Mid-Canada Radio
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Mid-Canada Communications (Canada) Corp. was a Canadian media company, which operated from 1980 to 1990. The company, a subsidiary of
Northern Cable Northern Cable was a Canadian cable television provider, which operated from 1975 to 1998. The company, based in Sudbury, Ontario, served most of the Northeastern Ontario region. Although CUC Broadcasting was the largest single shareholder,"Strugg ...
, had television and radio holdings in
Northeastern Ontario Northeastern Ontario is a secondary region of Northern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario, which lies north of Lake Huron and east of Lake Superior. Northeastern Ontario consists of the districts of Algoma, Sudbury, Cochrane, Timisk ...
.


MCTV

Mid-Canada Television, or MCTV, was created in 1980 when Cambrian Broadcasting, which owned the CTV affiliates in
Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario ** Sudbury (federal electoral district) ** Sudbury (provincial electoral district) ** Sudbury Airport ** Sudbury Basin, a meteorite impact cra ...
, North Bay and
Timmins Timmins ( ) is a city in northeastern Ontario, Canada, located on the Mattagami River. The city is the fourth-largest city in the Northeastern Ontario region with a population of 41,145 at the 2021 Canadian census and an estimated population of ...
, merged with J. Conrad Lavigne'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 ** ...
affiliates in the same cities."CRTC approves amalgamation of Northern Ontario TV firms". ''
The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...
'', February 29, 1980.
This
twinstick A duopoly (or twinstick, referring to "stick" as jargon for a radio tower) is a situation in television and radio broadcasting in which two or more stations in the same city or community share common ownership. United States In the United States ...
structure was permitted 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) because both companies were on the brink of
bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...
due to their aggressive competition for limited advertising dollars in small markets. Notably, the companies' holdings included two parallel
microwave transmission Microwave transmission is the transmission of information by electromagnetic waves with wavelengths in the microwave frequency range of 300 MHz to 300 GHz (1 m - 1 mm wavelength) of the electromagnetic spectrum. Microwave signal ...
systems, both of which were among the largest such systems in the world at the time, and which were technically redundant since one system can in fact carry multiple channels. The deal represented the first time that the CRTC had ever approved direct ownership of a radio or television broadcast outlet by a cable distribution company, which is now commonplace in Canada but was explicitly forbidden by CRTC policy prior to the MCTV approval. In its decision, however, the CRTC explicitly stated that the merger was approved as a temporary arrangement, only until the CBC could afford to directly acquire MCTV's CBC affiliates. That "temporary" deal, however, would last 22 years; even after MCTV was acquired by and folded into
Baton Broadcasting Bell Media Inc. ( 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 national television ...
in 1990, Baton still retained ownership of the CBC affiliates until the early 2000s. Mid-Canada Communications did offer ownership of its newly-redundant second microwave network to the CBC as an interim step toward the establishment of a CBC Television production facility in the region; the CBC, however, expressed interest in keeping the negotiations open but declined to immediately purchase the system. In response to
concentration of media ownership In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: '' mass concentration'', '' molar concentration'', '' number concentration'', ...
concerns, the merged company divested itself of its predecessor companies' radio holdings CKSO and CIGM-FM in Sudbury,"Sudbury Radio History Highlights"
'' Sudbury Living'', July 23, 2013.
although it retained ownership of a couple of smaller-market radio stations and would later reacquire other radio stations in the region (see Mid-Canada Radio below.) The MCTV stations were: * North Bay - CKNY (CTV), CHNB (CBC) * Sudbury - CICI (CTV), CKNC (CBC) * Timmins - CITO (CTV), CFCL (CBC) All six stations were primarily referred to on air as MCTV rather than by their callsigns, and were distinguished from each other by use of their network affiliation (i.e. "MCTV-CTV" and "MCTV-CBC".) Less frequently, versions of its logo were sometimes seen which included both the call sign and the MCTV branding. Due to CTV's status at the time as a
cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...
of its affiliated stations, MCTV itself held a 2.1 per cent share in the network. As well, MCTV owned CHRO in Pembroke, a CBC affiliate in a market with no other television stations. CHRO used the same logo and programming schedule as MCTV's other stations, but it used its own callsign, rather than MCTV, as its on-air identification.


Mid-Canada Radio

In 1985, Mid-Canada Communications acquired six
radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...
s in Sudbury,
Elliot Lake Elliot Lake is a city in Algoma District, Ontario, Canada. It is north of Lake Huron, midway between the cities of Greater Sudbury, Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Sault Ste. Marie in the Northern Ontario region. Once dubbed the "uranium ca ...
, Blind River and Espanola, which were aligned with the company's existing radio holdings in Kapuskasing, Hearst, Timmins and Pembroke into the Mid-Canada Radio group. The system expanded in the latter half of the 1980s, with further acquisitions in
Sault Ste. Marie Sault Ste. Marie may refer to: People * Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, a Native American tribe in Michigan Places * Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada ** Sault Ste. Marie (federal electoral district), a Canadian federal electora ...
, Wawa, North Bay and another station in Kapuskasing bringing the group to 15 stations by 1990. * Blind River - CJNR *
Elliot Lake Elliot Lake is a city in Algoma District, Ontario, Canada. It is north of Lake Huron, midway between the cities of Greater Sudbury, Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Sault Ste. Marie in the Northern Ontario region. Once dubbed the "uranium ca ...
- CKNR * Espanola - CKNS * Hearst - CFLH *
Kapuskasing Kapuskasing ( ) is a town on the Kapuskasing River in the Cochrane District of Northern Ontario, Canada, approximately east of Hearst, Ontario, Hearst and northwest of Timmins, Ontario, Timmins. The town was known as MacPherson until 1917. ...
- CFLK, CKAP * North Bay -
CHUR '' Chur (locally) or ; ; ; ; ; ; or ; , and . is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, town of the Switzerland, Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of the Grisons and lies in the Alpine Rhine, Grisonian Rhine Valley, where ...
* Pembroke - CHRO *
Sault Ste. Marie Sault Ste. Marie may refer to: People * Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, a Native American tribe in Michigan Places * Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada ** Sault Ste. Marie (federal electoral district), a Canadian federal electora ...
- CKCY, CJQM *
Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario ** Sudbury (federal electoral district) ** Sudbury (provincial electoral district) ** Sudbury Airport ** Sudbury Basin, a meteorite impact cra ...
- CFBR, CHNO, CJMX *
Timmins Timmins ( ) is a city in northeastern Ontario, Canada, located on the Mattagami River. The city is the fourth-largest city in the Northeastern Ontario region with a population of 41,145 at the 2021 Canadian census and an estimated population of ...
- CFCL * Wawa - CJWA The stations shared some news and sales resources, but were programmed independently of each other except for two shared overnight programs: one for the
francophone The Francophonie or Francophone world is the whole body of people and organisations around the world who use the French language regularly for private or public purposes. The term was coined by Onésime Reclus in 1880 and became important a ...
stations (CFBR, CFLK, CFLH and CFCL), and one for the
anglophone The English-speaking world comprises the 88 countries and territories in which English is an official, administrative, or cultural language. In the early 2000s, between one and two billion people spoke English, making it the largest language ...
stations (all others).


Acquisition

On July 26, 1990, Northern Cable began divesting itself of its media properties.
Pelmorex Pelmorex Corp. is a Canadian weather information and media company. Based in Oakville, Ontario, it is the owner of the Canadian specialty channels The Weather Network (English) and MétéoMédia (French), and their associated digital properties. ...
purchased Mid-Canada Radio, and
Baton Broadcasting Bell Media Inc. ( 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 national television ...
acquired MCTV.Decision CRTC 90-1074
/ref> Baton also purchased
Sault Ste. Marie Sault Ste. Marie may refer to: People * Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, a Native American tribe in Michigan Places * Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada ** Sault Ste. Marie (federal electoral district), a Canadian federal electora ...
's
Huron Broadcasting Huron Broadcasting was a Canadian radio and television broadcasting company, active in Sault Ste. Marie from 1976 to 1990. The company first entered the broadcasting business in 1976, when it acquired the assets of the city's prior Hyland Broadca ...
in 1990, and converted CHBX and CJIC to the MCTV branding as well. Under Baton's ownership, the stations retained the MCTV branding, and became part of the
Baton Broadcast System The Baton Broadcast System ( ), also known as BBS, was a Canadian system of television stations located in Ontario and Saskatchewan, owned by Baton Broadcasting. BBS was the successor to two provincial systems also owned by Baton, the Saskatchewa ...
. The CBC stations were eventually sold outright to CBC in 2002, while the CTV stations dropped their longtime ''MCTV'' branding and were rebranded as ''
CTV Northern Ontario CTV Northern Ontario, formerly known as MCTV, is a system of four television stations in Northern Ontario, Canada, owned and operated by the CTV Television Network, a division of Bell Media. These stations are: * CICI-TV - Greater Sudbury (fl ...
'' with its newscasts rebranding from ''MCTV News'' to ''CTV News'' in October 2005.


Former MCTV logos

Former Mid-Canada Television logos that were used in the 1980s and carried on with the MCTV branding until 2005. Image:Mid-Canada_Communications_(Canada)_Corp.jpg, The original logo for Mid-Canada Communications Corp. circa. 1980 until 1984 Image:MCTV 1980s logo Sudbury.jpg, MCTV logo used from 1984-1994. Mid-Canada created the stylish red maple leaf shaped logo with the blue capitalized MCTV letters beneath the logo in 1984. Image:Mctvbbs.svg, MCTV's BBS logo, used from 1994-1997. Under the ownership of Baton Broadcasting, the MCTV branding still remained. The previous MCTV logo was dropped in 1994 when all of the other Baton-owned stations adopted a similar logo, the only difference being the call letters. Unlike other Baton-owned stations, the MCTV stations didn't use their call signs on their logos. The logo featured multicoloured rings around the word BBS. Image:Mctv.svg, MCTV logo under CTV ownership from late 1990s to 2005.


Notes

Mid-Canada's final license renewal for its television stations in northern Ontario was from September 1, 1989 to August 31, 1994. On January 3, 1990, the CRTC approved a corporate reorganization of a group of radio stations in northern Ontario, among them CHNO, CFBR and CJMX-FM into a new company under the name “Ottawa Valley Broadcasting Company Limited.” The other stations being CKNS Espanola, CKNR Elliot Lake, CFCL Timmins, CFLH Hearst, CFLK Kapuskasing, CJNR Blind River and CKAP Kapuskasing, and by CKCY 920 Limited (CKCY and CJQM-FM Sault Ste. Marie and CJWA Wawa).Decision CRTC 90-6
/ref>


References

{{Bell Media Defunct radio broadcasting companies of Canada Defunct broadcasting companies of Canada Mass media companies established in 1980 Mass media companies disestablished in 1990 Companies based in Greater Sudbury Defunct companies of Ontario 1980 establishments in Ontario 1990 disestablishments in Ontario