CBWT Translators in Ontario and Saskatchewan

[Gregg]

Sorry to sort of repeat an earlier posting but here's a video of CBWT Winnipeg's sign off from 2006 I just found on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI-jzBV35DY&feature=related

And once again, numerous satellite stations are located outside of Manitoba. CBWT is rebroadcast on three in Saskatchewan and a whopping FIFTEEN in Ontario.

These weren't the early days of trying to cover all the small communities of Canada with both a CBC and SRC signal where putting the translator on the air was more important than the content of its news and political coverage. This was 2006. How many principal TV stations did the CBC have three years ago? About a dozen in English and about 10 in French? Couldn't the CBC figure out a practical way to get its signal to all the communities within the same province?

I guess the CBC's promise was to cover 90-something percent of English speaking communities and a similar number of French speaking communities with a CBC or SRC signal... but they never promised it would come from a station in the same province?

And even though this is a TV board, I'm also amazed at how CBC Radio 2 and Radio-Canada Espace Musique are still missing from many smaller communities. There's only one Espace Musique stations in all of Manitoba. Oh, you say, there are so few French speakers in Manitoba outside Winnipeg. OK, there are only TWO Radio 2 stations in all of Manitoba: Brandon and Winnipeg. If they have a CBC Radio One translator in Flin Flon or Moose Lake, why can't they put a Radio 2 translator in the same location?



Gregg
[email protected]

 

[fybush]

No mystery there at all. The Ontario communities that get CBWT are all in the far western part of the province that's on Central Time, and there's no Ontario-based CBC-TV originating station that's on CT.

It's hard to appreciate just how enormous Ontario is until you go four hours north from Minneapolis to International Falls, Minnesota, cross the border to Fort Frances, and realize you're still in Ontario - and could drive west for yet another hour before finally crossing into Manitoba.

In any event, places like Fort Frances and Ear Falls and Dryden have much closer economic and cultural ties to Winnipeg than to Toronto. I'm pretty sure the CBC radio relays there are also from Winnipeg, and I know the only newspapers you can get in the stores in Fort Frances are the Wpg Free Press and Sun...or at least that was the case in 2005 when I was up there.

 

[azumanga]

CBWT is rebroadcast on three in Saskatchewan and a whopping FIFTEEN in Ontario.

Couldn't the CBC figure out a practical way to get its signal to all the communities within the same province?

In this case, I think time zones play a role -- most of CBWT's repeaters are located in Central time, unlike Toronto's CBLT, which is in Eastern time. The reason northwestern Ontario is served by CBWT and not CBLT is so that they could see most of CBC's programs on local time, instead of having to tune in an hour earlier than scheduled.

 

[mjlarochelle]

As is my understanding, CBC originally operated CBWAT Kenora, CBWCT Fort Frances, CBWDT Dryden, and CBWET Red Lake as semi-satellite stations for CBWT. The Winnipeg Free Press even printed schedules for CBWAT back in 1960, and it had a somewhat different schedule than CBWT. At least one of the programs was a provincial affairs program from CBLT in Toronto. I'm not sure if any of these communities actually had CBC production facilities, or if everything was done out of Winnipeg.

Winnipeg of course was the closest CBC owned-and-operated station to these Northwestern Ontario communities, and most likely it was more feasible than the private station in Thunder Bay starting its own translator network. As CBC cut back on regional programming, those stations were simply absorbed into CBWT as full-time rebroadcasters.

I did once read a rumour that some CBWT translators carry Thunder Bay Television's Newshour, but I highly doubt that.

 

[mjlarochelle]

In any event, places like Fort Frances and Ear Falls and Dryden have much closer economic and cultural ties to Winnipeg than to Toronto. I'm pretty sure the CBC radio relays there are also from Winnipeg, and I know the only newspapers you can get in the stores in Fort Frances are the Wpg Free Press and Sun...or at least that was the case in 2005 when I was up there.

The CBC English radio relays in Kenora and throughout Northwestern Ontario are from CBQT in Thunder Bay, although the French relays are CKSB from St.-Boniface, Manitoba.

That said, the westernmost part of Northwestern Ontario was actually part of the original colony that became Manitoba, but Ontario annexed it. The region always has and always will have greater ties to Winnipeg, and there continues to be a lot of regional discontent up there because of its distance from the provincial capital.

 

[w9wi]

And even though this is a TV board, I'm also amazed at how CBC Radio 2 and Radio-Canada Espace Musique are still missing from many smaller communities. There's only one Espace Musique stations in all of Manitoba. Oh, you say, there are so few French speakers in Manitoba outside Winnipeg. OK, there are only TWO Radio 2 stations in all of Manitoba: Brandon and Winnipeg. If they have a CBC Radio One translator in Flin Flon or Moose Lake, why can't they put a Radio 2 translator in the same location?

There is now a permit for a second English radio station on the Flin Flon tower. Ironically, it will also be Radio One! (yes, two Radio Ones on the same tower. The new one will technically be a Creighton, Saskatchewan station and will carry the Regina feed -- the existing transmitter carries Winnipeg)


The CBC does own a handful of TV transmitters that relay privately-owned CBC-affiliated stations. The CBCP stations in southwest Saskatchewan come to mind. (actually I guess they don't now that channel 5 in Swift Current has been purchased by the CBC...) Point being, that CBC-owned relays of CKPR-TV Thunder Bay wouldn't have been out of the question.

But I'd imagine it was still cheaper to extend the microwave network east from Winnipeg, rather than west out of Thunder Bay.

 

[mjlarochelle]

London, Ontario, STILL does not have an Espace Musique transmitter.

 

[BRNout]

CBWT is rebroadcast on three in Saskatchewan and a whopping FIFTEEN in Ontario.

Couldn't the CBC figure out a practical way to get its signal to all the communities within the same province?

In this case, I think time zones play a role -- most of CBWT's repeaters are located in Central time, unlike Toronto's CBLT, which is in Eastern time. The reason northwestern Ontario is served by CBWT and not CBLT is so that they could see most of CBC's programs on local time, instead of having to tune in an hour earlier than scheduled.

The time zone is certainly a factor, but don't underestimate the immense distance involved between a place like Kenora and Toronto (as Scott so aptly pointed out).

I'll put it in a different way: think of the distance between Fargo, ND and Cleveland and you get the idea of how far it is from those NW Ontario communities to Toronto. On the other hand, Winnepeg is just a 2 to 4 hour drive (depending on which community you're looking at). Kenora is 2 hours' drive from Winnipeg (120 miles) and 14 hours' drive from Toronto - if that puts any perspective on this.