MONTREAL and OTTAWA – Just in time for Super Bowl, CTV Montreal has completed the installation of its over-the-air high definition transmitter in Montréal.
The station’s programming is now available to viewers with an HD-capable television equipped with a digital tuner and antenna on Channel 12.1 (RF channel 51). CTV also has HD transmitters in Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary.
“Viewers receiving CTV over-the-air can now get Montréal’s most-watched programs in High Definition,” said Don Bastien, SVP and GM of CTV Montréal, in the announcement. “As Montréal’s #1 English-language television station, we are enormously proud to deliver this service to our viewers.”
In other company news, CTV Ottawa (CJOH) is gearing up to mark 50 years of broadcasting in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec. The station will air a 30-minute 50th Anniversary Special on March 12 at 6:30 pm, plus a series of special segments dedicated to the station’s history throughout that week.
Currently the station is airing vignettes looking back on significant events such as the launch of the station by Ernie Bushnell, the moment the modern day Ottawa Senators franchise was awarded in Florida, and the devastating ice storm that crippled the region in 1998.
In 1961 CJOH began broadcasting on Channel 13. Until then, television owners in the Ottawa area and West Quebec only had the choices of CBC’s English or French language service. It gained a reputation as a television production house, creating programs such as The Galloping Gourmet, The Amazing Kreskin and You Can’t Do That On Television. The station’s call letters have been CJOH for all 50 years, however, it was re-branded CTV Ottawa in 2005, when all local CTV markets took the name of their respective cities.