CBET
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| CBET | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Windsor, Ontario | |
| Branding | CBC Television |
| Slogan | Canada's Own |
| Channels | 9 (VHF) analog, 35 (UHF) digital |
| Affiliations | CBC |
| Owner | Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |
| Founded | September 16, 1954 |
| Call letters meaning | Canadian Broadcasting Corporation English Television or Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Essex County Television |
| Former callsigns | CKLW-TV (1954-1975) |
| Former affiliations | DuMont (secondary; 1954-1956), CTV (secondary; 1970s to early-1980s) |
| Transmitter Power | 325kw (analog) |
| Website | CBC Windsor |
CBET is the television call sign for the CBC's O&O television station in Windsor, Ontario.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] CKLW-TV: The RKO days
[edit] Early Years
It originally signed on the air September 16, 1954 at 2:50 p.m. as CKLW-TV, owned by RKO General along with CKLW radio. They were RKO General's only Canadian stations, and probably the only stations in Canada to be owned by an American company. The station was a secondary affiliate of the DuMont Television Network until 1956.
RKO of course, at the time also owned a few other television and radio stations as well. Those stations being: WOR-TV (now WWOR-TV) and WOR-AM and WOR-FM (now WRKS-FM) in New York City; WHBQ-TV-AM-FM in Memphis, Tennessee; KFRC-AM-FM in San Francisco, California; KHJ-TV (now KCAL-TV) and KHJ-AM-FM (now KRTH-AM-FM) in Los Angeles, California; and WNAC-TV, later WNEV-TV (now WHDH-TV) and WRKO-AM and WROR-FM in Boston, Massachusetts.
[edit] Programming
Under RKO's ownership, CKLW-TV was a CBC affiliate in name only. Most of its schedule consisted of the standard fare of independent stations in the United States, with a minimum of CBC programming part of the schedule. Much like its radio counterparts, the station looked more American than Canadian. At that time CBC still aired a number of US originated shows that would be broadcast by the Detroit stations, and CKLW-TV did not air that portion of the CBC schedule. There was some local programming and personalities during this era, including Toby David as Captain Jolly, Art Cervi as Bozo the Clown (who would later move to WJBK after CKLW-TV changed its name and ownership in 1975; "Bozo" was originally played by a different person at WWJ), Bob McNea, who became Oopsy! the Clown after WWJ-TV lost the Bozo rights, and Bill Kennedy hosting Bill Kennedy at the Movies (which would soon relocate to WKBD).
Another popular show on CKLW-TV during the 1960s was Swingin' Time, a local teenage dance-party show similar to American Bandstand, hosted by local WKNR-AM (Keener 13) personality Robin Seymour (and also, for a time, CKLW-AM's Tom Shannon). The show featured recording acts, both nationally and locally popular, lip-synching to their latest releases while teenagers showcased the latest dances on the show's huge dance floor.
Due to the show's connection to Detroit's popular rock-and-roll AM radio stations, Swingin' Time was used by many artists, especially local acts such as Diana Ross and the Supremes, Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, the MC5, and Mitch Ryder, to reach a substantially larger teen audience than they could have achieved through solely working the record hop circuit.
[edit] Divesture
The Canadian government in 1968 decided that 80% ownership of all radio and television stations in Canada had to be Canadian. Then owner RKO General sold 75% of CKLW TV to John Bassett and CTV and the other 25% went to CBC (through its St. Clair Broadcasting subsidiary), CKLW Radio moved to Ouellette Avenue. CBC became full owners of CKLW TV in 1975 and changed calls to CBET while CKLW Radio was sold to John Bassett.
[edit] The Baton/CBC period
When CBC/Baton took over in 1970, more Canadian content was added, including programs from CTV, such as Here Comes the '70s, The Pig and Whistle and The Starlost. The CTV programming was mainly seen in place of CBC's American programming as a result of border protection rules prohibiting the broadcast of American programs carried on the CBC network. After its sale to CBC, CBET also produced a significant amount of local programming that ranged from music and variety to daytime talk, sports, agriculture, current affairs and documentaries. CKLW-TV was the first CBC station (and maybe the only station) to produce a 90 minute local, national and international newscast over the supper hour. At its peak, about 200 people worked for the full TV operation, including employees of its French-language Radio-Canada sister, CBEFT, after that station opened in 1976.
[edit] CBET
[edit] The 1970's
When CKLW-TV became CBET in 1975 after the CBC purchased the station from Baton, it still featured the same formula of CBC and CTV programs, plus British and American television shows (mostly reruns and movies) with Detroit rights. CTV content on CBET would remain at some capacity through the 1980s (despite the fact that Kitchener CTV affiliate CKCO-TV signed on a repeater transmitter in Sarnia in 1975 on Channel 42, with a signal that reached Windsor at least marginally).
The station also sometimes purchased rights to sports programming, such as Toronto Maple Leafs games, from CHCH in Hamilton as well, among other sports events CBET broadcast in the early 80's. CBET was known as CBET 9 when it first adopted the new call letters, and later "TV 9 Windsor".
[edit] Budget cuts
The good times of CBET were sadly about to fade to black, in 1985 a large budget cut decimated all locally produced programs except for news.
The 90 minute supper hour news program Newsday remained as well as late and weekend news programs, but the music, variety, daytime talk and the popular Reach for the Top were all gone. In 1990, CBC closed down the entire Windsor news operation. The Windsor community was up in arms. A large rally of about 5,000 plus citizens marched down Riverside Drive West to the station in protest.
A "Save Our Station" committee was begun and politicians on every level lobbied both CBC and the Canadian government to preserve the Windsor operation. Only 3 reporters were left and they produced stories for CBLT Toronto's Newscast which was broadcast at the supper hour. First came 5:30 Live, which was followed by CBC Evening News with Bill Cameron (which earlier was known as CBC at 6 on CBLT).
[edit] The Windsor experiment
With an editorial and tech staff of about 32, CBC reinstated local news in pilot project form. New operating methods and new technologies were introduced. This meant videojournalists (cross-skilling) multi-skilling, and the use of non-linear editing technology (AVID newscutters and air-play for news item playback.)
The Windsor Council was also formed. This group made up of managers and union reps oversaw the progress of the "experiment" and dealt with issues that arose on an almost weekly basis. The new methods of the operation paved way for some of the new language in the collective agreements reached in 1996-97.
Windsor was not only in the spotlight in the CBC, but was also of interest to many other broadcasters and union leaders across the country. Two local half hour news programs were produced when CBET presented the Windsor Evening News, anchored by Carole MacNeil, at 5:30 p.m. and the Windsor Late News at 11 p.m..
Programming on CBET was almost bereft of any American content, as they either used older CBC programming or shows from other Commonwealth nations (Britain in particular) as replacement programs for shows like All My Children, The Wonderful World of Disney and weekday reruns of The Simpsons and Frasier on the regular CBC schedule.
Since then, the CBC has stepped up their Canadian content, but the few American shows on CBC (like The Simpsons and some movies) are still replaced on CBET with Canadian programming from the CBC and other sources (such as Britcoms, the popular British TV drama Coronation Street (a nationally-networked CBC program) and the Australian drama, Neighbours (first exclusive to CBET, later networked)) due to its close proximity to Detroit.
[edit] CBC News: Canada Now and CBC News at 6
On October 2, 2000, local news on CBET and other CBC owned and operated stations would be cut back to a half-hour a weeknight, and late news would be cancelled. With the introduction of Canada Now (which began at CBET before it went national), CBC's new hybrid hour-long dinnertime newscast at 6PM began. National news originated from Vancouver and anchored by Ian Hanomansing, with the Windsor segment anchored at CBET by Blake Roberts.
Carole MacNeil would move to Toronto to anchor the Toronto segment there; currently, she co-anchors (with Evan Solomon) the CBC network's Sunday morning news program, CBC News: Sunday, and its nighttime complement, CBC News: Sunday Night (formerly Sunday Report).
As a result of the dinnertime news change, CBC's local news operations faced some layoffs -- especially CBET, where its news staff was reduced from 29 to 19 people. Prior to the 2006 retransformation, Canada Now was last locally anchored by Susan Pedler with Tony Doucette from a state of the art news studio inside the CBET newsroom.
On January 9, 2006, under the CBC's local programming expansion initiative, CBET's newscasts were renamed CBC News at Six, with the national half hour remaining as Canada Now. Most CBC owned and operated stations are also offering expanded local newscasts under the CBC News at Six name.
On November 30, 2006, CBC announced plans to scrap Canada Now in February 2007, in favor of a full-hour local suppertime newscast on its stations. While CBC Prince Edward Island decided to name their new supper hour newscast Compass and CBC Vancouver kept Canada Now, CBET stayed with the CBC News at Six name rather than returning to its original Newsday name.
[edit] Sports
The CBC's sports programming, including Hockey Night in Canada and coverage of the Olympic Games, has historically been quite popular in the Detroit area, sometimes even more popular than American network coverage of the same events. Thus, CBET is treated as a Detroit station for the purpose of territorial exclusivity rights.
When the CBC held rights to Toronto Blue Jays telecasts (before Rogers Sportsnet's 2004 takeover), CBET was often forced to run alternate programming (usually movies or specials) when the games overlapped with Detroit Tigers games available on other local outlets. Conversely, CBC NHL coverage is not subject to local blackout, but CBET will generally air any Detroit Red Wings game the CBC makes available in preference over the default national broadcast. For example, CBET aired all of the 2006 Western Conference Quarterfinal games between the Edmonton Oilers and the Red Wings, although some games were only initially designated to air in the Northern and Central Alberta (CBXT/Edmonton) region.
[edit] Digital
CBET has been allocated channel 35 for DTV use -- its digital signal is not yet on the air, and no date has been announced. However, its digital channel will be adjacent to low-power analog CFTV channel 34 in nearby Leamington -- if that channel interferes with CBET's digital signal, CFTV would be required to move to another suitable channel.
[edit] Past nicknames
- [1]
- CBET 9 (1978)
- TV9 Windsor (1985)
- CBC Television Windsor 9 (1986-1993)
- CBC Windsor 9 (1993-2000)
[edit] Where to watch CBET
In the Detroit/Windsor metro area, CBET can be seen on:
- Comcast Detroit channel 99
- Bright House Livonia channel 9
- Charter Monroe channel 9
- Cogeco Windsor channel 10
- Wide Open West Plymouth channel 9
Here's where CBET can be seen in other parts of Michigan and Ohio:
- Comcast Lansing channel 9
- Comcast Brooklyn channel 9
- Comcast Flint channel 99
- Buckeye Cablesystem Toledo channel 59
- Time Warner Cable Bowling Green channel 9
- Time Warner Cable Findlay channel 19
In the Tri-Cities (Bay City, Saginaw, Midland), the Charter system there shows Montreal's CBMT, instead.
This is also the only CBC-owned station not to have any repeaters -- channel 9 in Windsor is the only station in the CBC Southern Ontario family. Transmitters in nearby Chatham and Sarnia are part of CBLT's repeater network.
[edit] Miscellanea
CBET can also seen in Cleveland and Toledo in Ohio with a really strong and reliable rooftop and/or indoor antenna. The station was also listed in some TV Guide editions in Northern Ohio. Proof
This is also the only station in Canada to have been founded and operated completely by an American company (RKO General).
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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CKPR 2 (Thunder Bay) - CBOT 4 (Ottawa) - CBLT 5 (Toronto) - CBWAT 8 (Kenora)1 - CBET 9 (Windsor) - CKWS 11 (Kingston) - |
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1CBWAT serves as a satellite of CBC O&O CBWT, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Note: Stations in bold text are CBC owned-and-operated stations. |
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| See also: CTV, Global, SRC and Other stations in Ontario | |
