CHEK-TV

CHEK-TV
Southwest British Columbia
City of license	Victoria, British Columbia
Branding	CHEK News
Slogan	Your Island's Own
Channels	Analog: 6 (VHF) Digital: allocated 43 (UHF)
Translators	see below
Affiliations	E!
Owner	Canwest (Canwest Media, Inc.)
First air date	December 1, 1956
Call letters’ meaning	CHE(C)K
Sister station(s)	CHAN-TV
Former callsigns	CKTV (prior to launch)
Former affiliations	CBC (1956-1981) CTV (1963-2001, secondary until 1981)
Transmitter Power	100 kilowatts
Height	496.2 metres
Transmitter Coordinates	48°46′27″N 123°10′15″W / 48.77417°N 123.17083°W / 48.77417; -123.17083
Website	CHEK News

CHEK-TV is a television station in Victoria, British Columbia. Broadcasting to all of southwestern British Columbia (including Vancouver), the station is a member of the E! system owned by Canwest. It broadcasts on channel 6 (analog).

Because the frequency range for analog television channel 6 is at the lower end of the FM broadcast band, CHEK-TV can be heard at 87.7 MHz on FM radios, though at a slightly lower volume than other FM stations - due to technical reasons.

History

CHEK was British Columbia's first private television station, signing on the air as a CBC affiliate on December 1, 1956 (the station was to have used the call letters CKTV, but changed to the present calls prior to launch). The station was originally owned by David Armstrong, who already owned local radio station CKDA. The station began to air some CTV programs in September 1963, and became a full-time CTV affiliate on January 5, 1981, when Vancouver CBC station CBUT launched repeater stations at Sooke and Mount McDonald. It was the only local television station on Vancouver Island before CHUM Limited's CIVI (The New VI) launched in October 2001.

In 1963, CHEK was purchased by local businessman Frank Griffiths, who also owned CHAN-TV (BCTV) in Vancouver. For the first few years following CHAN's purchase of the station, CHEK's schedule consisted primarily of simulcasts of CHAN programming and some of CBUT's CBC network shows, in addition to airing local productions and syndicated programs not aired on CHAN, before starting to time-shift network shows sometime in the late-1960s/early-1970s; also, during most of the dual affiliation era, CHEK would air CBC programs in the afternoon and in prime-time while running CTV shows like University of the Air and Canada AM in the morning (simulcast with CHAN), but starting around the 1978-79 season, gradually began adding more CTV shows in prime-time (time-shifted from CHAN) until the disaffiliation from CBC in 1981.

In 1972, CHEK, which had simulcast CHAN's News Hour since the Griffiths purchase (and would continue to do so until 2001), began producing its own news program, Vancouver Island News Hour, airing at 5:30 p.m. before the CHAN News Hour, and at 11:15 p.m. following CBC's The National until 1981, then at 11:30 p.m. after CTV National News from 1981 until 2001. At one stage, CHEK used the same flower logo as CHAN, but later reverted back to its own logo. On January 8, 1984, CHEK moved from its original studios in Saanich to its present location at 780 Kings Road, a studio which was to have been used by a proposed Victoria CBC Television station (which ultimately never went to air due to lack of funding).

Prior to 2001, CHEK also broadcast many of the same programs as CHAN on a time-shifted basis; as with CHAN, this was a mixture of CTV network programming and WIC-owned programming (usually drawn from the schedule of CHCH Hamilton), although the WIC programming usually differed from that aired on CHAN. When Baton Broadcasting's CIVT came on the air, CHEK was one of three stations broadcasting CTV programming, the other two being BCTV and CIVT. For a year or so prior to disaffiliation, after BCTV strengthened its own morning newscast, CHEK was the only station in B.C. airing Canada AM.

When the Vancouver affiliation switch occurred in 2001, CHEK became a CH station. It rebranded as CH Vancouver Island, and took on a schedule similar to CH Hamilton. CHEK airs 15–20 hours of news programs a week, and often programs usually shown on CHAN that were moved to accommodate their news programming. It also took Sports Page from former Global O&O CKVU, but the program continued to be produced at CHAN until its cancellation in September 2005.

In 2004, news anchor Hudson Mack left the station after 19 years, and joined CIVI as its news director on September 1. He became CIVI's 5pm news anchor on October 11. As a result, Sophie Lui returned from CHAN-TV and joined CIVT's former Victoria bureau chief Ed Watson as the pair became the station's main anchors.

CHEK celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2006; as part of the celebrations, it aired vignettes of station promos from the pre-CH era during commercial breaks. Another short vignette was also introduced consisting of CHEK's logos and station IDs through the years, from their first in 1956 to the CH logo it used up until September 2007.

On September 7, 2007, with the rebranding of the national CH service as E!, local programming adopted the "CHEK News" brand, a partial reversal of the current trend for TV networks and systems in Canada to use generic branding for their owned stations.

On August 25, 2008, news production for CHEK News shifted from Victoria to Vancouver, with the addition of a new virtual set, and a launch of a new program, CHEK News: Island 30. On January 3, 2009, CHEK began simulcasting CHAN's broadcast of Global National at 5:30 p.m., the first time CHEK has simulcast its sister station's programming since the affiliation switch of September 1, 2001.

On February 5, 2009, Canwest announced it would explore "strategic options", including possible sale, for CHEK and its other E! stations, saying "a second conventional TV network is no longer key to the long-term success" of the company.^[1][2]

Current personalities

Anchors

• Scott Fee - CHEK News at Five and CHEK News at Six (Weekdays)
• Dana Hutchings - CHEK News: Island 30 (Weekdays)
• Bob Kendrick - CHEK News at Five (Weekends)
• Stacy Ross - CHEK News at Eleven (Weekdays)
• Skye Ryan - CHEK News at Five (Weekends; currently on maternity leave)
• Tess Van Straaten - CHEK News at Eleven (Weekends)

Weather

• Ed Bain - CHEK News at Five, Six & Eleven (Weekdays)
• Tess Van Straaten CHEK News at Five (Weekends)

Sports

• Jeff King
• Paul Haysom

Reporters

• Philip Campbell
• Mary Griffin
• Kendall Hanson
• Dana Hutchings
• Bob Kendrick
• Bruce Kirkpatrick
• Kristen Robinson
• Skye Ryan
• Dean Stoltz
• Gordie Tupper
• Tess Van Straaten

Alumni (partial list)

• John Ackermann
• Marisa Adair
• Robin Adair
• Bob Aylward
• Harry Barisoff
• Jonathan Bartlett
• John Barton
• Kait Burgan
• Paul Carson
• Clem Chapple
• Coleen Christie
• Ida Clarkson
• Jennifer Crosby
• Bert Dodd
• Dawn Draper
• Kim Emerson
• Kristin Eriksen
• Mark Jan Vrem
• Rich Jones
• Bob Kendrick (Terry Roberts)
• Jill Krop
• Lara Lauzon
• Susan Long
• Sophie Lui
• Catherine MacDonald
• Hudson Mack
• Keith MacKenzie
• Howard Markson
• Pamela Martin
• Jenny Matechuk
• Harry Maunu
• Bruce McAlister
• John Mitchell
• Julie Nolin
• Harvey Oberfeld
• Doris Page
• Bruce Payne
• Michaela Pereira
• Patty Pitts
• Wally Rawcliffe
• Dale Read
• Mike Roberts
• Alex Robertson
• Bev Sinclair
• Zack Spencer
• Andy Stephens
• Judy Tyabji
• Ed Watson
• Ron Way
• Norma Wick
• Bill Williams
• Joan Wright
• Keith Wells

Locally produced programs formerly aired on CHEK (partial list)

• At Eleven (talk)
• Barton & Company (talk)
• BC Business Spotlight (business news)
• Body Moves (exercise)
• Capital Comment (political affairs)
• CH News at Noon (news)
• CHEK Around (lifestyles)
• CHEK at Noon (news & lifestyles)
• Club Six (teen dance show)
• Daily Edition (news)
• Daybreak (variety)
• For The Record (political affairs)
• Foufouli (children)
• GO! Magazine (lifestyles)
• Government Street (political affairs)
• Island Country Garden (gardening)
• Island Places, Island Faces (lifestyles)
• Island Good Morning (talk)
• Island Morning (talk)
• Island News Report (news)
• Island Sports Report (sports highlights)
• Learning for Leisure (educational)
• Maturity: The Golden Years (seniors' issues & lifestyles)
• Mixed Company (current affairs)
• Nanaimo Report (news)
• "Now Playing", with Howard Markson (film reviews, entertainment)
• Shake It Up (teen dance show)
• Sports Page (sports highlights - produced at CHAN)
• Student Forum (student issues)
• Talk Back (current affairs call-in)
• The Ida Clarkson Show (talk)
• The Noon Show (news and talk)
• The Senior Chef (cooking)
• Tyabji (current affairs call-in)
• Vancouver Canucks hockey (sports)
• Vancouver Grizzlies basketball (sports)
• Victoria Scene (arts and entertainment magazine)
• Wake Up (morning newscast)
• What's Cooking (cooking)
• Woman to Woman (women's issues)
• World of Travel (travel)

Previously aired US programs

• Late Show with David Letterman, weekdays 4:30pm (August 1995 to August 1999)

Videotape Format

CHEK-TV uses shoots on DVC-Pro tapes for all its programming and non-live parts of its CHEK News broadcasts.

Station Presentation

Over the years, CHEK-TV has seen a great deal of different logos, reflecting different owners, styles, and themes as the years go by.

1956 - Early 1960s The first logo of CHEK-TV	Early 1960s - 1963 First known case of CHEK using a checkmark as its logo.	1976 - 1978	1978 - mid 1980s

Mid 1990s - 1997 Meant to resemble a checkerboard.	1997-2001 There was some speculation that the introduction of this checkmark logo (with the slogan "It's Here") was intended to confuse viewers into thinking it was the soon-to-launch VTV.[citation needed]	2001-2005 First logo of CH, used on air.	2005-2007 Replaced the orignal CH logo, replaced with current logo with the rebranding to E!.

Digital television and high definition

As of September 2008, CHEK-TV has not yet begun broadcasting in digital.

After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on August 31, 2011 ^[3], CHEK-TV is required to begin digital broadcasts on its current assigned channel number, 49, however should the station sign-on before the analog shut off date, the station will broadcast on channel 43. However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display CHEK-TV's virtual channel as 6.1.

Transmitters

See also

• List of programs broadcast by E!
• 2001 Vancouver, British Columbia TV realignment

References

1. ^ Canwest announces strategic review of five conventional television stations , press release, February 5, 2009
2. ^ Canwest considers possible sale of 5 TV stations across Canada, The Canadian Press via Google News, February 5, 2009
3. ^ http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/oca-bc.nsf/en/ca02336e.html

External links

• CHEK News
• Canadian Communications Foundation - CHEK-TV History
• Query the REC's Canadian station database for CHEK-TV