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NE Ontario (February 10, 1995)

from Northern Viewers TV Guide via Newspapers.com (this was a supplement to New Liskeard's Temiskaming Speaker and the Kirkland Lake Gazette)

Tri-Towns (New Liskeard, Haileybury, Cobalt)
2 CFCL-CBC/MCTV Timmins
3 CIII-Global Toronto
4 CKRN-SRC Rouyn-Noranda
5 WWUP-CBS Sault Ste. Marie
7 CICA-TVO Toronto
8 La Chaine Francaise
9 WDIV-NBC Detroit
10 WGTQ-ABC Sault Ste. Marie
11 CITO-CTV/MCTV Timmins
13 CFEM-TVA Rouyn-Noranda
14 CBC Newsworld
15 Weather Now
16 YTV
17 Vision TV
18 Ontario Legislature
19 House of Commons
20 CFJP-TQS Montreal
21 CIVM-RQ Montreal
22 WTVS-PBS Detroit
23 BN
24 WSBK-UPN Boston
27 WTBS Atlanta
30 CITV Edmonton
31 TLC
32 CNN
33 TSN
34 A&E
35 TNN
36 MuchMusic
37 CHCH Hamilton
38 NCN
39 Discovery Channel

Kirkland Lake
2 CFCL-CBC/MCTV Timmins
3 CIII-Global Toronto
4 WTOL-CBS Toledo
6 WDIV-NBC Detroit
7 CICA-TVO Toronto
8 La Chaine Francaise
9 CITO-CTV/MCTV Timmins
10 WXYZ-ABC Detroit
12 CKRN-SRC Rouyn-Noranda
13 CFEM-TVA Rouyn-Noranda
21 Ontario Legislature
22 House of Commons
23 First Choice
24 CNN Headline News
25 TNN
27 A&E
28 WTBS Atlanta
29 WSBK-UPN Boston
30 Family Channel
31 CNN
32 TSN
35 MuchMusic
36 Weather Now
37 CITV Edmonton
38 WTVS-PBS Detroit
39 CHCH Hamilton
40 CBC Newsworld
41 YTV

Englehart
2 CFCL-CBC/MCTV Timmins
3 CHCH Hamilton
4 CKRN-SRC Rouyn-Noranda
5 CITO-CTV/MCTV Timmins
7 CFJP-TQS Montreal
8 CIVM-RQ Montreal
9 CITV Edmonton
10 BCTV-CTV Vancouver (calls CHAN)
12 CICA-TVO Toronto
13 WTOL-CBS Toledo
17 MuchMusic
18 TSN
19 CIII-Global Toronto
20 WXYZ-ABC Detroit
21 WDIV-NBC Detroit
22 WTVS-PBS Detroit
23 Ontario Legislature

Charlton, Elk Lake
* Elk Lake only
2 CFCL-CBC/MCTV Timmins
3 CHCH Hamilton
4 CKRN-SRC Rouyn-Noranda
5 CITO-CTV/MCTV Timmins
7 CICA-TVO Toronto
8 La Chaine Francaise
9 CITV Edmonton
10 BCTV-CTV Vancouver
12 WXYZ-ABC Detroit
13 Ontario Legislature
18 WTOL-CBS Toledo
19 MuchMusic
20 WDIV-NBC Detroit
21 TSN
22 WTVS-PBS Detroit
23* CIVM-RQ Montreal
24* CFJP-TQS Montreal

Virginiatown, Larder Lake
3 CICA-TVO Toronto
4 CKRN-SRC Rouyn-Noranda
5 CITO-CTV/MCTV Timmins
6 CFCL-CBC/MCTV Timmins
7 La Chaine Francaise
9 Ontario Legislature
12 WDIV-NBC Detroit
15 YTV
17 WXYZ-ABC Detroit
19 MuchMusic
27 WTVS-PBS Detroit
28 TSN
29 MuchMusic
30 First Choice
31 House of Commons
32 CHCH Hamilton

King Kirkland, Dobie
3 CICA-TVO Toronto
4 CKRN-SRC Rouyn-Noranda
5 CITO-CTV/MCTV Timmins
6 CFCL-CBC/MCTV Timmins
7 La Chaine Francaise
9 Ontario Legislature
12 WDIV-NBC Detroit
15 YTV
17 WXYZ-ABC Detroit
19 CBC Newsworld
20 WTOL-CBS Toledo
23 TNN
26 MuchMusic
27 WTVS-PBS Detroit
28 TSN

Latchford
2 CFCL-CBC/MCTV Timmins
3 CHCH Hamilton
4 CKRN-SRC Rouyn-Noranda
5 CFJP-TQS Montreal
7 CICA-TVO Toronto
8 La Chaine Francaise
9 CITV Edmonton
10 BCTV-CTV Vancouver
11 CITO-CTV/MCTV Timmins
12 WXYZ-ABC Detroit
13 Ontario Legislature
18 WTOL-CBS Toledo
19 MuchMusic
20 WDIV-NBC Detroit
21 TSN
22 WTVS-PBS Detroit
23 CIVM-RQ Montreal

Temagami
2 CFCL-CBC/MCTV Timmins
3 CHCH Hamilton
4 CKRN-SRC Rouyn-Noranda
5 CITO-CTV/MCTV Timmins
7 CICA-TVO Toronto
8 La Chaine Francaise
9 CITV Edmonton
10 BCTV-CTV Vancouver
11 CFJP-TQS Montreal
12 WXYZ-ABC Detroit
13 Ontario Legislature
18 WTOL-CBS Toledo
19 MuchMusic
20 WDIV-NBC Detroit
21 TSN
22 WTVS-PBS Detroit

Matachewan
2 CHCH Hamilton
3 CITO-CTV/MCTV Timmins
4 CKRN-SRC Rouyn-Noranda
5 CIVM-RQ Montreal
6 CFCL-CBC/MCTV Timmins
7 CICA-TVO Toronto
8 La Chaine Francaise
9 CITV Edmonton
10 BCTV-CTV Vancouver
11 CFJP-TQS Montreal
12 WXYZ-ABC Detroit
13 Ontario Legislature
18 WTOL-CBS Toledo
19 MuchMusic
20 WDIV-NBC Detroit
21 TSN
22 WTVS-PBS Detroit
 
I'm assuming that WTOL became the default CBS affiliate for much of Canada when WJBK went with Fox, though Detroit was never actually without a CBS affiliate, as WGPR (later WWJ) took the affiliation. Perhaps WGPR was seen as being not an attractive choice, due to its having a dodgy signal and substandard production facilities? I honestly don't know.
 
Yes, the satellite took the ABC, NBC and PBS stations from Detroit. But not the CBS or Fox stations from Detroit. It took the Fox station from Rochester NY since, at the time, WUHF-TV 31 had very little local news, while new Fox affiliate WJBK-TV 2 Detroit had lots of news blocks all day.

Now, why not take Channel 62 WGPR/WWJ-TV for the satellite's CBS station? Especially since it had NO local news. Syndicated shows in the early evening and, if I remember correctly, Seinfeld at 11pm. Maybe it was a signal issue. Channel 12 WTOL-TV Toledo was a VHF station with a good signal into southern Ontario. So even though it did plenty of local news, it was chosen as the CBS station on the Canadian satellite.
 
Yes, the satellite took the ABC, NBC and PBS stations from Detroit. But not the CBS or Fox stations from Detroit. It took the Fox station from Rochester NY since, at the time, WUHF-TV 31 had very little local news, while new Fox affiliate WJBK-TV 2 Detroit had lots of news blocks all day.

Now, why not take Channel 62 WGPR/WWJ-TV for the satellite's CBS station? Especially since it had NO local news. Syndicated shows in the early evening and, if I remember correctly, Seinfeld at 11pm. Maybe it was a signal issue. Channel 12 WTOL-TV Toledo was a VHF station with a good signal into southern Ontario. So even though it did plenty of local news, it was chosen as the CBS station on the Canadian satellite.

So am I to understand that Canadian carriers would have actually preferred a US station with little or no local news, given the choice (the vast majority of US network affiliates do local news, and many of them do a lot of it) in that this would have been irrelevant to Canadian viewers? If so, I can understand that.

I know that in the US, watching news from some other city or market can often be a mind-numbing experience, you have no frame of reference for the stories unless you have some connection with that city. And there are vast portions of the US, sometimes fairly good-sized communities, that have no local news at all --- Akron, Ohio comes immediately to mind, with the demise of WAKR/WAKC. They are reliant upon the Cleveland stations deigning to come down to Akron to cover major stories. Fayetteville, North Carolina would be another, they are lumped in with Raleigh and Durham, and WTVD has a nominal presence there, but at the end of the day, you have a town of 200K people and no truly local newscast.
 
I'm assuming that WTOL became the default CBS affiliate for much of Canada when WJBK went with Fox, though Detroit was never actually without a CBS affiliate, as WGPR (later WWJ) took the affiliation. Perhaps WGPR was seen as being not an attractive choice, due to its having a dodgy signal and substandard production facilities? I honestly don't know.
CANCOM, which distributed the Motown channels, needed a few months lead time to get CRTC approval, so settled on WTOL due to it being the nearest affiliate to Detroit; WWJ would replace it in 1999 (in my hometown of Amherst, NS, it didn't get that far as Boston stations replaced WTOL and the Detroit channels in August 1996). CBS was also between a rock and hard place, with WXYZ/Scripps choosing to re-up with ABC in a group deal that also saw ABC affiliations change to sister stations in Baltimore, Tampa, and Phoenix.
 
I know that in the US, watching news from some other city or market can often be a mind-numbing experience, you have no frame of reference for the stories unless you have some connection with that city. And there are vast portions of the US, sometimes fairly good-sized communities, that have no local news at all --- Akron, Ohio comes immediately to mind, with the demise of WAKR/WAKC. They are reliant upon the Cleveland stations deigning to come down to Akron to cover major stories. Fayetteville, North Carolina would be another, they are lumped in with Raleigh and Durham, and WTVD has a nominal presence there, but at the end of the day, you have a town of 200K people and no truly local newscast.

There are a couple of decent-sized communities in Canada with no local news presence at all on TV (with CMA population in parentheses):
St. Catharines/Niagara Falls, ON (434,000) - likely gets some coverage from Toronto, Hamilton (I originally had them on this list until I checked CHCH's website and their news appears to mainly serve Hamilton), and maybe Buffalo
Red Deer, AB (101,000) - had a TV station, but lost it during the E! bankruptcy (Victoria almost lost theirs as well at the same time, but CHEK was saved)
 
There are a couple of decent-sized communities in Canada with no local news presence at all on TV (with CMA population in parentheses):
St. Catharines/Niagara Falls, ON (434,000) - likely gets some coverage from Toronto, Hamilton (I originally had them on this list until I checked CHCH's website and their news appears to mainly serve Hamilton), and maybe Buffalo
Red Deer, AB (101,000) - had a TV station, but lost it during the E! bankruptcy (Victoria almost lost theirs as well at the same time, but CHEK was saved)
CHCH does have offices in Niagara Falls, they're at the Marriott on the Falls hotel.
 
There are a couple of decent-sized communities in Canada with no local news presence at all on TV (with CMA population in parentheses):
St. Catharines/Niagara Falls, ON (434,000) - likely gets some coverage from Toronto, Hamilton (I originally had them on this list until I checked CHCH's website and their news appears to mainly serve Hamilton), and maybe Buffalo
Red Deer, AB (101,000) - had a TV station, but lost it during the E! bankruptcy (Victoria almost lost theirs as well at the same time, but CHEK was saved)

Others that come to mind are Wilmington, Delaware, and as a practical matter, the entire state of New Jersey. WWOR was supposed to stand in that gap, but they no longer have a "real" news presence, "Chasing News" was very much a soft-news program along the lines of "Inside Edition" or something like that. The "Fox Cities" of Wisconsin (Appleton, Neenah, Menasha) would be another example, along the lines of Fayetteville NC which I noted above. You can also make a case for Santa Fe, NM as well as some towns in New Mexico that used to have semi-satellites of Albuquerque stations, with local news, but now rely upon a straight feed from those stations. St George, Utah is another such case, and then there is the pitiful situation of KENV in Elko, Nevada, hardly a metropolis but still reliant upon news from faraway SLC and Reno, ever since KSL threw their fit and demanded that NBC pull KENV's affiliation. Now they're showing TBD, which is about as pathetic a demise of a full-service local network TV station as ever existed.

But the saddest story of all is KXGN in Glendive, Montana. That little station had a news program that was the very apotheosis of "local". And now it's gone.

 
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