Ottawa Cablevision (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) October 1977

[CPLANAS1985]

Ottawa Cablevision was a local cable company in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, with customers having access to 18 in October of 1977... Today, Ottawa is serviced by multiple companies with Rogers among them...

Requested by: @mpepin

Source: Newspapers.com

CABLE-READY TV CHANNELS:

2. CICA Ottawa 24 (then and now, still TVO, repeat transmitter of CICA 19 Toronto)
3. CKGN Ottawa 6 (then and now, still a Global O&O, repeat transmitter of CKGN 22 (now CIII 41) Toronto as CIII 6)
4. WNPI Norwood 18* (then and now, still PBS)
5. WHEC Rochester 10 (CBS, now NBC)
6. CHRO Pembroke (Ottawa) 42 (CBC, now a CTV2 O&O)
7. CJOH Ottawa 13 (then and now, still a CTV affiliate, now a network O&O)
8. CBOT Ottawa 4 (then and now, still a CBC O&O)
9. CKWS Kingston 11 (CBC, now a Global O&O)
10. WROC Rochester 8 (NBC, now CBS)
11. CBOFT Ottawa 9 (then and now, still a SRC O&O)
12. OCL Community Television TV-12
13. CFTM Montreal 10** (then and now, still a TVA O&O)

CONVERTERS REQUIRED FOR THE FOLLOWING CHANNELS:

16-C. Local Origination
17-D. CFCF Montreal 12 (then and now, still a CTV affiliate, now a network O&O)
18-E. WNPI Norwood 18* (then and now, still PBS)
19-F. WOKR Rochester 13 (then and now, still ABC, now as WHAM with CW as a secondary affiliation)
20-G. CBMT Montreal 6 (then and now, still a CBC O&O)
21-H CFTM Montreal 10** (then and now, still a TVA O&O)

* WNPI is a satellite station of WNPE 16 (now WPBS) Watertown... The signal is carried twice for technical reasons according to Ottawa Cablevision at the time...
** CFTM is carried twice for technical reasons according to Ottawa Cablevision at the time...

 

[Gregg.]

Montreal and Ottawa are about 175 km from each other. Through the years, some top TV stations from one city were carried on cable in the other city, even to this day. The CTV channels in each city sometimes ran different shows. And since Quebec doesn't have a public tv network in English, the Montreal cable systems carried CICA (TV Ontario) from Ottawa.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

* WNPI is a satellite station of WNPE 16 (now WPBS) Watertown...

Wow, how did Watertown NY end up with the WPBS call letters? Seems like they belong on a flagship PBS station in a major market.

 

[CPLANAS1985]

Wow, how did Watertown NY end up with the WPBS call letters? Seems like they belong on a flagship PBS station in a major market.

NOT exactly sure what to tell you, but maybe, just maybe you'll find some clues into that on Wikipedia and maybe the station's website too...

 

[Gregg.]

The NPR member station in Hartford CT has the call sign WNPR. KNPR is the NPR station in Las Vegas and KPBS-TV is the PBS member station in San Diego. It certainly isn't like WCBS-TV, WNBC and WABC-TV, the big commercial networks' flagship stations, all in New York.

I guess if it wanted to, Fox Television could get WFOX for its NYC flagship, currently WNYW. The WFOX call sign is in Southport CT. WFOX had been "The Fox," a rock station. But now it just simulcasts the talk format on WICC 600 Bridgeport and its call letters are only used for the legal I.D. Maybe Rupert Murdoch would like to pay a fee to Connoisseur Media, to get the company to make it WICC-FM and free up that call sign?

 

[CPLANAS1985]

The NPR member station in Hartford CT has the call sign WNPR. KNPR is the NPR station in Las Vegas and KPBS-TV is the PBS member station in San Diego. It certainly isn't like WCBS-TV, WNBC and WABC-TV, the big commercial networks' flagship stations, all in New York.

I guess if it wanted to, Fox Television could get WFOX for its NYC flagship, currently WNYW. The WFOX call sign is in Southport CT. WFOX had been "The Fox," a rock station. But now it just simulcasts the talk format on WICC 600 Bridgeport and its call letters are only used for the legal I.D. Maybe Rupert Murdoch would like to pay a fee to Connoisseur Media, to get the company to make it WICC-FM and free up that call sign?

And the list goes on... There's also Univision with WUNI Boston (over WXTV New York)... More examples exist out there...

 

[fybush]

The commercial networks own their own stations. NPR and PBS are membership organizations that don't own any stations of their own. At the time they were formed, their biggest members already had established brands of their own - WGBH, KQED, WETA and so on.

So it was up to individual local stations to vie for "NPR" and "PBS" callsigns if they wanted them. KNPR actually stands for Nevada Public Radio. WNPR was the Norwich CT station before the calls were moved around.

And as for WPBS-TV, the Watertown station was simply the one that was clever enough to offer a little money to WPBS(AM), a Korean station in Atlanta, once it became possible to share a base callsign in a different market.

These days, it doesn't matter much - in the last few years, many PBS member stations have stopped branding with callsigns entirely and just use "PBS Nebraska" or "Illinois PBS" or what have you.

Oh, and if Rupert wanted to use WFOX-TV in NYC (an opportunity he's passed up several times), it's actually Cox he needs to negotiate with, because they have the WFOX-TV calls on their station in Jacksonville. They've controlled "WFOX" since the days when it was on radio in Atlanta.

 

[CPLANAS1985]

The commercial networks own their own stations. NPR and PBS are membership organizations that don't own any stations of their own. At the time they were formed, their biggest members already had established brands of their own - WGBH, KQED, WETA and so on.

So it was up to individual local stations to vie for "NPR" and "PBS" callsigns if they wanted them. KNPR actually stands for Nevada Public Radio. WNPR was the Norwich CT station before the calls were moved around.

And as for WPBS-TV, the Watertown station was simply the one that was clever enough to offer a little money to WPBS(AM), a Korean station in Atlanta, once it became possible to share a base callsign in a different market.

These days, it doesn't matter much - in the last few years, many PBS member stations have stopped branding with callsigns entirely and just use "PBS Nebraska" or "Illinois PBS" or what have you.

Oh, and if Rupert wanted to use WFOX-TV in NYC (an opportunity he's passed up several times), it's actually Cox he needs to negotiate with, because they have the WFOX-TV calls on their station in Jacksonville. They've controlled "WFOX" since the days when it was on radio in Atlanta.

Provided they get approval from the FCC... Anything from a license renewal to a channel relocation to even a call sign change still requires FCC approval...

 

[fybush]

Provided they get approval from the FCC... Anything from a license renewal to a channel relocation to even a call sign change still requires FCC approval...

Well, yes.

But the FCC only regulates callsigns in the most technical sense. As long as a call change application doesn't duplicate a call that's already in use and is submitted with the appropriate fee, it will be granted. The old process where every broadcaster within 100 miles had to be notified in advance and could object to possible conflicts is long gone.

 

[installLSC]

Surprised that Cablevision required a converter to get ABC--the reason cable caught on so early in Canada was to get the three American networks. The Canadian government earlier in the 70s had tried to limit American stations to just one commercial and one PBS but the public backlash was too strong

 

[IM42A]

The commercial networks own their own stations. NPR and PBS are membership organizations that don't own any stations of their own. At the time they were formed, their biggest members already had established brands of their own - WGBH, KQED, WETA and so on.

So it was up to individual local stations to vie for "NPR" and "PBS" callsigns if they wanted them. KNPR actually stands for Nevada Public Radio. WNPR was the Norwich CT station before the calls were moved around.

And as for WPBS-TV, the Watertown station was simply the one that was clever enough to offer a little money to WPBS(AM), a Korean station in Atlanta, once it became possible to share a base callsign in a different market.

These days, it doesn't matter much - in the last few years, many PBS member stations have stopped branding with callsigns entirely and just use "PBS Nebraska" or "Illinois PBS" or what have you.

Oh, and if Rupert wanted to use WFOX-TV in NYC (an opportunity he's passed up several times), it's actually Cox he needs to negotiate with, because they have the WFOX-TV calls on their station in Jacksonville. They've controlled "WFOX" since the days when it was on radio in Atlanta.

It's not an exact analogy, but when WCKT Miami wanted to change their call letters to WSVN, to reflect their channel number, they had to get WSVN Norton VA (satellite of WBRA Roanoke) to change their call letters to WSBN, thus freeing up those calls. I have to imagine that there was some kind of financial consideration, to get WBRA/WSVN to agree to this. Does anyone know for sure?

In that WSVN/WSBN had no local presence, I don't imagine anyone was terribly attached to those call letters. If there was any signage (such as at the transmitter site), it would only have necessitated changing one letter, kind of like when Delhaize from Belgium bought Food Town in North Carolina and changed it to Food Lion --- same sign, swap out two letters, save some money on signage, and that way you get to incorporate the Delhaize "lion" logo as well. Win-win all the way around.

 

[Mr Tony]

It's not an exact analogy, but when WCKT Miami wanted to change their call letters to WSVN, to reflect their channel number, they had to get WSVN Norton VA (satellite of WBRA Roanoke) to change their call letters to WSBN, thus freeing up those calls. I have to imagine that there was some kind of financial consideration, to get WBRA/WSVN to agree to this. Does anyone know for sure?

In that WSVN/WSBN had no local presence, I don't imagine anyone was terribly attached to those call letters. If there was any signage (such as at the transmitter site), it would only have necessitated changing one letter, kind of like when Delhaize from Belgium bought Food Town in North Carolina and changed it to Food Lion --- same sign, swap out two letters, save some money on signage, and that way you get to incorporate the Delhaize "lion" logo as well. Win-win all the way around.

Wiki says they paid 50k for the call sign and fcc paperwork

Sunbeam invested a total of $150,000 into this change, including $50,000 for the call letter purchase and FCC paperwork and $100,000 for an extensive marketing campaign.

 

[IM42A]

Wiki says they paid 50k for the call sign and fcc paperwork

Sunbeam invested a total of $150,000 into this change, including $50,000 for the call letter purchase and FCC paperwork and $100,000 for an extensive marketing campaign.

Okay, I see, I didn't catch that when I looked at the WSVN Miami article.

I don't suppose Blue Ridge Public Television minded changing the call letters for $50K. That's a lot of money for a free-standing (i.e., not part of a state network) PBS affiliate with two satellite stations to run. Virginia doesn't have a statewide synchronized public TV network the way many states do (including most of the Southern states).

 

[Mr Tony]

Okay, I see, I didn't catch that when I looked at the WSVN Miami article.

I don't suppose Blue Ridge Public Television minded changing the call letters for $50K. That's a lot of money for a free-standing (i.e., not part of a state network) PBS affiliate with two satellite stations to run. Virginia doesn't have a statewide synchronized public TV network the way many states do (including most of the Southern states).

Lots of states don’t. Minnesota (where I am) doesn’t either.

 

[fybush]

Surprised that Cablevision required a converter to get ABC--the reason cable caught on so early in Canada was to get the three American networks. The Canadian government earlier in the 70s had tried to limit American stations to just one commercial and one PBS but the public backlash was too strong

There weren't a lot of options. Industry Canada required certain Canadian signals to appear in specific places on basic cable lineups, and there were several "taboo" channels that couldn't be used for important services because of ingress from over the air channels on the same frequencies.

In Ottawa, those were 4, 9, 13 and possibly also 6. Once you then filled the rest of the channels with the mandatory services (CBOT, CBOFT, CIII, CICO, CJOH, soon to be joined by CHOT and CIVO, plus the access channel), everything else eventually got pushed up above 13 by necessity.

 

[IM42A]

Lots of states don’t. Minnesota (where I am) doesn’t either.

I counted up, and I found 26 states that do have statewide public TV networks:

Kentucky
West Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia
Alabama
Mississippi
Arkansas
Louisiana
Iowa
North Dakota
South Dakota
Idaho
Montana
Wyoming
Oregon
Oklahoma
Wisconsin
Maryland
Delaware (granted, a small one, WHYY and satellite WDPB, but it is a very small state)
New Jersey
Connecticut
Rhode Island (only one PBS station, again, due to small size, more than one station would not be necessary)
New Hampshire
Vermont
Maine

You could also say that the District of Columbia has a "statewide" PBS station, actually two, WETA and WHMM, but neither of these are (AFAIK) funded by the DC government or in any way connected with it.

I'll leave it at that, lest I run the risk of going "off-topic".

ReplyForward Add reaction

 

[fybush]

I would push back against counting Rhode Island or Delaware as "state networks," especially since WHYY has barely any physical presence in Delaware.

And Vermont Public, while statewide, isn't state-funded. Neither is RI PBS.

 

[IM42A]

I would push back against counting Rhode Island or Delaware as "state networks," especially since WHYY has barely any physical presence in Delaware.

And Vermont Public, while statewide, isn't state-funded. Neither is RI PBS.

I wasn't thinking in terms of the funding, necessarily, nor the extent to which the state engages in it (though I did allude to the lack of this with WETA and WHMM).

While WHYY isn't part of some kind of "Delaware PBS" per se, even though they are Philadelphia's default main PBS station, they do make a conscious effort to cover Delaware news and events. Bottom line, the entire state receives coverage from a single in-state (at least technically speaking) PBS outlet, via WHYY and WDPB. But, yes, to think of Rhode Island and Delaware as having "state networks" is kind of pushing the analogy, I'll admit that.

 

[CTListener]

So it was up to individual local stations to vie for "NPR" and "PBS" callsigns if they wanted them. KNPR actually stands for Nevada Public Radio. WNPR was the Norwich CT station before the calls were moved around.

And coincidentally the Windsor, VT, station on the Vermont Public (formerly Vermont Public Radio) news network is WVPR. You'd think that call would be on the network's station in the state's largest city, Burlington, or maybe in its capital, Montpelier, wouldn't you? And somewhere in Virginia or West Virginia, someone is looking at those call letters longingly and thinking, "They could have been ours."