Reception Reports: The Great Canadian DTV Transition of 2011!

Greetings TV Garth readers! Canada finally underwent their DTV transition, with most major cities shutting down their analog transmitters as of August 31, 2011. (There have been exceptions made for smaller towns, and CBC got permission to keep many of their analog repeaters running throughout Canada for at least another year.) I had already survived one DTV Transition (the American one in 2009, where ironically the highlight of the day was analog E-Skip from Louisiana.) And now I was ready to celebrate the homegrown DTV switch! Sit back, grab a snack and let TV Garth take you through the transition highlights!

THE ADVERTISING

Public service announcements began airing in 2011 to alert Canadians to the coming digital transition. I think my favourite campaign was the print ad put out by the goverment that declared "No More Snow In Canada." Check out Average Joe Consumer Products Review for a look at the ad. That blog also has a great breakdown of the PSAs on TV and why many of them were misleading.

I caught the following DTV transition ad on CFTO (RF40) on May 24, 2011.



I also caught an ad on CIII (Global, RF65) on May 24, 2011. I was happy to see Global using some cool antennas in their commercial.




Later on in the Summer, I caught an ad on CBLFT (RF24) on August 1st, which provided info en Français on how to continue watching rabbits on TV.




CJMT (OMNI 2, RF44) ran the following ad on August 27th and seemed to be a little too enthusiastic in giving the thumbs up to cable or satellite as a replacement for analog reception. (The worst part is that their web address often redirected people to a pitch for their cable service rather than transition information.)




PRE-TRANSITION HIGHLIGHTS

"Don't worry Mildred, it's not too late to get yourself a digital converter box," implored the woman on the right during the last night of Hamilton, ON's CHCH on RF11 in analog. (Seen August 14, 2011.)



By the morning of August 15th, CHCH had fired up their digital signal on VHF 11 and shut down their pre-transition RF18 transmitter. Although the switch improved my reception, it became a VHF nightmare (tm Rabbit Ears) for a large amount of people.



On August 17th it felt appropriate to say goodbye to TV Ontario's analog signal on RF19 with their PSA about the digital transition. (TVO was the only Toronto station not to have a pre-transition digital signal.)



Shortly before 2am, TV Ontario was back on the air with their digital signal on RF19.



On August 22nd, Toronto's CFTO did a test of their digital signal on RF9 that lasted for a few hours.



Also on August 22nd, Barrie, ON's CKVR ran a test of their DTV signal on RF10 for a few hours. This was especially noteworthy as it would be the only time their "A" branding would be shown on their digital signal. (They rebranded to "CTV Two" by August 29th.)



On August 25th, Toronto, ON's CIII (Global) shut down their analog signal early and launched their post-transition signal on RF41. (Their temporary transmitter on RF65 would stay on air until the actual transition date.)



Towards the end of the month I noticed more Canadian DTV tropo happening as I caught TV Ontario's Kitchener repeater (RF28) on August 26th.



On August 30th, I checked out Hamilton, ON's CITS on RF36 and was shocked to see Rochester, NY's low powered home shopping station WHSH stomping over top of it! They were fashionably co-channeling in vintage analog!



Not long after midnight on August 30th, Toronto's CFTO made the jump to RF9 permanently. (It appears that most CTV related stations transitioned around the same time, slightly earlier than other broadcasters.)



AUGUST 31st - DTV TRANSITION

In the early morning hours of August 31st, I aimed to capture the last gasps of analog.

Toronto's CBLT was still in analog on RF5 with a great logo celebrating CBC's 75th Anniversary. (CBLT chose to remain on their pre-transition digital channel, RF20.)



CBLT also showed a great Being Erica promo with a Toronto backdrop!



CBLFT would be saying au revior to their analog signal on RF25 later on this day.



CFMT on RF47 couldn't wait to mop away their old signal!



CKXT (Sun News Network) was still present on RF52 looking almost as fuzzy as their station's logic.



The DTV transition would be exciting, no butts about it, as evidenced by CJMT's infomercial seen on RF69! Soon they'd be rid of their unsightly multipath!



The OMNI stations (CFMT/CJMT) were still on their pre-transition frequencies, but began implementing new PSIP in the early afternoon. CJMT (still on RF44) suddenly began remapping to its analog channel number 69-1.



Likewise CFMT (on RF64) began remapping to 47-1.



I couldn't help but notice that CJMT (OMNI 2) was showing a sport that I really wanted to stay on top of...er...I mean, a sport that I could really get behind.



I suppose I should Keepa my attention focused on the transition at hand!



By early evening, CJMT (OMNI 2) launched their new transmitter on RF51 (remapping to 69-1 via PSIP.)



Around the same time, CITY moved from RF53 to their permanent allocation on RF44, however, they still remap to their iconic 57-1 channel number.



CFMT (OMNI 1) was the last of the Rogers stations to transition, landing on RF47 sometime during prime time. Homer and Marge were absolutely shocked that they were no longer in analog!



Despite Barrie, ON's CKVR launching on RF10, and Kitchener, ON's CKCO firing up on RF13, they were no match for Rochester stations this day! To my surprise WHEC plowed through CKVR on RF10. (CKVR makes WHEC more difficult to snag these days, but it still comes through in strong tropo conditions!)



I've thought of Rochester, NY's WHAM and Kitchener, ON's CKCO (both RF13) as fierce co-channel battlers since the analog days, so it makes sense that it would carry over to the digital era. At 11pm WHAM was blasting in with local news.



Yet, only two hours later CKCO came in for the first time!



Andy Richter totally shared my enthusiasm in catching CKCO!



Since CFTO had vacated RF40, I was able to see Rochester's low powered MyTV station WBGT-CA, which still broadcasts in analog.



CBLFT was the last station to transition, moving from RF24 to RF25 very shortly after midnight.



THE AFTERMATH

There were a surprising number of misleading articles and news reports around the time the Canadian DTV transition took place. (One of the biggest myths that seemed to take hold was that rabbit ears were obsolete due to the switch.) François Caron created an awesome video titled Surviving The Digital TV Transition that obliterates much of the misinformation about DTV floating around. Check it out here:



POST TRANSITION HIGHLIGHTS

It felt appropriate that immediately after one major "end of an era" there was another. September 1st marked Lloyd Robertson's last time anchoring the CTV National News. (Seen via Toronto, ON's CFTO, RF9.)



CKXT (originally independent, but now known as Sun News Network) got permission to stay on RF66 until October 31st. (They shut down their analog transmitter on August 31st.) The station has agreed to surrender their OTA license to the CRTC at that time in order to focus on Sun News as a cable/satellite service. (Seen September 2, 2011.)



One station that I had trouble receiving post-transition was Hamilton, ON's CITS on RF36, seen here on September 2nd. (However, their signal wasn't much better for me on RF35 pre-transition either.)



Also on September 2nd, I got to see Kitchener, ON's CKCO (RF13) airing their Community Calendar!



One thing I heart about CKCO is their local commercials. Here's a great ad for the Country Boy family restaurant! "Fills me up" has to be one of the best on screen testimonals I've seen for an eatery! Love it! (Seen September 2, 2011.)





The Beat is one of the few locally produced shows on CKCO outside of their newscasts. My one beef with Canadian network branding is that it becomes too generic when you tie everything to the network instead of the station (i.e. "CTV" instead of "CKCO").



Another local commercial alert! Strickland's car dealership ad starts off as a faux dating service, but the big reveal is that some people just really really love their cars. (Didn't David Cronenberg do a movie about that awhile back?)




Another Canadian DTV station that was new to me was the Woodstock, ON repeater for CITY on RF31. (Seen on September 2, 2011.)



My first look at the London, ON repeater of CFMT (OMNI 1) almost confused me as they broadcast on RF48, but remap to 69-1 which is the same PSIP as Toronto's CJMT (OMNI 2).



I had to check my Zenith DTT901 to make sure I was getting the London station - and sure enough that was it on RF48!



When I got back into DXing in early 2009, one of the infomercials I loved was Mr. T and the Flavorwave! So it felt appropriate to catch the "sequel" to Mr. T's Flavorwave ad on London, ON's CFMT repeater (RF48)! During the show, Mr. T praises quiche and exclaims that he wants none of that "jibber jabber" to his game co-host. Amazing!



One station I was happy to get back was Syracuse, NY's WSTM (RF24) seen here on September 3, 2011. I lost WSTM in 2009 when they moved to RF24, which was used by CBLFT at the time. Now that RF24 was vacated, WSTM returned! It was great to see Lisa Spitz and my new Syracrush, sports reporter Niko Tamurian! (Funny how both of my Syracrushes are sports reporters - I also like WSYR's Steve Infanti!)



On September 14th I caught Barrie, ON's CKVR (RF10) with Jayne Pritchard on a repeat of their evening news. Jayne has been with CKVR since 1982!



Here's a look at CKVR (RF10) via my Zenith DTT901 digital box. They remap to their longtime analog channel number 3-1 via PSIP.



I haven't watched a lot of CKVR's news, but reporters like Mike Walker definitely give me a reason to tune in.



Later that same day, I caught part of Jimmy Fallon on CKVR. I thought of Katy Perry singing "Are you brave enough to let me see your peacock?" when I saw the CTV Two logo hastily slapped over top of NBC's.



Katy's line "Come on baby let me see, what you're hiding underneath" came true when CKVR let NBC's peacock briefly flash viewers at one point.



I was finally able to capture a great shot of the CTV Two logo on CKVR! (My reception of CKVR on RF10 is only occasional at this point, though CTV has applied to put up repeaters of CKVR in Hamiltion and Niagara to extend coverage.)



One exciting post-transition moment was seeing CITY-TV finally add accurate program descriptions and info to their PSIP as of September 16th! This was after years of useless PSIP descriptions that had nothing to do with the shows that were on.



On September 22nd, I was finally able to snag the elusive WJET from Erie, PA on RF24! WJET was another station I couldn't receive before CBLFT vacated RF24. (Check out the Divatastic Linsey Davis next to the awesome JET 24 logo!)



That about covers the Great Canadian DTV Transition! Stay tuned to TV Garth for more reception reports, including some of the amazing tropo in "Hot-tober" (otherwise known as October.)