CKND

CKND-DT (channel 9) is a television station in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, part of the Global Television Network. The station is owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, with studios on the 30th floor of 201 Portage in downtown Winnipeg, and transmitter atop the building.

History

Acquisition and licensing

CKND's predecessor, KCND-TV, began broadcasting from Pembina, North Dakota, in November 1960. Although a U.S. station, it depended almost entirely on advertising from the media market of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In February 1973, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced that it had received two applications for new television stations in Winnipeg. One had been submitted by Western Manitoba Broadcasters Ltd., the parent company of CKX-TV in Brandon, Manitoba. The other application had been received from Continental Communications Ltd. of Vancouver, British Columbia, represented by Ray Peters, the president of Vancouver CTV affiliate CHAN-TV.

The CRTC solicited competing applications for the new Winnipeg television licence, and Peter Liba, who was then the executive assistant to Manitoba Liberal Party leader Izzy Asper, suggested that they make a bid. Wanting to save money on buying the needed equipment, Asper negotiated with Gordon McLendon to acquire the assets of KCND, convincing him that a new Winnipeg station would cut into KCND's revenues and that Winnipeg advertisers would likely lose tax deductions for American advertising costs.

McLendon sold the station's facilities and equipment to CanWest Broadcasting, established by Asper and partners Paul Morton and Seymour Epstein, for $780,000, contingent on CanWest securing a broadcasting licence. At the CRTC's public hearings in Winnipeg in May 1974, CanWest noted that the acquisition of KCND would give their new Winnipeg station a $2 million advertising base and would save $1.5 million in capital and start-up costs compared to the alternative of launching a completely new station.

At the same hearing, competing applications were presented by Western Manitoba Broadcasters Ltd. and by Communications Winnipeg Co-Op, which proposed a member-supported non-commercial station. (Continental Communications had withdrawn its application prior to the hearings.) John Boler, the owner of Valley City–Fargo, North Dakota, CBS affiliate KXJB-TV and future owner of KVRR/KNRR, also used the occasion to announce his intention to launch a new Pembina-based station on channel 12.

In September 1974, the CRTC awarded the Winnipeg channel 9 licence to CanWest, which formally took possession and assumed day-to-day management of KCND-TV on March 31, 1975 (due to foreign ownership restrictions, the McLendon Corporation remained the official licensee of KCND until it surrendered the station's broadcasting licence to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission CClater that year). The same month, CanWest confirmed that the new station would operate from a former supermarket at 603 St. Mary's Road in Winnipeg and use an antenna mounted on the CBWT tower in Starbuck, Manitoba, to avoid having to dismantle KCND's tower during the transition. KCND-TV general manager G. O. Johnson was appointed executive vice-president and general manager of CanWest Broadcasting. In May 1975, CanWest announced that KCND's 17 Winnipeg-based employees had all accepted offers of employment at the new station, but that there was little interest among the station's 22 Pembina-based employees.

Broadcasting

During Labour Day weekend, on August 31, 1975, CKND signed on channel 9 (broadcast) and channel 12 (cable), both shown prominently in the station's logo. Both CKND and KCND simulcast the ''Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon'' until 5:30 p.m. on September 1, 1975, after which KCND permanently left the air.

The former KCND tower was later moved to Asper's birthplace of Minnedosa, Manitoba, a small town north of Brandon, to serve western Manitoba. Together, the two transmitters reach 91% of Manitoba's population. Its first regularly scheduled program following the MDA telethon was ''The Hollywood Squares''.

In 1981, KCND became the call letters for KCND-FM, the first Prairie Public Radio station in Bismarck, North Dakota. The same year, the U.S. FCC issued a construction permit for a new station to serve Pembina, North Dakota on channel 12. The station's launch, however, would remain delayed until 1986.

During a June 1981 hearing to extend CKND-TV's signal into the Westman area and to hear the application by Western Manitoba Broadcasters Ltd. (Craig) for a new television station at Portage la Prairie, CanWest said that the Westman transmitter on a VHF channel would reach up to 175,000 more viewers than with the CKND-TV Winnipeg signal. The signal would stretch from the U.S. border to Dauphin, and from Central Manitoba to Saskatchewan.

At an April 1982 CRTC hearing regarding licensing a new television station for southern Manitoba, CanWest stated that while they were given VHF channel 2 to operate the CKND-TV-2 rebroadcaster, they could have used VHF channel 13 instead. CanWest also stated that it would require a population of over 100,000 to serve the Interlake area with two or three UHF transmitters, rather than the 30,000 that existed at the time.

On-air signal testing on channel 2 with colour bars, test slides and test programming began in early August. CKND-TV-2 began broadcasting at 6 p.m. on September 1, 1982. Cable TV viewers in Dauphin were unable to watch the launch of CKND-TV-2 channel 2 because the cable company, Westman Media Co-op, did not have an antenna ready to receive the new signal.

In the mid-1980s, the station supported the development of a Manitoba film industry by funding television films, most notably ''The Prodigal'' and ''Tramp at the Door''. Faced with the dilemma that the films would typically need to be sold to the national CBC or CTV networks to attain profitability, but the station would have to accept a reduced price if the films had already aired in prime time in a major Canadian television market, station manager Stan Thomas would air the films on CKND in an obscure overnight timeslot so that they would be eligible for ACTRA Award

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