CIII-DT

Ken Soble, the founder of CHCH-TV in Hamilton, Ontario envisioned a national "superstation" of 96 satellite-fed transmitters with CHCH as its flagship. In 1966, he filed the first application with the Board of Broadcast Governors for a network to be branded as NTV — however, the application faced various regulatory hurdles and underwent numerous revisions over the next number of years. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) eventually decided to go ahead with the publicly owned Anik satellite system instead of relying on private communications companies to build Canada's satellite broadcasting infrastructure, placing the NTV application in jeopardy after Power Corporation of Canada, a key investor in the plan, backed out (Anik's owner, Telesat Canada, was later privatized and sold to Bell Canada, then merged with Loral's "Loral Skynet" division and renamed to simply Telesat, now containing the Telstar, Anik and Nimiq satellites).[2][3][4][5].

In 1970, one of Soble's former employees, Al Bruner, teamed up with Peter Hill to revive the application under new ownership. Bruner and Hill's group, Global Communications, scaled back the original NTV proposal to a network of seven UHF transmitters in Southern Ontario, whose combined footprint would have provided at least secondary coverage from Montreal to Detroit. Global Communications still aspired to eventually build out Soble's original 97-station network, and viewed the seven-transmitter Ontario chain as an interim step. However, since CHCH was no longer involved in the application, Global's iteration of the plan also required the launch of a new station to serve as its flagship.

The station first signed on the air on January 6, 1974 as CKGN-TV (before its use by the station, the CKGN callsign had previously been used by what is now CTV owned-and-operated station CKNY-TV in North Bay from 1955 to 1962). It branded itself as the "Global Television Network," a name which reflected its then-unprecedented coverage of most of Southern Ontario from six transmitters (a seventh that would have reached Montreal was turned down) fed from a centralized studio. From its launch in 1974 until 2009, the station's main transmitter was licensed to Paris, a small town near Brantford, but Toronto became the station's primary city of licence following an amendment to the channel 41 licence in 2009.[6] Through its entire history, however, the station's main studio facility has been based in a converted factory (built 1954 for Barber Greene Canada Limited)[7] in the Don Mills area of North York (since 1998, located in Toronto).

It had hoped to be distinct from CBC and CTV by airing a number of its own Canadian-made programs. Three months later, however, many of these programs had been canceled due to deep financial problems. It had made a serious blunder by signing on in the middle of the 1973–74 television season, and prospective advertisers did not have the money to spare for commercial spots. It barely registered as a blip in the ratings; in Toronto, for instance, it only drew a 2.5 share, just a fraction of those drawn by CBC and CTV. Its line of credit was yanked, and it was unable to meet daily expenses.

Amid losses of over a million dollars a month, the network was forced to scrap its ambitious business model just to survive. Instead, it began airing as much non-Canadian content as allowed (at the time, Canadian content regulations required stations to broadcast domestically produced programs for 60% of its overall schedule, and 50% during prime time), becoming essentially a clone of CTV. The station's financial difficulties continued until it was bailed out by two conglomerates in 1977 – a Toronto-based group headed by Paul Morton and a Winnipeg-based group headed by Izzy Asper. The Asper group bought controlling interest in 1985. In 1989, the two groups tried to buy out each other's shares, and the CRTC ended the contest by allowing Asper and his company, Canwest, to take full ownership.

First logo as "Global Ontario", used from 1997 to 2006.

The station's callsign was changed to CIII-TV in January 1984, in accordance with its 10th anniversary of broadcasting. The Windsor/Cottam transmitter would be an exception to the rebroadcasters that were also assigned the CIII calls that month for a few years as it continued to be identified in CRTC documents as CKGN-TV-1, perhaps because of licensing issues with nearby broadcasters in the Detroit market (the CKGN calls are now used by an FM radio station in Kapuskasing, Ontario).

Second logo as "Global Ontario", used from 2006 to 2009.

CIII has evolved into a much more Toronto-centric station in recent years. Previously, it employed a number of freelance journalists from across the province who filed reports for Global News. This, along with extensive provincewide weather coverage, gave the station a distinctive Ontario feel for many years. By the late 1990s, however, its focus had shifted almost exclusively toward Toronto.

Asper's stations (including CKVU-TV in Vancouver, Saskatchewan stations CFRE-TV at Regina and CFSK-TV at Saskatoon, CKND-TV in Winnipeg and CIHF-TV in Halifax/Saint John) formed a mini-network across portions of Canada outside of Ontario that by 1990 was known as the Canwest Global System. In August 1997, Canwest bought CKMI-TV in Quebec City and set up rebroadcasters in Montreal and Sherbrooke. It then scrubbed all local branding from its stations and rebranded them as the "Global Television Network," Canada's third national television network. Around this time, CIII became known internally as "Global Ontario", but generally avoided using the name on-air, even after most other Global stations began using regional branding in 2006. The Ontario station began to identify as "Global Toronto" in 2009 following the aforementioned licence amendment, but continues to use only the main Global logo in its bug outside of news programming, unlike other Global stations.

CIII-DT presently broadcasts 28 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with five hours each weekday and 1½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). In addition to its main news department in Toronto, the station also operates a news bureau at the National Press Centre in Ottawa. CIII does not employ its own entertainment or sports reporters. Entertainment news coverage is provided by Entertainment Tonight Canada and sports news content was formerly provided by sports specialty channel Sportsnet 360.

Early on, its flagship news program Global News was developed under the guidance of Bill Cunningham, a veteran of CBC News; in the beginning, the newscast was anchored by Peter Trueman in Toronto and Peter Desbarats in Ottawa. During the news department's early years, its newscasts were one of the most successful and important programs that CKGN/CIII had.[8] Trueman has noted in his memoir that the programme was groundbreaking: "Our newsroom-studio combination ... served as a model for the new CHAN-TV facilities in Vancouver, and it is currently [1979] the inspiration for Ted Turner's new Cablenews operation in Atlanta". The CBC also looked to it for inspiration when it changed its national news format in the early 1980s.[9] The programme also pioneered the use of "regional correspondents," usually print or radio journalists, who would regularly advise the station about stories in their part of Ontario. This allowed field producers and a Global crew to target key stories of the day. "This is the main reason that much of Global's ex-urban coverage has been so effective", Trueman wrote in 1979.[10]

During the 1980s, Global greatly expanded its news operation, with a 90-minute block of news starting at 5:30 p.m., as well as newscasts at noon and 11:00 p.m. By the end of the 1980s, the noon newscast was simply titled News at Noon, the 5:30 newscast was called First News, the 6:00 newscast was called The Six O'Clock Report, and the 11:00 newscast was titled The World Tonight. Trueman left CIII in 1988. Other anchors on the station over the years have included Mike Anscombe, Beverly Thomson, John Dawe, Jane Gilbert, Peter Kent, Loretta Sullivan, Bob McAdorey, Thalia Assuras and Anne-Marie Mediwake.

In keeping with the avoidance of regional branding noted above, CIII used Global News, as opposed to a regional name such as Global Ontario News, as its main news brand. In the fall of 2009, however, for news programming, it began using "Global Toronto", since its newscasts focus primarily on that city. Individual newscasts are given separate titles including News Hour (for the early evening newscast) and News Final (for the 11:00 p.m. newscast).

From 1994 to 2001, CIII also produced First National, which was anchored by Peter Kent and aired at 6:30 p.m. weeknights. In 2001, the program was replaced by Canada Tonight, which in turn was replaced that fall with Global National, anchored by Kevin Newman; it originated from CHAN's facility in Vancouver before moving to a dedicated studio in Ottawa in February 2008. In January 2009, CIII canceled its weekday morning newscast Global News Morning, along with the Noon News Hour, with the former being discontinued due to low ratings and both program being dropped due to cost-cutting measures at certain Global stations. From February to August 2009, CIII simulcast former Hamilton sister station CHCH-TV's Morning Live newscast each weekday from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. The CHCH simulcast was later dropped after Canwest sold that station to Channel Zero, with CIII airing second-run lifestyle programming in the morning timeslot, as well as rebroadcasts of the previous night's News Hour Final.

On October 11, 2011, CIII-DT launched a three-hour weekday morning newscast titled The Morning Show, running from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m., which broadcasts from a storefront studio at Shaw Media's Bloor Street building in Downtown Toronto.[11] The station also moved its early evening newscast, News Hour, a half-hour earlier to 5:30 p.m. to coincide with a shift of Global National to the 6:30 p.m. slot, joining Montreal's CKMI-DT and Halifax's CIHF-DT as the only Global stations to carry the network's national newscast in that timeslot.[12]

On August 27, 2012, CIII restored a midday newscast to its schedule with the launch of a half-hour weekday noon newscast. Unlike the existing lunch hour newscasts carried on Global's sister stations, the newscast airs for 30 minutes instead of one hour. The expansions to CIII's news programming were part of a benefits package that was included as a condition of the sale of the Global Television Network to Shaw Communications.[13]

In May 2015, Shaw did a complete news anchor shuffle, resulting in the current news anchor lineup, including revealing the new Evening News anchors, filling the vacancy left following the resignation of Leslie Roberts in January 2015.

In June 2016, Global News announced that The Morning Show co-host Liza Fromer would not have her contract renewed after five years with the station. Fromer was the only original host of The Morning Show remaining from when the show launched in 2011. No replacement will be hired to fill her position. Another layoff was with Global News at Noon anchor Rosey Edeh. Neither anchor works with the station anymore.[14]

On February 12, 2019, it was announced that, starting March 4, 2019, The Morning Show would be rebranded as Global News Morning, following the naming-scheme of other Global morning programs across the country. The new Global News Morning program will be anchored by Global News at 11 co-anchor Antony Robart and former Breakfast Television host Jennifer Valentyne, with Liem Vu as weather specialist and Marianne Dimain as field reporter. Hosts Jeff McArthur and Carolyn Mackenzie will move exclusively to a newly extended national The Morning Show, which will air from 9am-10am. Additionally, Global News at Noon will be anchored by Global News at 5:30 anchor Farrah Nasser.

A series of rebroadcast transmitters relay the CIII signal to much of Ontario. Most of these use the CIII base callsign followed by a number to denote their status as rebroadcasters, except in Sudbury and North Bay where the CFGC callsign is assigned. The most likely explanation for using CFGC is that the close resemblance between the number 1 and the letter I would make CIII-TV-11 an undesirable call sign for Sudbury, while North Bay could not use CIII-TV-2 as that call sign is already in use in Bancroft.

These six transmitters formed the original 1974 service:

• CKGN-TV Channel 6 from Paris (serving Hamilton, Brantford and Kitchener–Waterloo)
• CKGN-TV-1 Channel 22 from Cottam (near Windsor; also serving Detroit, Michigan)
• CKGN-TV-2 Channel 2 from Bancroft (serving Belleville)
• CKGN-TV-6 Channel 6 from Gatineau, Quebec (Camp Fortune site, near Ottawa)
• CKGN-TV-22 Channel 22 from Uxbridge (near Toronto)
• CKGN-TV-29 Channel 29 from Oil Springs (near Sarnia)

Original plans called for a seventh transmitter, CKGN-TV-36 from Maxville, near Cornwall. It would have primarily served Hawkesbury, but would have also provided a fairly strong grade B signal to Montreal. However, Global was forced to drop the Maxville transmitter from its proposal due to a CRTC moratorium on new stations in Montreal.

The Cottam transmitter was beset by legal difficulties. Since it served Windsor, it was considered to be part of the Detroit market, in which Global did not hold the rights for all of its programming. While Global initially was able to supply alternate programming to the Cottam site, its initial financial difficulties prompted it to instead begin showing a slide during preempted shows, which often made up significant portions of the network's prime time lineup.[17] The network quoted the cost of continuing to provide alternate programming to Windsor at $800,000 a year.[18] At the same time, in an attempt to disclaim competition with American outlets, Global ceased sending listings to Detroit's newspapers.[17]

On August 29, 1977, the Cottam transmitter suffered an electrical fire that caused $300,000 in damage and took it out of commission.[19] After considering restoring service from Cottam and finding issues with securing an appropriate transmitter and its insurance claim, the network began to contemplate ways of improving its service to Windsor.[20] Further delays were incurred when concerns arose about potential polychlorinated biphenyl contamination of the site.[21] In 1981, Global sought permission to build a higher-power successor to the Cottam station for the Windsor–Detroit market;[22] the CRTC denied this application in December of that year.[23]

In 1986, the CRTC approved the relocation of the Cottam transmitter to Stevenson.[24] Some time after this, the CIII-TV-22 call letters from the now-defunct Uxbridge transmitter were reassigned to the Stevenson transmitter, which then was activated in November 1988. The transmitter is located southwest of Wheatley, between Wheatley and Leamington, but its signal is aimed northeast (towards Chatham–Kent), and barely reaches Windsor and Detroit – presumably to protect the Detroit stations. In the early 1990s, additional transmitters were added to expand Global's footprint in Ontario.[25]

The Uxbridge transmitter was Canada's most powerful UHF transmitter, operating at the maximum allowable power of 5 megawatts.[26][27] It shut down in 1988, replaced by CIII-TV-41, broadcasting from the CN Tower in Toronto.[28] For all intents and purposes, given that the station has always been based in Toronto, this was CIII's main transmitter and Global's flagship even before the station officially moved its licence to Toronto in 2009. This was the case with the Uxbridge transmitter as well. Starting in 2008, CIII began sending its signal to the Toronto transmitter first, since the Paris transmitter did not yet have digital capability.

Other transmitters were gradually introduced, including (launch dates in parenthesis):

• CIII-TV-7 Channel 7 from Midland (November 1987, serving Barrie)
• CIII-TV-4 Channel 4 from Owen Sound (June 1988)
• CIII-TV-27 Channel 27 from Peterborough (October 1988)
• CFGC-TV Channel 11 from Sudbury (December 1992)
• CFGC-TV-2 Channel 2 from North Bay (December 1992)
• CIII-TV-13 Channel 13 from Timmins (December 1992)
• CIII-TV-12 Channel 12 from Sault Ste. Marie (December 1992)
• CIII-TV-55 Channel 55 from Fort Erie (early 1993, serving Niagara Falls and the southern Niagara Region; signal also reaches Buffalo, New York)

CIII is not available in Thunder Bay but the market is served by independently owned affiliate CHFD-DT, owned by Dougall Media. CHFD's owners, the Dougall family, were concerned about Global threatening their local television monopoly (Dougall Media controls all of the local network television output for the Thunder Bay region[29] and had previously lobbied the CRTC to cease CHCH-TV's cable transmissions in the mid-1990s[30]) and pressured the CRTC to deny Global's application to build a transmitter there. However, in 2009, Dougall Media switched the affiliation of CHFD from CTV to Global. As a result, Global-branded programming is available in Thunder Bay, just not via CIII's province-wide network of repeaters. Similarly, in Kenora, former CTV affiliate, CJBN-TV (which was owned by Shaw), switched to full-time Global programming in late 2011 (the station would cease operations in January 2017).

Initial attempts to cover Peterborough and Kingston from the Bancroft transmitter had yielded poor to marginal results; this signal has since been largely supplanted (for Peterborough only) by the more-powerful CIII-TV-27. However, CIII-TV-2 continues to serve residents of the Township of Addington Highlands.

CIII-TV-41, along with CHCH in Hamilton and CHAN-TV in Vancouver, began over-the-air high-definition broadcasts in 2008.[31]

Digital channels

• Global Toronto
• CIII-DT history – Canadian Communications Foundation
• Query the REC Canadian station database for CIII
• Query the REC Canadian station database for CFGC-TV (Callsign used in Sudbury and North Bay)
• Query TV Fool's coverage map for CIII