CHCH-DT (channel 11) is an independent television station in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Channel Zero, the station maintains studios on Innovation Drive in the west end of Hamilton; prior to 2021, it was located near the corner of Jackson and Caroline streets in downtown Hamilton for nearly 65 years. The station has additional offices at the Marriott on the Falls in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Its old transmitter was located on First Road West in the former city of Stoney Creek; it was demolished in March 2024 and replaced with a new transmitter located on Highway 5 near Millgrove Side Road in Dundas, Ontario, which started transmitting in November 2023.
CHCH signed on the air on June 7, 1954, as a CBC affiliate which was founded by Ken Soble. Beginning in 1961, it became an independent station which transformed into a national superstation on January 1, 1982. In 1990, the station was acquired by Western International Communications.
After several years as an independent station, CHCH was acquired by Canwest in 2000 and became the flagship station for the CH programming service as sister to the flagship CIII-TV of the Global Television Network. In 2007, the CH stations were rebranded to E! after an American cable network of the same name. When Canwest had financial problems, CHCH as well as Montreal's CJNT-TV was acquired by independent broadcaster Channel Zero in 2009. It changed its format to an all-news and all-movies station. In 2010, the station again began to air U.S. prime time programming.
History CBC affiliation (1954–1961) The station signed on the air on June 7, 1954, operating as an affiliate of CBC Television. Its studios at 163 Jackson Street West were previously used by CJSH-FM (102.9, now CKLH-FM).Private Bids On CBC Board Agenda/Seven Bids Okayed, (PDF) Canadian Broadcaster and Telescreen/World Radio History, See pages 18 Vol. 6, No. March 6, 18, 1953 and p. 1 (37) Vol. 12, No. 7. April 1, 1953 After CJSH's shutdown, its studios were converted for CHCH. It is the oldest privately owned television station in the Hamilton–Toronto area. At the time all privately owned television stations in Canada were required to be CBC affiliates. CHCH-TV was founded by Ken Soble, a leader of Hamilton's urban renewal movement and the owner of radio station CHML (900 AM).
Independent station (1961–1982)
In 1961, CHCH left the CBC and became an independent station. There were three reasons for removing its affiliation from CBC. Hamilton is part of the Toronto market, and Toronto-based CBLT already provided full network service to some of CHCH's viewing area. CBLT planned to increase its transmitter power and change frequencies (from VHF channel 9 to channel 6, and eventually channel 5), resulting in a near-100 percent overlap with CHCH. The station's managers wanted to produce more local programming, instead of having to carry CBC programming.
CHCH became the first and for over a decade the only television station in Canada not to be affiliated with any network; the other private stations (which signed on the air in 1960 or early 1961) that were not affiliated with the CBC had formed the CTV network in October 1961.
Possible flagship of a third network (1966–1981) In the mid-1960s, CHCH was the lead station in United Program Purchase, a consortium of Canadian television stations which began purchasing some programming rights separately from the CTV and CBC networks."Backbone of third TV network takes shape in CHCH schedule". The Globe and Mail, March 31, 1966.
By 1966, UPP was attracting media coverage as the potential framework for a third Canadian television network. In the fall of the same year, Soble's Niagara Television which was the licensee of CHCH, put forward a proposal for a network to be branded as NTV."Soble's pitch". The Globe and Mail, October 27, 1996. In the original plan, CHCH would have been the network's flagship station for the Greater Toronto Area. However the application faced numerous regulatory hurdles and delays, and its main financial backer which was Power Corporation of Canada, backed out in 1969. By 1970 however, the network application was revived by former CHCH executive Al Bruner's new Global Communications corporation, with Niagara Television and CHCH no longer involved in the bid. The Global Television Network launched in 1974 on the new CKGN-TV.
Despite the station's lack of success in developing a full-fledged network, it became one of Canada's most prominent syndicators of non-network programming in the 1970s and 1980s, with many of its locally produced entertainment programs airing on television stations across Canada and occasionally internationally.
Superstation CHCH and Fox affiliation (1982–1997)
CHCH became a national superstation on January 1, 1982, when Cancom (now Shaw Broadcast Services) began carrying the station and three others (CHAN-TV in Vancouver, CITV-TV in Edmonton, and TCTV, which was essentially a rebroadcaster of CFTM-TV in Montreal) to cable television providers in remote regions of the country that otherwise only had access to the CBC.
In the late 1980s, CHCH was unofficially affiliated with the American Fox television network. This caused tension between Fox and WUTV, the network's affiliate in Buffalo, New York. In 1989, WUTV disaffiliated from Fox, stating that CHCH's duplication of Fox programming on its VHF signal with a city-grade signal over Buffalo, along with the ability to simsub over WUTV on Canadian cable systems, put WUTV at an unfair disadvantage and compromised WUTV's ratings, which at the time were among the lowest in the network.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the station began a branding effort centred around the slogan "Together, we're the ones!" Different promotional slogans referring to either Hamilton or Ontario as a whole, reflecting the station's cable coverage across the province, and a blue-coloured, 3D variation of the longtime "circles" logo were used. Promos had a vocal song from Frank Gari which was part of the "Pride Inside" music package also used by the station's newscasts and movie presentations (originally commissioned by another channel 11 which is WBAL-TV in Baltimore).
ONtv era (1997–2001)
In 1990, Western International Communications (WIC) purchased CHCH. Although the station had been available on cable television in many Ontario markets for years, its broadcast signal coverage was expanded throughout Ontario in 1997. The launch of several rebroadcasters happened in 1997 in an effort to compete with the reach of Global's Ontario station CIII (channel 6), and with the Baton Broadcast System, a group of mostly CTV-affiliated stations that served most of the province.
In turn WIC rebranded the station as "ONtv" ("Ontario Television"), in line with the branding conventions of many of the company's other stations including CHAN-TV in Vancouver (which was branded as "BCTV"), CITV-TV in Edmonton (which was branded as "ITV"), and CHCA-TV in Red Deer, Alberta (which was branded as "RDTV").
Local news programming shifted their focus from the station's core market, the Hamilton area, toward Ontario as a whole in an attempt to challenge what was then a regional news service provided by Global. However, with Hamilton now being largely an afterthought and other local stations (in Toronto and elsewhere) already having strong ratings, the shift was unsuccessful and CHCH's ratings decreased. During the ONtv years, the station also aired WIC's nightly Canada Tonight newscast.
Canwest ownership (2001–2009)
In 2000, Canwest Global Communications purchased WIC's television assets. Since Global already served the Hamilton area through flagship station CIII-TV's transmitter in Paris, Ontario, Canwest rebranded the station "CH" (or "CH Hamilton") on February 12, 2001, and launched the CH television system in September of that year. The move launched a secondary television system for Canwest's stations in medium-sized cities located near larger markets. Local news coverage was revamped and refocused on the Hamilton/Halton/Niagara region.
Despite the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)'s television station ownership restrictions (one station per owner and per language in each market), Canwest was permitted to maintain CHCH's coverage of other markets throughout most of Ontario. However it could not broadcast to Thunder Bay, Peterborough, or Kingston because of opposition from local television stations. Some cable providers outside of Ontario also continue to carry CHCH as a form of "superstation". Its over-the-air signal also easily covers Buffalo, New York, and Erie, Pennsylvania, across the Canada–United States border.
On June 7, 2004, at 8 p.m. CHCH-TV celebrated its 50th anniversary. The station aired a documentary profiling the station's history, entitled The First 50 Years: A Half Century of CH, which was hosted by Matt Hayes. It was announced that the CH brand would change starting in 2007; however, it remained in use until September 7, 2007. Canwest then rebranded CHCH's local programming from CH Hamilton to CHCH News following the relaunch of the national CH service as E! under a brand licensing agreement with the E! cable channel in the United States. CHCH's non-news schedule was rebranded on the same day as "E! Ontario".
Channel Zero ownership (2009–present) On February 5, 2009, Canwest announced it would explore "strategic options". These included the possible sale or closure of CHCH and the company's other stations in the E! system, saying a second conventional TV network was no longer key to the long-term success of the company."Canwest may sell TV stations". cbc.ca, February 5, 2009. A grassroots group which was fronted by Live @ 5:30 co-host Donna Skelly announced an intent to purchase CHCH from Canwest and return the station to its former local focus."CHCH staff launch bold bid" The Hamilton Spectator (February 26, 2009)"Will townsfolk save the House of Frightenstein?" From Toronto Star, March 15, 2009.
In March 2009, paperwork filed with the CRTC for a one-year renewal of CHCH's licence revealed that the station was projected to lose nearly $30 million during the station's 2010 fiscal year which began on September 1, 2009—with projected revenues of just $41 million against costs of $69 million. John Douglas, a spokesperson for Canwest, said that CHCH and its other stations in the E! group were money losers during the last decade, coupled with the Canadian broadcasters' dependency on American programming for profits., Broadcaster Magazine, March 18, 2009.
On June 30, 2009, Channel Zero announced that it would purchase CHCH and CJNT-TV in Montreal from Canwest in exchange for $12 in cash and the assumption of various station liabilities.Channel Zero Inc. agrees to purchase CHCH-TV Hamilton and CJNT-TV Montreal from Canwest CNW Group (June 30, 2009)Channel Zero Inc. agrees to purchase CHCH-TV Hamilton and CJNT-TV Montreal from Canwest (Video News Coverage) (June 30, 2009) The CRTC approved the sale on August 28, 2009. Channel Zero took control of the station's programming at midnight Eastern Time on the morning of August 31, beginning its tenure with a film from the 1980s. CHCH removed its affiliation from E! (which shut down at the end of the day) and adopted a new programming format. This consisted of local newscasts throughout the day on weekdays and movies at night (as well as all day on weekends, outside of limited newscasts, infomercials, and other select programs during the morning and evening hours). The channel reverted to branding itself as "CHCH".