Mid-Canada Communications
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mid-Canada Communications was a Canadian media company, which operated from 1980 to 1990. The company, a division of Northern Cable, had television and radio holdings in Northeastern Ontario.
[edit] MCTV
Mid-Canada Television, or MCTV, was created in 1980 when Cambrian Broadcasting, which owned the CTV affiliates in Sudbury, North Bay and Timmins merged with J. Conrad Lavigne's CBC affiliates in the same cities.
This twinstick structure was permitted by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission because both companies were on the brink of bankruptcy due to their aggressive competition for limited advertising dollars in small markets. In its decision, however, the CRTC explicitly communicated the expectation that this would exist only as a temporary arrangement, to end as soon as the CBC could afford to directly acquire MCTV's CBC affiliates.
The MCTV stations were:
- North Bay - CKNY (CTV), CHNB (CBC)
- Sudbury - CICI (CTV), CKNC (CBC)
- Timmins - CITO (CTV), CFCL (CBC)
All six stations were referred to on air as MCTV rather than by their callsigns. The stations were distinguished from each other by use of their network affiliation (ie. "MCTV-CTV" and "MCTV-CBC".)
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.
[edit] Mid-Canada Radio
In 1985, Mid-Canada Communications also acquired the Mid-Canada Radio group of radio stations.
- Blind River - CJNR
- Elliot Lake - CKNR
- Espanola - CKNS
- Hearst - CFLH
- Kapuskasing - CFLK, CKAP
- North Bay - CHUR
- Sault Ste. Marie - CKCY, CJQM
- Sudbury - CFBR, CHNO, CJMX
- Timmins - 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 stations (CFBR, CFLK, CFLH and CFCL), and one for the anglophone stations (all others).
[edit] Acquisition
In 1990, Northern Cable began divesting itself of its media properties. Pelmorex purchased Mid-Canada Radio, and Baton Broadcasting acquired MCTV. Baton also purchased Sault Ste. Marie's Huron Broadcasting in 1990, and converted CHBX and CJIC to the MCTV branding as well.
As well, Baton reaffiliated CHRO with CTV.
Under Baton's ownership, the stations retained the MCTV branding, and became part of the Baton Broadcasting System semi-network.
Baton retained the CBC twinsticks until 2002, when it sold them to the CBC. Once the deal was finalized in early 2003, the CBC converted them to retransmitters of CBLT, Toronto's CBC-owned station. All four stations surrendered their old call letters.
The CTV affiliates were rebranded as CTV Northern Ontario in 2005.
