Overview
The station first aired on January 14, 1962 and has been owned by the Simard family for its entire existence. Station founder Luc Simard had gotten word that CJBR-TV in Rimouski wanted to set up a rebroadcaster in Rivière-du-Loup, but felt the city was big enough for a station in its own right. The station was knocked off the air by a fire in 1963, but was only off the air for nine days.
Not long after bringing the station on-air, the Simards soon discovered that the area's rugged topography made it all but unviewable in the lower parts of the city. To solve this problem, CKRT applied for and received permission to sign on a "nested" rebroadcaster serving Rivière-du-Loup, CKRT-TV-3, on channel 13. The repeater signed on in 1964 and mainly serves the western portion of the city.
Although privately owned, CKRT does not have access to alternative non-network program sources (as privately owned English language CBC affiliates do). For this reason, it operates as a semi-satellite of CBFT in Montreal. It also carries Radio-Canada's regional news program for eastern Quebec, Le Téléjournal/Est-du-Québec, from CJBR in Rimouski
CKRT-TV converted all its transmitters to digital by the August 31, 2011 digital transition deadline, including its transmitters that are not required to convert by this deadline. Only its transmitters in Rivière-du-Loup were obligated to convert, as Rivière-du-Loup is a mandatory market for digital television conversion.
Read more about this topic: CKRT-DT