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CBWT is a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television station in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It is the only network CBC station in Manitoba, although Brandon's CKX is a CBC affiliate.
   CBWT is the CBC's flagship station for the Central time zone, airing the main CBC schedule one hour after the CBC stations in the Eastern time zone. (For example, The National airs at 10 p.m. ET on CBLT (Toronto) and 10 p.m. CT on CBWT.) This is different from the other Canadian television networks, whose stations in the Eastern and Central time zones air their schedules at the same time (such as 10 p.m. ET and 9 p.m. CT, or "10/9 Central").
   CBWT can be seen on several cable systems in northeast North Dakota and northwest Minnesota including cities such as Grand Forks, ND and Bemidji, MN. It appears on Canada's two DBS services on Bell ExpressVu channel 226 and on Star Choice channel 332. Since 1998 (or later) it was made available in Brandon, Manitoba as digital cable channel 62. Country Canada, CountryWide and a local edition of CBC News at Six (formerly the local segment of CBC News: Canada Now from 2000 to 2006 and 24Hours from October 5,1970 to 2000) have been produced out of CBWT. In addition The National has an investigative unit based at the station.
   On January 15, 2007, CBWT began airing its first regional (non-news) television program since 2000, Living Winnipeg. The program can be seen weekdays between 1–1.30 p.m. and replayed at 3.30 a.m.

History

Planning for CBWT started in November, 1952, when the Government of Canada announced its intention of setting up a television station in Winnipeg. The station was announced by J. R. Finlay at a Cosmopolitan Club meeting at the Marlborough Hotel on September 16, 1953. At the time the station was projected to become western Canada's first television station (before Vancouver's CBUT), but was delayed. There was an entry for CBWT in the 1953 MTS telephone book.
   In September 1953 CBC Winnipeg moved into a new . facility at 541 Portage Ave. from its former location within the Manitoba Telephone Building on Portage Ave. East. A few months later, on May 31, 1954, CBWT began as a bilingual station on channel 4 with an EIRP of 60,000 watts. In the same year that CBWT went to air, another station, KXJB-TV (Valley City, North Dakota) also began broadcasting. There were doubts from the start whether there would be interference between the two stations.
   Its first equipment consisted of an RCA Victor TT10AL Television Transmitter and a 196 foot 6-section Super Turnstile Type TF-6AM Television Antenna, located atop the station's roof.
   One of CBWT's first big mobile production was Ice Revue which was broadcast from the Winnipeg Winter Club in March 1956. However, as a mobile production the equipment was different than that present in the studio. Several people had phoned the station complaining that their television set would get stuck in vertical or horizontal hold. This would occur when the switcher at the mobile unit went from one camera to another. Older (tube) television sets had a sync. generator and this was blamed for the reception problem.
   On Sunday, September 30, 1956 it connected to the Trans-Canada Microwave Relay System, which allowed Winnipeggers to watch television programing from CBC television on the same day it was broadcast in Toronto and Montreal. To celebrate this link CBC Television produced a special one-hour program, Along the Tower Trail, the Winnipeg segment featured a view of the CPR's Marshalling Yards, the St. Boniface basilica, a prairie harvest clip, and a musical piece sung by the Andrew Mynarski School choir.
   By late 1957 it was decided to move the operating channel of CBWT from channel 4 to channel 3. The changeover occurred in April, 1958. Eye-To-Eye was a weekly local current affairs program broadcast from 10.15 to 11 p.m. every Tuesday, and was the predecessor to 24Hours. It debut on October 20, 1959, and was similar in style to Close-Up on the national network. The first topics covered were: 'The Slums of Winnipeg', 'Civic Politics — A Sick Joke', and 'Interview — Two Young Ladies'. Eye-To-Eye was produced by Ken Black and Warner Troyer.
   On April 24, 1960, the station became English-only, while French programming moved to the newly-launched CBWFT. At the same time two VTRs, worth $75,000 each were installed at the station to replace the kinescope system used previously.
   The local version of Reach for the Top debut in 1962 and was hosted by Bill Guest, alternately by Ernie Nairn. The program ran until 1985.
   On November 16, 1964 it swapped frequencies with CBWFT and higher powered transmitters were installed on a new antenna mast . high near Starbuck, Manitoba. Reception as far as 113 kilometres would now be possible.This had the effect of improving reception of the station in the towns of Portage la Prairie, Gimli, Carman, Winkler, Morden, Morris, Letellier, Emerson, Altona, and Dominion City. It continues to be the tallest free-standing structure in the province.
   There was a large NABET strike throughout the CBC organization in the Spring of 1981, and production of 24Hours was halted. Strike action began at 10:30 p.m. on May 3, 1981.
   Shortly after the Mulroney government came to power in 1984 they effected major cuts to the CBC, and as a result 86 person staff were let go at CBWT.
   There was a second round of major cuts in December 1990, which had a negative effect on local production, especially on the resources of 24Hours.
   On February 27, 1997 CBC Manitoba announced that it would update and expand by 2,700 m² its studio facilities for the cost of $2.8 M. In 1998, CBC Manitoba's newsroom and studios were expanded into a new building, after essentially using portables and an abandoned church as its news operations for many years. The television studio now features a window looking down onto Portage. A new digital Betacam SX format was introduced, one of the first CBC stations to transition to make use of it. The first television broadcast from the new studio occurred on Monday, September 21, 1998.
   Previous programs produced at CBWT include Fred Penner's Place, It's A Living, and . Disclosure was canceled in 2003. Peter Mansbridge, anchor of The National, began his career at CBWT.

Rebroadcast transmitters

Atikokan, Big Trout Lake, Churchill, Cross Lake, Cumberland House, Dauphin, Dryden, Ear Falls, Easterville, Fairford, Fisher Branch, Flin Flon, Fort Frances, Gillam, Gods Lake Narrows, Grand Rapids, Ignace, Island Falls, Jackhead, Kenora, Lac Du Bonnet, Leaf Rapids, Little Grand Rapids, Lynn Lake, Mafeking, Manigotagan, McCusker Lake, Moose Lake, Nelson House, Norway House, Osnaburgh, Oxford House, Pelican Narrows, Pickle Lake, Pikangikum, Piney, Pukatawagan, Red Lake, Sandy Lake, Savant Lake, Sioux Lookout, Sioux Narrows, Snow Lake, South Indian Lake, The Pas, Thompson, Waasagomach, Wabowden.
   CBWT began extending its signal using various methods, beginning in June, 1962 with CBWBT (Flin Flon) and CBWBT-1 (The Pas) using kinescope recordings from CBWT Winnipeg. Later on, CBTA (Lynn Lake) became part of the Frontier Coverage Package in September 1967. From 1968 onwards, CBWT used the province-wide microwave system to provide live television signals.
   At one time, CBWAT (Kenora, Ontario) offered separate local news programming from CBWT Winnipeg, although this was discontinued in 1979/80 when CJBN-TV went on the air.

Local news

The first big story CBWT covered happened on June 8, 1954, about one week after the station opened, where the Time Building (333 Portage Ave.) caught fire. The Time Building was across from the Eaton's building.

Four Corners / Noon Hour / News at Noon

News at Noon was CBWT's 30 minute news program that ran until January 1985 when the network program Midday took up the timeslot. It had been previously called Noon Hour, which was a 60-minute program. Midday ran till 2000, but local noon time news programming hasn't returned, although CBUT (CBC Vancouver) has since reinstated News at Noon since March 2007.

24Hours

24Hours was an award-winning one-hour news and current affairs program which began on October 5, 1970 (coincidentally on the same day that James Cross was kidnapped by the FLQ in Quebec) and first aired between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. The original on-air hosts were Garth Dawley (news), Murray Parker (weather), Don Wittman & Bob Picken (sports), John Harvard & Gerry Haslam (interviewer). On occasion, others contributed to the program, namely Heather Hildebrandt (CBC Winnipeg public affairs dep't) and freelancers Alice Poyser and Per Holting. Bill Morgan was the Producer in the first year, and Executive Producer in the second.
   Although the reason why the newscast was called 24Hours is uncertain, advertising in the 1970s contained the slogan NEWS...Something to think about every 24Hours, something that would become less relevant since the 1980s with today's media choices.
   The hour would begin with 10 to 13 minutes of news presented by Garth Dawley, the program's first newsreader till 1983, followed by a 2-minute weather update, followed by a 10-minute documentary or interview. After a commercial break, national and international news would be presented, followed by a 5-minute sportscast. A full weather forecast of 5-minute duration would take place about 30-minutes into the program. Another documentary or interview segment would fill in the rest of the time. Closer to the hour's end would be a feature such as a review of an arts event, or a news-comedy skit. Each hour would end with a short summary of the day's news.
   During the summer months in earlier years, 24Hours would switch to a 30-minute format with basic news, weather, and sports to give the documentary team time to cool down and then prepare for next season's documentaries.
   Before The National was moved to 10 p.m. and The Journal created in 1982, occasionally a full-hour 24Hours documentary would air at this time, in addition to the regular 60 minutes of news at 6 p.m.
   Starting in the 1977-78 season it moved from the 6:30-7:30 p.m. time to a more standard supper-hour of 6:00-7:00 p.m., where John Robertson replaced John Harvard as host. John Harvard, who was the program's first interviewer between 1970 and 1977, returned the day after the November 1981 Provincial election, and remained till 1986. He interviewed the former interviewer from the 1977-1981 period, John Robertson.
   In September 1982 the chalkboard easel used for the 24Hours weather forecast regularly done by Murray Parker, was replaced with an electronic Telidon system. This was used for about 2 years when a regular CG system was put in place.
   Also in 1982, CBWT was a pioneer within CBC television stations to use Betacam ENG cameras. Prior to this time, reports were filed on 16 mm film.
   In 1983, electronic slides replaced the film-type that accompanied the news anchor of the various local news programs. For example, a slide machine with a red rounded trim was used in 1982-83, while the rest of the news set was a cream colour.
   In May 1984, Marv Terhoch was appointed Director of CBWT of 24Hours.
   Also between these years, Kevin Evans was the interviewer for 24Hours, until KTHI was replaced with WDIV Detroit, that featured Mort Crim. To compete with that station, it hired former ABC correspondent Mike McCourt who co-hosted the program between September 1986 and 1991.
   John Bertrand, who was formerly the Winnipeg Sun's Editor was hired on as host of the new 5.30–6 p.m. segment 24Hours Talkback in November 1992. This program aired until 1994 when it was canceled and John had moved on to CBC Radio One as on air host of Questionnaire.
   On October 2, 2000, as part of nationwide budget cuts and a shift of focus towards reporting of geopolitical events (war in Iraq and Afghanistan), 24Hours was replaced by a 30-minute program, Canada Now.
   On November 10, 2006 CBWT announced that CKY-TV news anchor Janet Stewart will become the 6 p.m. news anchor at the station.
   On November 30, 2006, CBC announced that they'd revert to the pre-2000 early-evening news model effective February 2007: Canada Now will be cancelled, while local newscasts nationwide will once again use an hour-long format. It is uncertain if the newscast will retain the name CBC News at Six, or if it might revert back to 24Hours.
   CBWT announced on Friday, February 2, 2007 that the full hour of local news would return on Monday, February 19, 2007, and that Murray Parker would return as weather person.

24Hours LateNight

When Midday took 30-minutes of television time from the regions, CBWT had 30 minutes extra to spare in their budget. 24Hours LateNight was launched in late October, 1985, with anchor Anne Petrie, and alternate anchor Arvel Gray. Ernie Nairn was the sports anchor. Prior to October, 1985 the late evening newscast was called News Final, and prior to that had no title, but was referred to generically as the late local news.
   LateNight featured more entertainment items, including live theatre and movie reviews, leaving political coverage to the main supper-hour program.
   In the budget cuts of December 1990 and the nationwide introduction of a 90-minute local newscast at 5:30pm, which on CBWT included a 1/2 hour local supper-hour program, 24Hours Talkback, the program was canceled in November 1992. 24Hours LateNight would go back on the air in 1994 following a move back to a 60-minute evening newscast and the cancellation of Talkback, continuing until nationwide budget cuts reduced local evening news coverage and cancelled local late night news in 2000.

Other Local Programming

Country Canada is one of the longest running programs in Canadian television history, and is broadcast nationally. It began as Country Calendar in 1954. The program name was used to create a new digital network, CBC Country Canada, which first aired in September 2001. Spotlight was one of CBWT's first news interview programs, which aired Monday–Saturday between 7.15 and 7.30 p.m. 3's Company was a local program broadcast in the early 1960s and was similar to Living Winnipeg currently airing. The title was a play on both the number of on-air hosts (Mary Liz Bayer, Bill Guest, Jose Poneira), and the channel the CBWT had broadcast on in Winnipeg at the time. However Mary was host of her own show a year earlier The Mary Liz Show. The Medicine Show was a local production shown nationally, which ran from January 1980 till August 1982. Show Business, hosted by Tom McCulloch, and Ten O'Clock Live, a music program from a local bar, were two local programs produced by CBWT in 1981. In Search of the Perfect Summer was a summertime series produced by Sean Sullivan and was co-hosted by Anne Harding and Laurie Mustard in the 1982 season. It was nominated Best Variety Program on Television in the (2nd annual) 1982 Winnipeg Broadcast Awards. Laurie won Best Host/Interviewer for the series.
   Between 1983 and 1986, Laurie Mustard hosted a Sunday morning local program for kids called Switchback, which was the title used for similar programs across the CBC main network. By 1989 the Winnipeg program was cancelled and amalgamated with Switchback (CBKT Regina) where Winnipeg contributed a portion of the program content.
   The end of regional non-news programming came in 2000-01 when Breakaway, aired since June, 1987 and was co-hosted by Sandi Coleman, a program profiling different Manitoba towns was canceled in the last round of budget cuts to the CBC. Sandi now hosts the morning program on CBC Radio One Yukon.

Current CBWT personalities

CRTC License related

  • CRTC Decision 1989-115 - 1989-1994 License Renewal
  • CRTC Decision 1995-659 - 1995-2000 License Renewal
  • CRTC Decision 1997-673 - Allowing CBWT on Westman Media cable-tv Brandon
  • CRTC Decision 2000-001 - 2000-2007 License RenewalFurther Information

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