 | |
| Type | Private company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Media |
| Headquarters | Thunder Bay, Ontario, |
Key people | Hector Dougall, Owner |
| Products | Broadcasting, television production |
| Website | www.dougallmedia.com |
Dougall Media is a Canadian media company which has several television, radio and publishing holdings in Northwestern Ontario.
Dougall Media owns CKPR, a CTV affiliate (formerly a CBC affiliate until August 31, 2014), and CHFD, a Global affiliate, both in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The two stations are what is known as a twinstick operation, and are in fact the sole remaining locally owned twinstick anywhere in English Canada (Stingray Group's twinstick in Lloydminster is not locally owned since Stingray is a national company based in Montreal). The two stations air programs from their respective networks, as well as local news and current affairs programs and specials.
Prior to February 2010, CHFD was a CTV affiliate which also carried some Global programming. The station was unable to come to agreement with CTV to continue operating as an affiliate and filed an application to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to remove the CTV affiliation requirement from their license [1] and to operate as a Global affiliate.
In March 2010, CKPR announced it was unable to come to an agreement with CBC to continue to operate as an affiliate, [2] and filed an application with the CRTC to remove the CBC affiliation requirement from their license. [3] CKPR stated in their application that it "would operate as an independent local station and intends to source its non-local programming". However, after continued negotiations, the station announced in March 2011 that they had come to an agreement that would see them air CBC programming for another five years; [4] in June 2014, Dougall Media announced that CKPR's affiliation would switch from CBC to CTV in September. [5]
The stations' status as a locally owned twinstick accounts for some of the unique circumstances of the Thunder Bay television market. For example, Thunder Bay was the only major market in the province in which CIII-DT and CHCH-DT did not add rebroadcasters during those stations' provincewide expansions in the 1990s; although both stations did apply for transmitters in Thunder Bay, both were declined by the CRTC due to the potential impact of out-of-market competition on Dougall's advertising revenue. It is also, for the same reason, the only major market in the province where CITY-DT is still unavailable either terrestrially or on basic cable.
Dougall has also previously cited CTV's cost-cutting measures of the early 2000s, such as the merger of all local news on the four CTV Northern Ontario stations in Northeastern Ontario into a single newscast produced in Sudbury, as a key factor in its refusal to consider selling the stations, lest such a sale result in the loss of local programming in Thunder Bay.
On January 27, 2016, Dougall Media officials revealed that CKPR and CHFD are both being sustained by the payouts from life insurance policies on former owner Fraser Dougall and a former general manager who both died in 2015, and at the time said the stations could sign off for good by September 1, 2016, barring a favourable change in CRTC policies. [6] As of October 2023 the stations remained in operation.
The two stations were formerly united under the brand Thunder Bay Television. However, upon becoming a Global affiliate in February 2010, CHFD rebranded as Global Thunder Bay, following a branding scheme used at Global owned and operated stations. CKPR continued to use the Thunder Bay Television brand until May 2012, when it rebranded as CKPR Thunder Bay. Prior to this, the stations usually used the on-air branding scheme of Thunder Bay Television and then the name of the network to which the channel was affiliated, except in cases when the channel was airing programming that wasn't from the network to which it was affiliated. For example, CKPR-TV was normally branded as Thunder Bay Television - CBC, however, while airing non-CBC programming, such as TB News, it was branded as Thunder Bay Television - CKPR. Both stations still, however, air local newscasts under the single brand TBT News.
Dougall Media owns CKPR and CJSD in Thunder Bay, as well as CFNO in Marathon.
Dougall Media publishes a free weekly community newspaper, Thunder Bay Source, which is delivered to 35,000 households in Thunder Bay each Friday. The paper covers local news, including city council, education, health care, Indigenous issues and the local federal and provincial political scene, as well as weekly entertainment and sports features. It also hosts a selection of local columnists, including J.R. Shermack and former CBC Radio personality Fred Jones, a weekly movie column by North of Superior Film Association president Marty Mascarin, a food-related column by Derek Lankinen and an outdoor column by Keith Ailey.
It was formerly known as Thunder Bay Post, a name that was discontinued in October 2003. Prior to that it was known as Lakehead Living.
The paper's editorial staff also contributes to the news websites TbNewsWatch.com, NWONewswatch.com and SNNewswatch.com, which also have material contributed from the company's radio and television newsrooms.
The CTV Television Network, commonly known as CTV, is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. Launched in 1961 and acquired by BCE Inc. in 2000, CTV is Canada's largest privately owned television network and is now a division of the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE. It is Canada's largest privately or commercially owned network consisting of 22 owned-and-operated stations nationwide and two privately owned affiliates, and has consistently been placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival Global Television Network in key markets.
CKWS-DT is a television station in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, part of the Global Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, the station maintains studios on Queen Street in downtown Kingston, and its transmitter is located near Highway 95 on Wolfe Island, south of the city.
CTV Northern Ontario, formerly known as MCTV, is a system of four television stations in Northern Ontario, Canada, owned and operated by the CTV Television Network, a division of Bell Media.
CHFD-DT is a television station in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, affiliated with the Global Television Network. It is owned by locally based Dougall Media alongside CTV affiliate CKPR-DT. Both stations share studios on Hill and Van Norman Streets in central Thunder Bay, while CHFD-DT's transmitter is located in Shuniah, Ontario.
CKPR-DT is a television station in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, affiliated with CTV. It is owned by locally based Dougall Media alongside Global affiliate CHFD-DT. Both stations share studios on Hill and Van Norman Streets in central Thunder Bay, while CKPR-DT's transmitter is located in Shuniah, Ontario.
The Baton Broadcast System, also known as BBS, was a Canadian system of television stations located in Ontario and Saskatchewan, owned by Baton Broadcasting. BBS was the successor to two provincial systems also owned by Baton, the Saskatchewan Television Network (STN) and Ontario Network Television (ONT).
CBLT-DT is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the English-language service of CBC Television. It is part of a twinstick with Ici Radio-Canada Télé outlet CBLFT-DT. Both stations share studios at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre on Front Street West in downtown Toronto, which is also shared with national cable news channel CBC News Network and houses the studios for most of the CBC's news and entertainment programs. CBLT-DT's transmitter is located atop the CN Tower.
CKNY-DT is a television station in North Bay, Ontario, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Bell Media, the station maintains a transmitter adjacent to Ski Hill Road in Nipissing.
CIII-DT is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the Global Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, CIII-DT maintains studios at 81 Barber Greene Road in the Don Mills district of Toronto, and its transmitter is located atop the CN Tower in downtown Toronto.
CHEX-DT is a television station in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, part of the Global Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, the station maintains studios on Monaghan Road in the southern portion of Peterborough, and its transmitter is located on Television Hill, just outside the city.
CBC Television is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-language counterpart is ICI Radio-Canada Télé.
CJBN-TV, VHF analogue channel 13, was a Global-affiliated television station licensed to Kenora, Ontario, Canada. The station was owned by Shaw Communications under its cable systems unit, and was not part of the Shaw Media unit which was sold to Corus Entertainment in 2016. CJBN's studios were based alongside Shaw's local offices on 10th and Front Streets in Keewatin, and its transmitter was located near Norman Dam Road in Kenora. The station was carried on Shaw Cable channel 12, Bell Satellite TV channel 224 and Shaw Direct channel 320.
Television in Canada officially began with the sign-on of the nation's first television stations in Montreal and Toronto in 1952. As with most media in Canada, the television industry, and the television programming available in that country, are strongly influenced by media in the United States, perhaps to an extent not seen in any other major industrialized nation. As a result, the government institutes quotas for "Canadian content". Nonetheless, new content is often aimed at a broader North American audience, although the similarities may be less pronounced in the predominantly French-language province of Quebec.
Mid-Canada Communications (Canada) Corp. was a Canadian media company, which operated from 1980 to 1990. The company, a subsidiary of Northern Cable, had television and radio holdings in Northeastern Ontario.
CKPR-FM is a radio station in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Dougall Media, the station broadcasts a hot adult contemporary format at 91.5 FM, and 93.5 FM in Atikokan.
In Canada, a television system is a group of television stations which share common ownership, branding and programming, but which for some reason does not satisfy the criteria necessary for it to be classified as a television network under Canadian law. As the term "television system" has no legal definition, and as most audiences and broadcasters usually refer to groups of stations with common branding and programming as "networks" regardless of their structure, the distinction between the two entities is often not entirely clear; indeed, the term is rarely discussed outside the Canadian broadcasting enthusiast community. In the latter regard, however, a group of Canadian stations is currently considered a "network" if it satisfies at least one of the following requirements:
CHEX-DT-2 is a television station licensed to Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, serving the Regional Municipality of Durham as part of the Global Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, and maintains studios on Simcoe Street in Downtown Oshawa and a transmitter on Enfield Road in Clarington.
This is a list of media outlets in the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.
A duopoly is a situation in television and radio broadcasting in which two or more stations in the same city or community share common ownership.
The first incarnation of E!, also referred to as E! Entertainment Television, was a Canadian English language privately owned television system that existed from 2001 to 2009 under the ownership of Canwest. At its peak it consisted of eight local television stations located in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, including five stations owned and operated (O&O) by Canwest and three affiliates owned by Jim Pattison Group.