Greetings from TV Garth! I’ll take today’s Canada Day celebration as the perfect time to showcase my reception of local Canadian TV stations! I’ll cover highlights that run from March 2009 to the present. This report features shirtless men, not so subtle innuendo, and reception galore in true TV Garth style! There are a lot of digital stations covered, but there are also many analog stations left that haven’t transitioned to digital yet.
We start with a great shot of the Canadian flag, ironically enough, featured on an American station. Buffalo’s 7-1 WKBW acknowledges their large Canadian audience by playing both national anthems when they sign off at night!
When I first picked up 66-1 CKXT (Sun TV) in early March 2009, they were running an infomercial for the Ab Rocket. I wasn’t complaining.
Sometimes at night I catch glimpses of Pour Le Plasir (which roughly translates to “for your pleasure”?) on 25-1 CBLFT (CBC French). I usually have no idea what they’re talking about, but as you can see below, they wear fabulous outfits and seem to know how to party.
Lloyd Robertson is a Canadian institution. He’s featured on the CTV National News seen here on 9-1 CFTO!
And here’s Mark Daly, aka, the “voice” of City TV on 57-1!
17-1 WNED caters to their Canadian viewers by promoting themselves as “Buffalo – Toronto” and often features slides of prominent Canadian locales on their station.
Over on WNED’s Thinkbright subchannel on 17-3, they air reruns of the CBC kids show Nanalan. I’m a fully grown man, but still find it adorable!
I caught a snap below from a promo for CBC’s show Being Erica, where the title character is doing a great homage to 1984 Madonna.
CBC also airs the talk show Steven & Chris, which is one of the few daytime shows with openly gay hosts. (I suppose you could also count Ellen, and maybe even that Jim J. Bullock & Tammy Faye show from years ago. But it’s still a rare thing to see.) Unfortunately, though, they cancelled it earlier this year.
Speaking of talk shows, one of CTV’s major chatfests is eTalk, featuring Ben Mulroney & Tanya Kim, as seen on 9-1 CFTO.
More chat comes in the form of eTalk’s biggest competitor Entertainment Tonight Canada, shown on 41-1 Global, with host Cheryl Hickey. (This was also the first time I’d gotten Global digitally…they have a very weak signal.)
This episode featured a story on Canadian diva Shania Twain, and had a promo for an upcoming ep with Bif Naked!
Not only was I was excited to be getting Global digitally for the first time, but I was also excited to see a half naked Wilmer Valderrama on a repeat of That 70’s Show. (This was, funnily enough, only a day or two after I was wondering why Wilmer hadn’t exploited himself in shirtless pics the way other Hollywood celebs do. Thank you Global!)
Then Hamilton’s 36-1 CITS (CTS) popped in for the first time to make me feel guilty about salivating over Wilmer Valderrama mere moments before.
Later in March, I picked up Hamilton’s 11-1 CHCH digitally for the first time. The news is one of the few unique things left on the station, as their local programming has dwindled severely over the years.
Here’s a shot of 9-1 CFTO’s local newscast.
Late at night I always see 9-1 CFTO running the Dr. Ho infomercial. What impresses me is that Dr. Ho can get away with strapping his massaging device onto half naked firemen, and he gets away with it! I can’t imagine going up to a group of firefighters and saying, “Hey guys, wanna take off your shirts so I can attach some vibrating devices to you?” So go Dr. Ho! I love the caption in the second pic that reads “2 people sharing Dr. Ho.” Sounds like the title of a very different kind of movie.
I like local commercials from cities I receive, especially on Canadian stations, because they are one of the few “unique” identifiers of a channel’s local flavour. Below is an ad for “East Hamilton Radio” on CHCH!
CBC shows the Rick Mercer Report, and I have to give him credit as he’s a very nice guy in real life and posed for a pic with me recently!
Here we have a series of pics from Kitchener’s CTV affiliate CKCO. Even though CKCO is an older station than CFTO, they’ve essentially been reduced to repeating everything on CFTO except their local news. They don’t even show call letters anymore until their end of the night sign off.
The first pics show a sports report about Guelph and Kitchener sports teams!
I’d swear the news anchor at the left looks like Miranda from Sex And The City.
Here’s a promo shot of the CKCO News @ Noon!
CTV airs Canada AM in the wee hours of the morning!
And even CFMT (OMNI 1) has a newscast of their own.
One of the more famous Canadian talk shows is The Hour on CBC with George Stroumboulopoulos.
57-1 City TV was there to cover the controversy of Greg Gutfeld’s ill timed remarks about the Canadian Armed Forces, which coincided with the tragic death of Mark Diab in the line of duty.
Below is a great shot of Toronto’s CN Tower as City TV goes into their weather report.
More from CityNews, and I swear I met this reporter back in 1998 during the University of Toronto’s frosh week festivities.
Next we have Hockey Night In Canada, which looks great in HD on the CBC.
The best part of the pic below is how R&B singer Divine Brown is just Diva-ing it up a notch in the middle slide behind the sports guys. Look at her, with her arm bent and just letting all the glamour flow. Like she’s saying, “What hockey? This is Divine Brown! You ready for my show, baby?”
And of course, here’s the Hockey Night In Canada logo.
This was from an Italian soap airing on 64-1 OMNI 1 (CFMT). No idea what it was, but the guy below is smokin’ hot.
Global provides viewers with a community guide, as seen below.
Here we have some Sun TV over on 66-1 CKXT, with Canoe Live host Chris Van Vliet.
More Global below, promoting their News Hour with Anne-Marie Mediwake and Leslie Roberts.
You can’t tune to any station from Toronto without tripping over an ad for Russell Oliver Jewellery at some point.
TVO makes you think. That is all. (On analog 19.)
CTS is “Television You Can Believe In” which amounts to repeats of family friendly sitcoms, and occasionally offensive religious rhetoric. An uneven balance, but I heart them for previously airing reruns of The Facts Of Life and The Lucy Show.
This is what the CHCH newsroom looks like, followed by an ad for their website encouraging you to upload your own news items.
Below is a great non-E!-branded shot of CHCH listing their “region” as Hamilton, Halton, and Niagara.
It’s Russell Peters, popping up in a report about his gig hosting the Juno Awards!!!
It’s Jason Ruta flashing us as a reporter for the Canadian wing of E! Entertainment as shown on CHCH!!!
It’s an ad for Metropia on Omni 1 (CFMT)!!! (I heart any show that provides viewers with a stripped down Zaib Shaikh.)
It’s the Harlem Globetrotters!!! They were tapped to do a Sun TV promo on 66-1 CKXT!
Back on Kitchener’s CKCO, the weather is just as Sunny as my good friend T.C. (Inside joke!)
Even the CKCO news anchor liked that last joke!
Here’s a commercial for a Kitchener car dealer, followed by an ad for a local radio station!
The National is also a Canadian institution over on the CBC!
And what Canada Day celebration would be complete without Canadian diva Sarah McLachlan? Here she is promoting the ASPCA on Buffalo’s WUTV.
Here we have CHEX on analog 12, a CBC affiliate from Peterborough.
Then we have CHEX on analog 22 from Oshawa. The Oshawa version of CHEX is a semi-satellite of the Peterborough station that breaks off and does some of their own programming, such as First Take Live seen below. They also brand themselves as “Channel 12” after their cable position in Oshawa. They also do a lot of promotion for local events in the Durham region.
Then we have an absolutely gorgeous shot of the rarely seen CKCO call letters on analog 13, followed by their reception map in the second pic.
And while we’re at it, I may as well cover some of my reception of analog “repeater” stations.
Below is CHCH on 67 from Muskoka / Honey Harbour.
Below is CIII (Global) on 55 in Fort Erie.
Below is CBLFT (R-C) on 61 from Kitchener.
And here is CIII (Global) on 7 from Midland (which comes through a lot more easily now that Buffalo’s WKBW has shut down their analog signal.)
Below, CBC was running a repeat of The Hour featuring another Canadian diva – Alanis Morissette!!!
CFTO recently ran some great ads promoting the Gay Pride Parade that took place in Toronto last weekend.
And last, but not least, we have Barrie’s CKVR on analog 3, currently known under the “A Channel” branding.
So there you have it! A big burst of Canada in honour of Canada Day! Stay tuned to TV Garth for more Reception Reports very soon!
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