CTV Television Network

After 21 years of Liberal government in Canada, the Conservatives, under Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, came to power in 1957. This new government, after much lobbying by “private” broadcasters, passed a new Broadcasting Act in 1958, establishing the Board of Broadcast Governors (BBG) to be the “watchdog” of Canadian broadcasting. Since its inception in 1936, this had been the domain of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) which independent “private” broadcasters had complained was both their regulator and competitor. Responding to the public outcry for alternate choice from CBC programs, the BBG announced that they would consider applications for “second” television stations in eight major cities across Canada – Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver – public hearings to be held early in 1959. At this time Calgary and Edmonton were each served by a private station, and the others by the 7 CBC-owned stations. There was a scramble to prepare for these hearings by more than 35 applicants. A “Who’s Who” of publishing, broadcasting, financial entities and Canadian entertainment fields made up the consortia vying for these perceived valuable licences. The BBG hearings began in Winnipeg in January and then moved to Vancouver; in March to Montreal and Toronto, and Edmonton and Calgary in April; Ottawa and Halifax in June. One of the losing applicants in Toronto was Spence Caldwell. He immediately started efforts to link the successful applicants by a network which he would control. The stations were not happy with his approach, but neither did most want the bigger market stations to have control. In the end, they formed the Independent Television Organization (ITO) as a counter to his idea. Caldwells’ struggle to form a network continued and was gaining ground when Baton’s John Bassett bought the TV rights to the Eastern Conference of the Canadian Football League games. He needed a network on which to broadcast the games. After much wrangling with Bassett and the BBG, Caldwell did get seven signatures from the group to proceed with his application for a network, which was finally granted by the BBG in time for the 1961 CFL Football season to be telecast in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. CFCN-TV Calgary Sept. 9/60; CHAN-TV Vancouver – Oct. 31/60; CJAY-TV Winnipeg – Nov. 12/60. Then in 1961 – CFTO-TV Toronto and CJCH-TV Halifax on January 1, CFCF-TV January 20th and CJOH-TV Ottawa on March 12th. CFRN-TV Edmonton switched from a CBC affiliate to the private network on October 1st 1961 when the newly licenced CBXT came on the air. Only Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto were connected by microwave but there was some exchange of Canadian programs with the other stations. Through the ITO alliance, they were able to acquire the Canadian rights to many U. S. programs. Michael Hind-Smith was hired away from the CBC as National Program Director and later Executive Vice-President of the Network. Television Football rights played a large part in Caldwell’s efforts to get the network established, both at the BBG and negotiation at station level of his access as CTN had leased the only available micro-wave connection. Finally, after much negotiating, involving the ITO, Caldwell and the BBG, Caldwell was granted his network licence. The network was called The Canadian Television Network – CTN. Spence Caldwell was its President, with Gordon Keeble as Vice-President. Michael Hind-Smith was Vice-President Programming and Sales. CTN’s first full season started on October 1st 1961, after much pressure to get a national microwave system in place. In the beginning the only live transmission was in Southern Ontario. During the “off hours” of the CBC Network, CTN used the Telco’s micro-wave to send programs to the rest of the country, to be run on a taped-delay basis. Later, confusing the situation even more, CTN purchased the TV rights to the Western Conference of the CFL. Gradually, as a second micro