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Reporter Jonathan Freed has left Global Quebec to move on to bigger and better things, namely CNN's Chicago Bureau. He's not the first CKMI-TV personality to land a job on that network. Former weather reporter Rosey Edeh also left Global Quebec to do the weather for CNN in Atlanta but later came back to Montreal to work at CFCF and then back to States to work at MSNBC. She can now be seen on Global's ET Canada.
1997 print ad: Global comes to Quebec for the first time. From TV Times. |
Most Montrealers may not realize this, but CKMI was on the air long before Global TV moved into the Montreal market. CKMI began originally as the independent CBC affiliate in Quebec City, broadcasting on VHF channel 5. You’d think that someone must have known that CKMI was destined to become a Global affiliate because, in the eighties, the station carried many programs associated with Global in Ontario, such as "Late Night With David Letterman," "My Pet Monster" and "Santa Barbara" at 2 pm on Weekdays, sandwiched between CBC presentations of "All My Children" and "The Guiding Light." However, CKMI also aired "The Price Is Right" and "Entertainment Tonight," shows which aired on many CTV affiliates. On Thursday nights, CKMI broke away from CBC programming to carry the "MI-5 Thursday Night Movie" (No, they weren’t referring to the British Intelligence Agency).
| Channel Info: | CKMI 46 |
| Cable (West Montreal) | 3 |
| Cable (Central and East Montreal) | 3 |
| Cable (Digital Montreal) | 8 |
| Look TV | 63 |
| Bell ExpressVu | N/A |
| Star Choice | N/A |
| Cable (Burlington) | N/A |
| Cable (Plattsburgh) | N/A |
Unfortunately, the station was having financial problems and cuts had to be made. Its 6 pm local news, which consisted of only a five minute-long broadcast before "The Price Is Right," would eventually be cut back to 0 minutes. In the nineties, CKMI became merely a repeater station of CBC Montreal, carrying almost all of its programs including "Newswatch." The only exception was a local program called "Inside Quebec" which aired four nights a week at 7 pm.
CKMI was formerly owned by Pathonic, which also owned four TVA stations including Quebec City and Sherbrooke, thus making CKMI a sister station with "Télé 4." Télé-Métropole eventually bought Pathonic and T.-M. changed its name to TVA inc. When CKMI became part of Global, TVA owned 49% of the station while CanWest owned the other 51%. CanWest now owns 100% of CKMI.
In 1997, when CKMI became a regional network and switched from CBC to Global, they gave the channel 5 broadcast frequency in the Quebec City area over to the CBC, with the CRTC’s blessing. This means that CBC programming, via Montreal, can still be seen on channel 5 in the provincial capital area. CKMI Global programming is now seen on channel 20 with repeater stations in Montreal and Sherbrooke on channel 46 and 11, respectively.
1997 TV Times Ad |
Logos of the past
Gloabl TV logo (1997-2006). Used until the switch to the new logo above on Super Bowl Sunday. |
Because of its three transmitters, CKMI is officially recognized by the CRTC as a regional broadcaster, which means that they are no longer allowed to show local commercials. Your favourite bar or restaurant on St-Denis Street can’t advertise on Global Quebec, unless it happens to be part of a national or provincial chain like McDonald’s or St-Hubert. There are a few loopholes however. Advertising for a local radio station is still acceptable and some local furniture stores manage to get away with buying air time on Global because their ads are accompanied by a disclaimer indicating "Delivery Across Quebec". The CRTC rule also creates many ironies in the local TV landscape. First of all, even if CFCF has only one antenna, it actually reaches more viewers than CKMI throughout the province simply because CFCF is carried by more cable systems. (Although Global is slowly catching up to CFCF and now they are almost tied) Second of all, many local advertisers who can’t advertise on Global end up taking their business to nearby American channels where the FCC has no such law.
The CRTC rule also requires that Global Quebec must provide "regional" news coverage. Even though "Global News 5:30" and "This Morning Live" come out of a Montreal studio and close to 90% of the local coverage is about Montreal, there will always be at least one or two stories about that fire in Quebec City and that traffic accident in Sherbrooke just to prove they are holding up their end of the bargain.
CKMI & Global logos belong to CanWest Global. This page not affiliated with Global.
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