CHCA-TV
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CHCA-TV was a television station in
Red Deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or Hart (deer), hart, and a female is called a doe or hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Ir ...
,
Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...
, Canada. It was owned by
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, ...
, 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 CBC may refer to: Media * Cadena Baja California or Grupo Cadena, a radio and television broadcaster in Mexico * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's radio and television public broadcaster ** CBC Television ** CBC Radio One ** CBC Music ** ...
affiliate. CHCA had its studios on Bremner Avenue in Downtown Red Deer (where CHUB and CFDV are currently based) and transmitter off Range Road 265 in Red Deer County. Canwest announced in February 2009 that it was reviewing several options, including closure, for its E! stations due to financial pressures. The station closed on August 31, 2009."Canwest closing TV stations in Alberta, B.C."
cbc.ca, July 22, 2009.


History

The station began broadcasting on December 11, 1957 as CHCA-TV, the "CA" standing for Central Alberta. The station's founder was Fred Bartley. In September 1965, the call letters were changed to CKRD-TV, the RD standing for Red Deer. In the period between 1969 and 1976, CKRD was owned by Henry Flock and Gordon Spackman who also owned two radio stations with the same moniker in Red Deer (CKRD and CKRD-FM). Past employees of that era included Danny Teed, Ron MacLean, Martin Smith and Al Coates. In 1976, Monarch Broadcasting purchased the station, and in 1989, was purchased by
Allarcom WIC Western International Communications Ltd. (or WIC) was a Canadian media company that operated from 1982 to 2000, with operations including broadcast and specialty television, radio, and satellite distribution via a majority interest in Ca ...
(not to be confused with Allarco). Allarcom merged with WIC in 1991, before being purchased by Canwest in 2000. In the days as CKRD, the station was known on air as ''RDTV''. Its general slogan was "''The Heart of the West''", and its news slogan was "''Our focus is YOU''". CKRD broadcast a minimum of 40 hours of programming from the CBC, with the rest of the programming coming from WIC, and later Canwest's CH system. Some of those who wanted a full CBC schedule could view Edmonton's CBXT in the area, other areas lacked a real CBC station. From the mid-1980s onward, it was carried on cable in
Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...
and
Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...
. News bulletins were broadcast at 12 noon and 5 p.m., with a Saturday bulletin produced by
CITV CITV is a British children's morning programming block on ITV2 and formerly a free-to-air channel owned by ITV plc. CITV, then Children's ITV, launched on 3 January 1983 as a late afternoon programming block on the ITV network for children aged ...
Edmonton aired at either 11pm, or after ''
Hockey Night in Canada ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') is a long-running program of broadcast ice hockey play-by-play coverage in Canada. With roots in pioneering hockey coverage on private radio stations as early as 1923, ...
''. The weekend newscast was moved to Sundays near the end of its association with CBC. On September 5, 2005, the station disaffiliated from the CBC and became the fourth station in the CH television system. On that date, the station changed its call letters back to the original CHCA. Sportscaster Ron MacLean began his career at CKRD. Plans to build rebroadcasters in Edmonton and Calgary were initially denied in 2005 by 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). A new application to the same effect was approved on June 8, 2007. The Edmonton transmitter broadcast on Channel 17; the Calgary transmitter was on Channel 44. Rogers initially received approval in principle for the Calgary transmitter, but was required to submit a new application for an alternate channel number because of a conflict with
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 ...
' contemporaneous application for new
Omni Television Omni Television (stylized as OMNI Television) is a Canadian television system and group of specialty channels owned by Rogers Sports & Media, a subsidiary of Rogers Communications. It currently consists of all six of Canada's conventional multi ...
outlets in both cities. The station was not allowed to solicit local advertising in Calgary or Edmonton (although it could theoretically ''accept'' if specifically approached by advertisers in those markets). CHCA was relaunched on September 7, 2007 as E! Red Deer, as part of Canwest's rebranding of CH stations to E!. Local programming was renamed CHCA News as a result of the rebranding. On February 5, 2009, Canwest announced it would explore "strategic options", including possible sale, for CHCA and its other E! stations, saying "a second conventional TV network is no longer key to the long-term success" of the company."Canwest may sell TV stations"
cbc.ca, February 5, 2009.
On July 22, 2009, Canwest announced it would be closing CHCA as of August 31, 2009 at 5:00am MT, issuing layoff notices to staff. Its final entertainment program was a rerun of '' Wild On!'' at 12:30 a.m., followed by a four-hour block of informercials until 5:00 a.m., and then a "goodbye" slide that ran before a black screen that aired all day long until the transmitters were finally shut off. The station was the first major TV station in Canada to have gone dark since 1977, when
CFVO-TV CFVO-TV (channel 30) was a television station in Hull, Quebec, Canada (now Gatineau). It launched on September 1, 1974, under the ownership of the (Outaouais Television Cooperative, CTVO). The station aired mostly TVA (Canadian TV network), TVA ...
in
Hull, Quebec Hull is the central business district and oldest neighbourhood of the city of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the west bank of the Gatineau River and the north shore of the Ottawa River, directly opposite Ottawa. As part of Canada's ...
left the air (the channel would be reactivated five months later as Radio-Québec outlet CIVO-TV, on a new licence); all other defunct stations in Canada became repeaters of other stations almost seamlessly. Sportscaster Ron MacLean commented that the station's closure was "a sign of the times," but "it wouldn't surprise me somewhere down the road if it starts up again."
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 ...
, a CBC affiliate 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 ...
would follow, closing approximately one month later on October 2, 2009. The neighbouring CTV 2 Alberta stations CIAN-TV 13 Calgary and CJAL-TV 9 Edmonton were closed down on August 31, 2011 (going to cable-only status), followed two months later by CKXT-DT
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 ...
. The CHCA-TV licence was revoked on December 16,
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 ...
.


News

The station aired local newscasts at 5 and 5:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. Monday to Friday, and until September 2008 aired newscasts on the weekends. This change coincided with Global Edmonton remotely taking control of the station's production. The news set surrounding the on-air talent was digitally created, similar to a weather anchor's green screen set up. * CHCA News at 5:00, 5:30 and 11:00 ** Jennifer Ivanov ** Suzy Burge (Weather) ** Slav Kornik (Sports) * Reporters ** Tanara McLean ** Tino Makris ** Nicole Weisberg ** Courtney Ketchen


Former Transmitters


CBC era

The translator in
Coronation A coronation ceremony marks the formal investiture of a monarch with regal power using a crown. In addition to the crowning, this ceremony may include the presentation of other items of regalia, and other rituals such as the taking of special v ...
, formerly CKRD-TV-1 on channel 10, later moved to channel 13, broadcasting the Edmonton CBXT signal since the 2005 disaffiliation from CBC; this translator would go dark on July 31, 2012, due to financial measures imposed by the CBC. The station also had a translator on channel 10 in Banff, which has since gone dark.


CH/E! era


Alumni

* Dean Millard (at CFRN TSN Edmonton) * Heath Brown (at CTV Calgary) * Nancy Carlson (at Global Edmonton) * Barry Delay (at Global BC) * Mike Dennis * Reid Fiest (was at Global Calgary) * Dianne Finstad (at CKGY-FM Red Deer) * Todd Gallant (Digital Advertising, Founder, BizBOXTV) * Rob Gibson (at Shaw Calgary) * Erin Harrison (at Global Edmonton) * Barb Higgins * Carolyn Jarvis (16:9) * Tino Markis (at Global Maritimes) * Daniel Moore (at Citytv Calgary) * Tara Nelson (at CTV Calgary) * Leslie Horton (at Global Calgary) * Jennifer Ivanov (at Global Edmonton) * Slav Kornik (at Global Edmonton) * Michael Kuss (at Citytv Toronto) * Ron MacLean (
CBC Sports CBC Sports is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for English-language sports broadcasting. The CBC's sports programming primarily airs on CBC Television, CBCSports.ca, and CBC Radio One. (The CBC's French-languag ...
, ''
Hockey Night in Canada ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') is a long-running program of broadcast ice hockey play-by-play coverage in Canada. With roots in pioneering hockey coverage on private radio stations as early as 1923, ...
'') * Jill Morgan (at Global Regina) * Michelle Murphy (last at CTV Calgary. Left in 1994 after developing a brain tumor, died in 2005) * Kevin O'Connel (at Global Edmonton) * Andrew Schultz (at Citytv Calgary) * Kim Scoular (Freelance) * Lorne Starko (deceased) * Bindu Suri (at Global Calgary) * Ron Thornton (at Speedwaymedia.com) * Gill Tucker (at Global Calgary) * Nicole Weisberg (at Global Maritimes) * Brienne Glass (at Global Calgary) * Dean Molberg (at Fan 960 Calgary) * Robert Howes (eventually became Vice President, Operations and Engineering at WTN London) * Peter Wunstorf, ASC


Digital television and high definition

As of its closure on August 31, 2009, CHCA-DT never signed on the air. CHCA-DT was allocated channel 28 for Red Deer, while its Edmonton and Calgary repeaters converted to digital as a flash-cut. Following the station's closedown and licence revocation, the allocations for its analog and digital frequencies became open for future stations. Should a new television station open up in Red Deer in the future, it would not be required to operate as a digital station, as Red Deer is not a mandatory market for digital conversion, which took place in most other markets on August 31, 2011.


References


External links


CHCA-TV
at The History of Canadian Broadcasting by the Canadian Communications Foundation {{DEFAULTSORT:Chca-Tv HCA Television channels and stations established in 1957 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2009 HCA Mass media in Red Deer, Alberta 1957 establishments in Alberta 2009 disestablishments in Alberta Former Corus Entertainment networks HCA-TV