over by CTVglobemedia on June 22, 2007. On July 26, 2007, CTVglobemedia named Richard Gray the head of news for the

stations and

who would report to the CTVglobemedia corporate group, not

CTV News CTV News is the news division of the CTV Television Network in Canada. The name ''CTV News'' is also applied as the title of local and regional newscasts on the network's owned-and-operated stations (O&Os), which are closely tied to the nationa ...

, to preserve independent news presentation and management. Gray would oversee the news departments for CKVR, CHRO, CFPL, CKNX, CHWI, CIVI and CKX-TV.

As A Wingham

On August 11, 2008, CKNX and all of the A-Channel stations were renamed "A". The A soft launch began in June 2008 in A-Channel's press releases and on the station's local newscasts known as ''

A News A News, or Netnews Version A, originally known simply as news, was the first widely distributed program for serving and reading Usenet newsgroups. The program, written at Duke University by Steve Daniel and Tom Truscott, was released on a tape gi ...

''. On February 25, 2009, CTV announced that, given the ongoing structural problems facing the conventional television sector in Canada and the current global economic crisis, it would not be applying to the

(CRTC) for renewal of the licences of CKNX-TV and its

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

CHWI-TV in Wheatley/ Windsor. CTV said that with the CRTC's decision to disallow

fee-for-carriage Fee-for-carriage, value-for-signal, negotiation for value, or the "TV tax" all refer to a proposed Canada, Canadian television regulatory policy which would require cable television, cable and direct broadcast satellite, satellite television comp ...

, CKNX-TV and CHWI-TV—the two smallest stations in the A system—were no longer viable. The stations' transmitters were to be shut down entirely instead of becoming rebroadcasters of London's A station, CFPL. CFPL was expected to be available on cable, and remain available on satellite, in the affected areas following the shutdown. CTV says it would continue news coverage of the

Southwestern Ontario Southwestern Ontario (census population 2,796,367 in 2021) is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula, bounded by Lake Huron (includ ...

region through CFPL and CTV network station CKCO. On April 30, 2009,

announced it would purchase CKNX, CHWI and CKX-TV in

Brandon, Manitoba Brandon () is the second-largest city in the province of Manitoba, Canada. It is located in the southwestern corner of the province on the banks of the Assiniboine River, approximately west of the provincial capital, Winnipeg, and east of the ...

for a dollar each from CTVglobemedia, pending CRTC approval.CTV Accepts Shaw Offer to Buy Local Stations
CTVglobemedia press release via TradeMarkets, April 30, 2009 However, it was reported on June 30, 2009 that Shaw had backed out of the deal and declined to complete the purchase, putting the stations' futures in serious doubt. On July 8, 2009, CTV said it would not reconsider its decision to end separate local programming on CKNX, but decided to maintain the Wingham transmitter as a rebroadcaster of CFPL, pending CRTC approval. The same day, CTV announced it would retain its sister station, CHWI in Windsor until at least 2010, based on temporary increases to the Local Programming Improvement Fund. In addition, the CRTC renewed the licences for CKNX, CHWI and CKX, even though CTV had not filed renewals for these stations. As a result, on August 31, CKNX signed off for the last time as a separate station, becoming a full-time repeater of CFPL. CKNX was the eighth and final television station in Canada of the 2000s to become a rebroadcaster since the CTV-owned CBC stations in

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

and

Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on p ...

became rebroadcasters of

CBKT CBKT-DT (channel 9) is a CBC Television station in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. It is part of a Duopoly (broadcasting)#Canada, twinstick with Ici Radio-Canada Télé station CBKFT-DT (channel 13). The two outlets share studios with sister statio ...

in Regina and

CBLT CBLT-DT (channel 5) is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the English-language service of CBC Television. It is part of a twinstick with Ici Radio-Canada Télé outlet CBLFT-DT (channel 25). The ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

in October

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

. In addition,

Canwest Canwest Global Communications Corporation, which operated under the corporate name Canwest, was a major Canadian media conglomerate based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with its head offices at Canwest Place (now called 201 Portage). It held radio, ...

-owned

CHCA-TV CHCA-TV was a television station in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. It was owned by Canwest, and was part of the E! television system. The station was seen on VHF channel 6 and cable channel 11 in Red Deer. The station was previously Red Deer's CBC a ...

, an E! station in

Red Deer, Alberta Red Deer is a city in Alberta, Canada, located midway on the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor. Red Deer serves central Alberta, and its key industries include health care, retail trade, construction, oil and gas, hospitality, manufacturing and educati ...

, closed down the same day without becoming a rebroadcaster. CTV-owned CKX-TV, a

affiliate in

followed, closing down operations on October 2 after Bluepoint Investment Corporation reneged on the sale of CKX. Both CKX and CKNX were on-air from

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Future of CKNX-TV as a repeater

On June 27, 2016, it was announced that

filed a proposal with the CRTC to shut down 40 of its television transmitters (all rebroadcasters of other stations), due to maintenance costs, high

and

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

viewership, and no generation of revenue; CKNX-TV is one of the transmitters to be closed down. This was part of Bell's regular periodic licence renewal process, which began on February 11, 2016. Bell Media explains the rationale for deleting these analog repeaters:

"We are electing to delete these analog transmitters from the main licence with which they are associated. These analog transmitters generate no incremental revenue, attract little to no viewership given the growth of BDU or DTH subscriptions and are costly to maintain, repair or replace. In addition, none of the highlighted transmitters offer any programming that differs from the main channels. The Commission has determined that broadcasters may elect to shut down transmitters but will lose certain regulatory privileges (distribution on the basic service, the ability to request simultaneous substitution) as noted in Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2015–24, Over-the-air transmission of television signals and local programming. We are fully aware of the loss of these regulatory privileges as a result of any transmitter shutdown."

Notable personalities

* Dave Curzon (host, ''Cartoon House'') * Crawford Douglas, elected Liberal Member of Parliament for

Bruce The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been ...

Grey Grey (more frequent in British English) or gray (more frequent in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning that it has no chroma. It is the color of a cloud-covered s ...

(1974–79) (Focus news/sports) * Bernie McNamee

References

External links

Canadian Communications Foundation - CKNX-TV HistoryYouTube - CFPL's tribute to CKNX-TV - August 31, 2009
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cknx-Tv KNX Television channels and stations established in 1955 KNX Television channels and stations disestablished in 2009 KNX 1955 establishments in Ontario 2009 disestablishments in Ontario KNX-TV