CHCH-TV

CHCH-DT (channel 11) is an independent television station in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Channel Zero, the station maintains studios on Innovation Drive in the west end of Hamilton; prior to 2021, it was located near the corner of Jackson and Caroline streets in downtown Hamilton for nearly 65 years. The station has additional offices at the Marriott on the Falls in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Its transmitter is located on First Road West in the former city of Stoney Creek.

CHCH signed on the air on June 7, 1954, as a CBC affiliate, founded by Ken Soble. Beginning in 1961, it became an independent station which transformed into an national superstation on January 1, 1982, and remained as such throughout its existence. In 1990, the station was acquired by Western International Communications.

After several years as an independent station, CHCH was acquired by Canwest in 2000 and became the flagship station for the CH programming service as sister to the flagship CIII-TV of the Global Television Network. In 2007, the CH stations were rebranded to E! after an American cable network of the same name. Following financial problems by its parent company Canwest, CHCH along with Montreal's CJNT-TV was acquired by independent broadcaster Channel Zero in 2009 and changed its format to an all-news and all-movies station. In 2010, the station once again began to air U.S. prime time programming.

History

CBC affiliation (1954–1961)

The station signed on the air on June 7, 1954, operating as an affiliate of CBC Television. Its studios at 163 Jackson Street West were previously used by CJSH-FM (102.9, now CKLH-FM). After CJSH's shutdown, its studios were converted for CHCH. It is the oldest privately owned television station in the Hamilton–Toronto area. At the time, all privately owned television stations in Canada were required to be CBC affiliates. CHCH-TV was founded by Ken Soble, a leader of Hamilton's urban renewal movement, and owner of radio station CHML (900 AM).

Independent station (1961–1982)

In 1961, CHCH disaffiliated itself from the CBC and became an independent station. There were three reasons for disaffiliating from CBC: Hamilton is part of the Toronto market, and Toronto-based CBLT already provided full network service to some of CHCH's viewing area; CBLT was about to increase its transmitter power and change frequencies (from VHF channel 9 to channel 6, and eventually channel 5), resulting in a near-100 percent overlap with CHCH; and the station's managers wanted to produce more local programming, instead of being forced to carry CBC programming.

CHCH became the first (and for over a decade, the only) television station in Canada not to be affiliated with any network, as the other private stations (which signed on the air in 1960 or early 1961) that were not affiliated with the CBC had formed the CTV network in October 1961.

Possible flagship of a third network (1966–1981)

In the mid-1960s, CHCH was the lead station in United Program Purchase, a consortium of Canadian television stations which began purchasing some programming rights separately from the CTV and CBC networks."Backbone of third TV network takes shape in CHCH schedule". '' The Globe and Mail'', March 31, 1966.

By 1966, UPP was attracting media coverage as the potential foundation for a third Canadian television network. In the fall of that year, Soble's Niagara Television, the licensee of CHCH, put forward a proposal for a network to be branded as NTV."Soble's pitch". '' The Globe and Mail'', October 27, 1996. In the original plan, CHCH would have served as the network's flagship station for the Greater Toronto Area. However, the application faced numerous regulatory hurdles and delays, and its main financial backer, Power Corporation of Canada, backed out in 1969. By 1970, however, the network application was revived by former CHCH executive Al Bruner's new Global Communications corporation, with Niagara Television and CHCH no longer involved in the bid; the Global Television Network network launched in 1974 on the new CKGN-TV.

Despite the station's lack of success in developing a full-fledged network, it did become one of Canada's most prominent syndicators of non-network programming in the 1970s and 1980s, with many of its locally produced entertainment programs airing on television stations across Canada and sometimes internationally.

Superstation CHCH (1982–1997)

CHCH became a national superstation on January 1, 1982, when Cancom (now Shaw Broadcast Services) began carrying the station and three others ( CHAN-TV Vancouver, CITV-TV Edmonton, and TCTV, essentially a rebroadcaster of CFTM-TV Montreal) to cable television providers in remote regions of the country that otherwise only had access to the CBC.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the station began a branding effort centred around the slogan "Together, we're the ones!" (with different promotional variants referring to either Hamilton or Ontario as a whole, reflecting the station's cable coverage across the province) and a blue-coloured, 3D variant of the longtime "circles" logo; promos used a vocal tune from Frank Gari, part of the ''Pride Inside'' music package also used by the station's newscasts and movie presentations (originally commissioned by another channel 11, WBAL-TV in Baltimore).

ONtv era (1997–2001)

In 1990, Western International Communications (WIC) purchased CHCH. Although the station had been available on cable television in many Ontario markets for years, its broadcast signal coverage was expanded throughout Ontario in 1997 with the launch of several rebroadcasters, in an effort to compete with the reach of Global's Ontario station CIII (channel 6), and with the Baton Broadcast System, a group of mostly CTV-affiliated stations that served most of the province. In turn, WIC rebranded the station as "ONtv" ("Ontario Television"), in line with the branding conventions of many of the company's other stations, such as CHAN-TV in Vancouver (which was branded as "BCTV"), CITV-TV in Edmonton (which was branded as "ITV"), and CHCA-TV in Red Deer, Alberta (which was branded as "RDTV").

Local news programming shifted focus from the station's core market, the Hamilton area, toward Ontario as a whole, in an attempt to challenge what was then a regional news service provided by Global. However, with Hamilton now being largely an afterthought, and other local stations (in Toronto and elsewhere) already strong in the ratings, the shift was unsuccessful, and CHCH's ratings decreased. During the ONtv years, the station also aired WIC's nightly '' Canada Tonight'' newscast.

Canwest ownership (2001–2007)

In 2000, Canwest purchased WIC's television assets. Since Global had already served the Hamilton area through flagship station CIII-TV's transmitter in Paris, Ontario, Canwest rebranded the station "CH" (or "CH Hamilton") on February 12, 2001, and launched the CH television system in September of that year. This move launched a secondary television system for Canwest's stations in medium-sized cities located near larger markets. Local news coverage was revamped and refocused on the Hamilton/ Halton/Niagara region.

Despite the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's (CRTC) television station ownership restrictions (one station per owner, per language in each market), Canwest was permitted to maintain CHCH's coverage of other markets throughout most of Ontario. However, it could not broadcast to Thunder Bay, Peterborough or Kingston because of opposition from local television stations. Some cable providers outside of Ontario also continue to carry CHCH as a form of "superstation". Its over-the-air signal also easily covers Buffalo, New York and Erie, Pennsylvania across the Canada–United States border.

On June 7, 2004, at 8:00 p.m., CHCH-TV celebrated exactly 50 years on the air. At this time, the station aired a documentary profiling the station's history, entitled ''The First 50 Years: A Half Century of CH'', which was hosted by Matt Hayes. It was announced that the CH brand would change starting in 2007; however, it remained in use until September 7, 2007, when Canwest rebranded CHCH's local programming from CH Hamilton to ''CHCH News'' following the relaunch of the national CH service as E! under a brand licensing agreement with the E! cable channel in the United States. CHCH's non-news schedule was rebranded on the same day as "E! Ontario".

Channel Zero ownership (2009–present)

On February 5, 2009, Canwest announced it would explore "strategic options", including the possible sale or closure, of CHCH and the company's other stations in the E! system, saying "a second conventional TV network is no longer key to the long-term success" of the company. A grassroots group, fronted by ''Live @ 5:30'' co-host Donna Skelly, surfaced with an intent to purchase CHCH from Canwest and return the station to its former local focus.

In March 2009, paperwork filed with the CRTC for a one-year renewal of CHCH's licence revealed that the station was projected to lose nearly $30 million during the station's 2010 fiscal year which began on September 1, 2009 – with projected revenues of just $41 million against costs of $69 million. John Douglas, a spokesperson for Canwest, said that CHCH, and its other stations in the E! group, were money losers during the last decade, coupled with the Canadian broadcasters' dependency on American programming for profits.

On June 30, 2009, Channel Zero announced that it would purchase CHCH and CJNT-TV in Montreal from Canwest in exchange for $12 in cash and the assumption of various station liabilities. The CRTC approved the sale on August 28, 2009. Channel Zero took control of the station's programming at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time on the morning of August 31, beginning its tenure with a film from the 1980s. CHCH disaffiliated itself from E! (which shut down at the end of that day), and adopted a new programming format consisting of local newscasts throughout the day on weekdays and movies at night (as well as all day on weekends, outside of limited newscasts, infomercials and other select programs during the morning and evening hours), and reverted to branding itself as "CHCH". The first film broadcast in prime time that night was ''Rocky'', signifying the new ownership's come-from-behind spirit. CHCH would add, in sparse amounts, additional programming during the 2009–10 season, including ''Let's Get It On'', a mixed martial arts program; Ed the Sock's '' This Movie Sucks!'', a movie show featuring the former MuchMusic character alongside co-host Liana Kerzner and comedian Ron Sparks; and infomercials.

In September 2010, CHCH, for the first time since its purchase by Channel Zero, began airing American network television series; many of the programs that were added, including ''Smallville'', ''Supernatural'', ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', ''48 Hours Mystery'', '' 20/20'', '' Chuck'', and ''60 Minutes'' had been seen in the Toronto-Hamilton market on CKXT-TV (channel 52; that station's owner, Quebecor, was in the process of replacing it with the all-news cable channel Sun News Network). CHCH also debuted additional original local programs ''Sportsline'' (hosted by Mark Hebscher and Clint "Bubba" O'Neil), and launched a second series with Ed the Sock, the entertainment newsmagazine spoof '' I Hate Hollywood''. Coinciding with the schedule changes was the introduction of an updated version of CHCH's classic multi-coloured logo used from the 1960s to the 1980s.

On April 10, 2011 Green Party leader Elizabeth May participated in a panel interview on CHCH, which she was invited to attend, as were the leaders of the Bloc Québécois, Liberals, New Democratic Party and Conservatives, by Channel Zero, whose president was disappointed by May's exclusion from the 2011 election leaders' debates.

On April 18, 2011, CKXT-TV converted from an independent station to a simulcast of the Sun News Network, leaving CHCH as the only independent station in the Toronto/Hamilton area (the station ceased operations approximately seven months later on November 1, 2011). On June 8, 2011, at Channel Zero's upfront presentation for advertisers for the 2011–12 television season, the company announced a programming distribution deal with 20th Century Fox, giving CHCH and CJNT access to show first-run exclusive broadcast movie premieres, most notably ''Avatar'', which first aired in May 2012 on both stations, featuring the director's cut version of the film not shown in theatres. Other debut titles included '' Crazy Heart'', '' Taken'' and '' X-Men Origins: Wolverine''.

During a broadcast of ''News Now AM'' on April 20, 2012, Cogeco's and Shaw Cable's transmissions of CHCH's signal were interrupted for approximately three minutes by the broadcast of a scene from a hardcore gay pornography film from an unidentified adult-oriented specialty channel. The substitution appeared to have been made by a cable operator during repairs of severed cable lines, and not at CHCH, leaving the station's over-the-air viewers and subscribers of other cable and satellite providers unaffected. Channel Zero denied that the program in question came from any of its adult-oriented Category B specialty channels ( Maleflixxx Television, XXX TV and AOV TV). The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission later announced it would be investigating the incident as a cable transmission issue.

In September 2012, CHCH acquired the rights to '' Wheel of Fortune'' and ''Jeopardy!'' from CBC Television, after the network's exclusive contract to carry both game shows expired. The shows were dropped for the fall 2014 season and ''The Simpsons'' began airing on Friday nights. In June 2014, CHCH celebrated its 60th anniversary of broadcasting.

2015 news department bankruptcy and aftermath (2015–present)

On December 11, 2015, CHCH cancelled that evening's 6:00 p.m. newscast amid fears the station was facing a shutdown. Though the station remained on the air, CHCH's daytime rolling news format was discontinued at 4:00 p.m., with Channel Zero CEO Romen Podzyhun appearing on the air to announce that the station's local newscasts would remain off the air through the weekend, and would return on December 14. In addition, Channel Zero announced that Channel 11, L.P., the subsidiary that had produced CHCH's newscasts since 2009, had filed for bankruptcy. Podzyhun blamed this on a loss of federal subsidy and an inability to draw national advertising revenue to a locally oriented station, but stated that the station itself was not shutting down. CHCH's news output would be scaled back to what it determined to be its "core news programs", only producing 17.5 hours of newscasts a week (a morning show and 6:00 and 11:00 newscasts, with no weekend news), after having produced 80 weekly hours of news before the cutbacks; the local news is mainly being maintained to meet the station's licence requirements. A few programs from Bloomberg Television such as ''Studio 1.0, Good Fortunes'' and ''The Daily Brief'' were added to the station's schedule the following week. Coincidentally, CHCH's former program ''The Morning Market'' used resources from Bloomberg twenty years before CHCH shared common ownership with Bloomberg TV Canada. The news graphics that had been used for morning and daytime news programming were kept intact for Morning Live and daytime programming produced by Channel Zero and Bloomberg TV Canada such as ''The Pinkertons'' and ''The Daily Brief.''

In 2015, CHCH-DT teamed up with fellow independent CJON-DT and the three Yes TV stations (including nearby station CITS-DT) to share and syndicate YesTV's secular programming in arrangement referred to in advertising sales information as the Net5 alliance (referring to the three O&Os and two affiliates). Since Fall 2016, CHCH has replaced many airings of these programs with newly acquired daytime shows on weekdays, and movies on the weekends. Net5 was rebranded as indieNET following the addition of two other independent stations.

In the spring of 2016, Channel Zero put the studios of CHCH-DT (from which the station has continuously operated, starting in 1954) on the market. The studios include the historic stone mansion "Pinehurst" (built in 1850 by local politician Tristram Bickle and owned by William Southam from 1892 until his death in 1932), as well as the large silver addition dubbed "Spaceship 11" for its futuristic appearance (built in 1983), for . The sale was to a private investor group named Television City, who would rent out half of "Spaceship 11" to CHCH-DT for two and a half years, while looking for other tenants (Pinehurst is protected by the ''Ontario Heritage Act'' and will not be altered). It was expected for the sale to close by the middle of November 2016.

In October 2018, CHCH announced a new location for its studios, leaving its long-time location on Jackson Street West in downtown Hamilton, and moving to 4 Innovation Drive in Dundas. The property was renovated for a news operation, which the station had originally intended to have up and running by the spring of 2021. While the station left the Jackson Street studio in June 2021, delays in renovations to 4 Innovation Drive forced it to move to a temporary studio across the street. On April 11, 2022, CHCH had begun broadcasting from its 4 Innovation Drive studios.

Programming

As an independent station, CHCH produced local programs such as the children's talent show ''Tiny Talent Time

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