Many years ago, you could get KXJB-CBS, KVLY-NBC and WDAZ-ABC on cable in Winnipeg.
KXJB and KVLY were tough to receive reliably without the use of a microwave system, because their transmitters were about 40 miles south of Grand Forks. WDAZ transmits from Petersburg, and gets an acceptable off-air signal significantly onto Manitoba airspace. A decision was made to supply WCCO-CBS and KARE-NBC from Minneapolis, transmit it in a C-band encoded mode on Anik F1R, and supply those choices instead to target cable markets from Thunder Bay westward into Saskatchewan. These two Minneapolis stations were never added to Shaw Direct or Bell Expressvu for direct consumer subscription, however. Instead you had a cable or satellite choice of either Detroit or Boston market stations for East Coast U.S. networks. So N.D. stations such as PPT and WDAZ are all that remains, and only delivered to select Manitoba cable systems.
In 1975, KCND-12 was shut down in Pembina, and CKND-9 went on the air in Winnipeg in its place, becoming the beginning of the CanWest Global Network (now known as Global to most Canadians). This happened at the same time as a determination by Revenue Canada that no longer allowed Canadian businesses to take a tax deduction for ads presented on stations transmitted from outside of Canada. KVRR-Fox Fargo expanded into the northern Red River Valley with channel 10 targeting Grand Forks (same tower as used by PBS 15 and 16), and an affiliate using the same channel 12 location as KCND once had over a decade earlier. Channel 12 never made much money, at least from its Manitoba targeted audience, who could only pick it up off the air directly.
After the US digital transition, channel 12 was off the air from June until late fall 2009, because of hesitation to even bother building out a digital facility, and the expense involved. It went ahead, but there is still a very small viewership mostly owing to lack of carriage on Winnipeg cable systems, and a shrunken coverage pattern for the digital signal compared to former analog coverage into all parts of Winnipeg.
What really sucks is the extremely limited coverage that Winnipeg digital TV signals have after transition from analog. 3, 6 and 9 went to UHF channels 51, 27 and 40. They start dropping into oblivion halfway to the border, just past Morris. CKY-CTV 7 has its transmitter at Ste Agathe, some 25 miles south of Winnipeg, and its digital coverage does cross the border. Analog formerly worked on fringe antennas to within about 25 miles north of Grand Forks, but digital is going to be tougher to get. Solid coverage may be 65 miles from the transmitter, with increased distances only doable with elevated highly directional VHF antennas and preamps, in what is probably once of the flattest land areas on the planet. Of course you can also get it in HD on C-band FTA from 107.3 West!
To me it makes no sense that WDAZ had to be 'pulled' from cable in Manatoba. And had to be replaced with, basically, an out of market station. There used to be a lot of Canadian advertising on 'DAZ. Now it's rare. Has the advertising moved to the 'replacement' networks?
To me it makes no sense that WDAZ had to be 'pulled' from cable in Manatoba. And had to be replaced with, basically, an out of market station. There used to be a lot of Canadian advertising on 'DAZ. Now it's rare. Has the advertising moved to the 'replacement' networks?
