CJBN-TV - History

History

CJBN-TV was started by local businessmen Carl Johnson and Bertil Nilson, and started in 1980, with a power output of 17.5 watts. It was co-owned with Norcom Telecommunications, whose cable systems served Kenora and surrounding areas. With a potential audience of only 5,800 households, it was Canada's smallest television market. It remains the smallest DMA in Canada, and the second smallest in North America (behind Glendive, Montana).

The station came about after Norcom applied to operate a Central Time Zone Satellite Relay Distribution System (SRDU), and as such, needed a CTV signal. Winnipeg's CKY, which was the closest CTV affiliate to Kenora, was unavailable, so Norcom applied for, and was successful in gaining their own CTV station. The company also planned to set up a series of rebroadcasting stations to expand into nearby areas, but when Cancom secured the main licence for the Northern Service uplink, Norcom was left with just CJBN. With the local economy dependent on the pulp and paper industry, the station's future remained precarious, especially with the increase of competing satellite services available in the area.

In 1983, the station proposed setting up rebroadcast transmitters in nearby communities:

• CJBN-TV-1 Dryden
• CJBN-TV-2 Fort Frances
• CJBN-TV-3 Sioux Lookout
• CJBN-TV-4 Ignace
• CJBN-TV-5 Red Lake
• CJBN-TV-6 Ear Falls

In 1985, CJBN-TV increased its power to 177.5 watts. In 1988, the station told the CRTC that they could not afford to construct the rebroadcast transmitters, and would remain with just one transmitter in Kenora. In place of the rebroadcast transmitters, the station was carried on cable in Red Lake, Sioux Lookout and Ear Falls, and later on, was added to the cable systems in most towns in Northwestern Ontario, including Dryden, Fort Frances, and Ignace.

In 1999, the station was brought before the CRTC to explain the lack of Canadian content, but two years later, its licence was renewed, once evidence of renewed effort toward Canadian content was proven. In 2000, CJBN started to brand itself as CJTV but would revert back to the CJBN-TV designation after their purchase by Shaw Communications. And in 2004, cable systems in nearby areas and national satellite services began to carry CJBN.

On August 9, 2006, Shaw Communications announced an agreement to purchase Norcom, including CJBN. As Shaw itself did not previously own any broadcast assets, there was some speculation that the struggling CJBN would be resold to CTV to become a repeater of CKY-TV (Shaw had itself sold CKY to CTV following a similar acquisition in 2001). However, the company decided to keep CJBN. CRTC approval to this sale was announced in November 2006.

Shaw Communications acquired Canwest's broadcasting assets, including the Global network, in 2010. In response to deficiency questions from the CRTC regarding its application to acquire those assets, made public in July 2010, Shaw stated that it had no plans to disaffiliate CJBN from CTV and make the Kenora station a full Global O&O. The cable provider said it would negotiate to extend CJBN's affiliation agreement with CTV, which was set to expire on August 31, 2010 at the time. However, on December 1, 2011, CJBN dropped all CTV programming and became a full Global station, adopting a schedule similar to nearby Global station CKND in Winnipeg.

Kenora cable subscribers, both analog and digital, continue to have access to CTV programming through CKY, which is now carried on Shaw's basic cable service in Kenora and area on CJBN's previous cable channel positions (including channel 4 in Kenora), with CJBN relocated to cable 12, the channel position previously used by CKND.