CJNT-DT

"CJNT" redirects here. For the former radio station, see CFOM (defunct).

CJNT-DT

City of license	Montreal, Quebec
Branding	Metro 14
Channels	Digital: 49 (UHF) Virtual: 62.1 (PSIP)
Affiliations	Independent
Owner	Channel Zero (2209005 Ontario Inc.)
First air date	September 8, 1997
Call letters' meaning	C J MoNtreal Television
Former callsigns	CJNT-TV (1997-2011)
Former channel number(s)	62 (Analog, 1997-2011)
Former affiliations	Independent (1997-2001) CH / E! (2001-2009)
Transmitter power	4 kW
Height	219 m
Transmitter coordinates	45°30′18″N 73°35′28″W / 45.505°N 73.59111°W / 45.505; -73.59111
Website	Metro 14

CJNT-DT is a Canadian multicultural television station in Montreal, Quebec. The station is owned and operated by Channel Zero and uses the on-air brand Metro 14.

History

Logo as TEQ, 1980s to 1997

The station signed on in 1997, but had its roots in the 1980s as La Télévision Ethnique du Québec (TEQ), a public access ethnic cable channel. It had plans on moving over-the-air as early as the early 1990s, but was dogged by financial problems. Even after it signed on, its finances were in such a state that it never signed on earlier than noon. Part of the problem was that its effective radiated power was only 11 kilowatts, easily the weakest full-power station in Montreal and one of the weakest in North America--roughly on the same level as low-powered UHF stations in the United States. This effectively limited its over-the-air footprint to the Island of Montreal and Jésus Island, and a few areas on the mainland. Most viewers could only get a clear picture on cable.

Many of the people whose shows had aired on TEQ for many years didn't make the cut for CJNT because they didn't meet the standards for commercial broadcasting. However, many of the shows that did make it were of somewhat marginal quality. Its commitment to ethnic groups was questioned, especially late at night when it would frequently show English-language infomercials for a psychic hotline.

The logo used when CJNT first went on the air in 1997. It was used until 2001 when Canwest bought and unified all of their secondary non-CBC stations under the CH brand. For the logos used as CH, see the CH article.

WIC & Canwest

Western International Communications bought CJNT in 1999. WIC owned Montreal's CTV affiliate, CFCF-TV, but was facing serious competition from Global, which had expanded into Quebec the same year CJNT signed on. WIC figured CJNT would give it much-needed leverage in Montreal. It planned to relaunch CJNT on the model of Canada's first multicultural station, CFMT-TV in Toronto, with 60% ethnic content and 40% American content. However, WIC was only able to buy the shares of CJNT held by Marie Griffiths, as ownership of the rest of the shares was being contested in court.^[1] It was not allowed to make changes to CJNT's license without majority ownership, and its plans became moot when Canwest bought WIC's television assets in 2000. Canwest was not allowed to keep CFCF because Montreal's anglophone population was too small to permit a twinstick with Global station CKMI-TV in Quebec City (it was eventually sold to CTV). However, Canwest was allowed to keep WIC's interest in CJNT, and bought the remaining shares.^[2]

CJNT Montreal logo, used from 2007-2011. It was used as the de facto branding of the station from 2007-2009

Canwest had CJNT file bankruptcy, and changed its conditions of licence to reduce the ethnic content to 60%. On September 8, 2001, Global relaunched the station with a mixture of ethnic, English- and French-language programming. The bulk of the English-language shows came from Canwest's secondary television system, CH. For all intents and purposes, CJNT thus became the third CH station, and the only one actually licensed to a major Canadian city. Since there was no "H" in "CJNT" (unlike CHCH-TV and CHEK-TV), the CH in Montreal stood for "Canal Horizon" ("CH Horizon" in English), although it changed its on-air name to just "CH" in 2002. The station remained a CH branded station until September 7, 2007, when Canwest decided to brand the station as CJNT Montreal, while CH programming rebranded as E!.

Alternate horizontal logo, used with the above logo from 2007-2011. It was used as the de facto branding of the station from 2007-2009.

As a CH and later E! station, CJNT had many English-language American imports due to E!'s emphasis on American shows that couldn't fit onto Global's schedule. Some of E!'s programming, including documentary-based shows such as E! True Hollywood Story, were aired in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, to help partially fulfill CJNT's ethnic programming requirements.^[3]

For much of 2003 and 2004, CJNT fought a "commercial war" with Burlington, Vermont's Fox affiliate, WFFF. Due to Canada's "simultaneous substitution" rules, WFFF frequently moved That '70s Show around its schedule to keep its signal from being replaced with CJNT's on Montreal cable during the show's broadcast. However, whenever possible, CJNT, which was airing the same show, duplicated the move in order to maintain the signal substitutions. This resulted in a cat-and-mouse game in which the Champlain Valley editions of TV Guide were often out of date before they were published.^[4] WFFF depends on advertising in Montreal for its survival, since Montreal is 10 times larger than that station's entire American viewing area.

Threatened closure and sale to Channel Zero

On February 5, 2009, Canwest (CJNT's former parent company) announced it would explore "strategic options", including possible sale or closure, for CJNT and its other stations in the E! system, saying "a second conventional TV network is no longer key to the long-term success" of the company.^[5] While Rogers Communications, owners of Canada's other over-the-air multicultural TV stations through the Omni Television system, would seem to be a logical buyer for CJNT, that company reportedly had no interest in expanding its conventional TV holdings at the time.^[6]

On June 30, 2009, it was announced that Channel Zero would purchase CJNT and CHCH in Hamilton, Ontario from Canwest in exchange for $12 in cash and the assumption of various station liabilities.^[7][8] The CRTC approved the sale on August 28^[9][10]

Channel Zero took control of the station's programming at midnight EDT on the morning of August 31. On that date, CJNT disaffiliated from E! (which would shut down later that day) and adopted a new schedule featuring a mix of music videos and already existing local ethnic programming during the day, and foreign movies at night, and reverted to branding itself as simply CJNT. There was no American simsub programming for the first year.^[11] Despite initial plans calling for a majority of the music videos to be foreign, most would end up being English language videos with a moderate amount of French and foreign language videos included.^[12] In addition, CJNT would add, in sparse amounts, additional programming during the 2009-2010 season, including Let's Get It On, a mixed martial arts program; Ed the Sock's This Movie Sucks!, a movie show featuring the former MuchMusic character alongside co-host Liana Kerzner and comedian Ron Sparks; and infomercials.

On June 14, 2010, Channel Zero announced it would be rebranding CJNT as Metro 14 in the fall, to appeal to a wider urban audience; the "14" represents its cable slot on Vidéotron in the Greater Montreal area.^[13][14] In September 2010, CJNT began airing American network television series for the first time since Channel Zero took ownership, including Everybody Hates Chris, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and Nightline. In addition to the American network series, CJNT began airing the CHCH produced talk show, Sportsline with Mark Hebscher.

On February 2, 2011 at 6:00 a.m. EST, the station officially rebranded as Metro 14, behind the original announced date of fall 2010.^[15]

Station presentation

Station brandings

• CJNT (1997–2001)
• CH Horizon (2001–2002)
• CH Montreal (2002–2007)
• CJNT Montreal (2007–2011)
• Metro 14 (2011–present)

Station slogans

• Closer to You! (2001–2007)
• CH has it all (2001–2007)
• Everything Entertainment (2007–2009) (localized version of E! ad campaign)
• One city, Many cultures (2007–2011)

Digital television and high definition

On August 27, 2011, the station shut down its analog transmitter and flash cut to digital on channel 49. With the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display CJNT-DT's virtual channel as 62.1, its former analog channel number. However, its digital signal operates at only 4 kilowatts--roughly equivalent to 20 kilowatts in analog. As a result, the station's coverage area is not much larger than it was in analogue.

References

1. ^ Decision CRTC 99-70
2. ^ Decision CRTC 2000-744
3. ^ CJNT: Multicultural American celebrity news
4. ^ CJNT & WFFF, A War over Canadian commercials heats up. TVHat.
5. ^ "Canwest may sell TV stations". cbc.ca, February 5, 2009.
6. ^ Grant Robertson, "CanWest puts E! up for sale". The Globe and Mail, February 6, 2009
7. ^ Channel Zero Inc. agrees to purchase CHCH-TV Hamilton and CJNT-TV Montreal from Canwest CNW Group (2009-06-30)
8. ^ Channel Zero Inc. agrees to purchase CHCH-TV Hamilton and CJNT-TV Montreal from Canwest (Video News Coverage) (2009-06-30)
9. ^ Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2009-536
10. ^ Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2009-537
11. ^ Channel Zero Inc. agrees to purchase CHCH Hamilton and CJNT Montreal from Canwest CNW Group (2009-06-30)
12. ^ http://affiliate.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCSGrid.do?stnNum=17046
13. ^ Channel Zero loads up on U.S. network series, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 June 2010
14. ^ http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=115859021792151&id=119179104768932
15. ^ Channel Zero rebrands, repositions, CJNT Montreal, Cartt.ca 2011-02-02

External links

• Metro 14
• Canadian Communications Foundation - CJNT-TV History
• CJNT at TV Hat
• Query the REC's Canadian station database for CJNT-TV
• Query TV Fool's coverage map for CJNT