History
The CBC announced on February 17, 1959 that they would appear before the BBG (predecessor to the CRTC) in Ottawa on March 18 to apply for a license to extend Radio-Canada's television signal into the Winnipeg area.
It first signed on at 3 p.m. on April 24, 1960, using channel 6 with an EIRP of 2,800 watts. At the same time two VTRs, worth $75,000 each were installed at the station.
Its opening broadcast was a ceremony held at the Notre Dame Auditorium in St. Boniface. Dignitaries included in attendance were Lieutenant-Governor Errick Willis, Premier Duff Roblin, CBC President Alphonse Ouimet, Marcel Ouimet, general manager of Radio-Canada, J. R. Finlay, CBC Prairie Region Director, and Leo Remillard, CBWFT's program director.
At first CBWFT's broadcast day ran between 6 and 12 hours, with a longer programming day on weekends. Over the years this was extended to encompass most of the day.
Initially Radio-Canada's microwave link didn't reach as far as Winnipeg. Instead videotapes and films were "bicycled" from Montreal and delayed by one week, except for news and live events like Hockey Night in Canada.
On November 15, 1964 it swapped frequencies with CBWT and a higher powered transmitters were installed at the new site near Starbuck.
From 1964 till the early 1980s it referred to itself simply as "CBWFT canal 3 Winnipeg". During the early 1980s, CBWFT was known as "CBWFT 3/10", signifying its position on Channel 3, Cable 10 in Winnipeg. On January 1, 1986 it became known as "Radio-Canada Manitoba".
By October 31, 1966 CBWFT was connected to the Radio-Canada microwave signal, allowing the live feed of Le Téléjournal at 6 p.m. Prior to this the newscast consisted of Radio-Canada's radio news with locally inserted images.
Several months after the first Anik A satellite was launched in 1972, CBWFT switched to the satellite feed of Radio-Canada and dropped the microwave feed, except to distribute its signal within its coverage area — Manitoba and northwest Ontario, and part of Saskatchewan.
In 1976, a rebroadcaster of CBWFT programming in Regina became CBKFT. In 1985, CBKFT was issued a separate license to broadcast its own Ce Soir regional news program.
In 2005 the long-running Ce Soir news program was renamed to Le Téléjournal, which is the same name of the French national news program on Radio-Canada. The Téléjournal local edition is normally 30 minutes in length, however the Wednesday version is 60 minutes. Also it is rebroadcast at 11 p.m.
CBC switched from analogue to digital television broadcasting on December 9, 2011, from its Winnipeg transmitter atop the Richardson Building, after several delays, due to “unforeseen delay that is outside of the Corporation’s control,” involving antenna erection.
Read more about this topic: CBWFT-DT
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