CBGT

CBGT-DT

File:CBC Television 2009.svg
Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador Canada
Channels	Analog: 12 (VHF)
Branding	CBC Television
Programming
Affiliations	CBC
Ownership
Owner	Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Sister stations	CBG (AM)
History
First air date	October 17, 1966 (1966-10-17)
Last air date	Lost on-air identity on July 31, 2012 (2012-07-31); Now known as CBC Newfoundland at all times
Call sign meaning	Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Gander Television
Technical information
ERP	325 kW
HAAT	239.6 m (786 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	52°10′28″N 106°26′5″W Fatal error: The format of the coordinate could not be determined. Parsing failed.
Links

CBGT (channel 11) was a CBC Television station in Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, which operated from 1971 to 2012, and still continues as a rebroadcaster of CBNT-DT in St. John's. The station's master control facilities were located in the Gander Arena Centre on 2nd Avenue North (between 21 and 22 Streets West) in Downtown Gander after being relocated from an office tower above Midtown Plaza. Its transmitter was located between Highways 8 and 39.

CBGT was licensed as a rebroadcaster of CBNT-DT in St. John's, even though it operated as a semi-satellite with its own associated network of repeaters; it aired separate commercials and (until the 1990s) its own local news broadcasts. On cable, the station was available on Shaw Cable channel 12 and Rogers Cable channel 3.

While the CBC originally planned to discontinue CBGT's over the air feed on August 31, 2011 (as the corporation did not originally plan to convert rebroadcasters in mandatory transition markets like Gander to digital), the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) granted the CBC permission to allow transmitters in selected mandatory markets, including Gander, to still operate an analogue feed until August 31, 2012. On July 17, 2012, the CRTC approved the CBC's application to relaunch CBGT from CBNT's licence, effective August 1, 2012. On 28 July 2012, CBGT lost its on-screen identity in favour of the CBC Newfoundland brand, with its name and regional idents only being seen properly before regional programming.

History

1950s-1960s

CBGT-DT, operating on VHF channel 5 as a CBC Television owned-and-operated station, began broadcasting from Corner Brook, Newfoundland, in 1959, marking the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's inaugural full-time television operation in the province. This launch extended CBC's national network to western Newfoundland, serving a region previously reliant on limited private broadcasting like CJON-TV in St. John's, which had started in 1955. The station's establishment aligned with CBC's mandate to provide public service programming, including educational and informational content, to remote areas

1990s-2000s

In 1991, the Canadian federal government imposed budget cuts on the CBC, including a $46 million reduction specifically targeting regional television services, which directly impacted operations at CBGT in Corner Brook. As a result, CBGT discontinued its local news programming that year, shifting responsibility for western Newfoundland coverage to CBNT in St. John's, which deployed reporters based in Corner Brook to maintain some regional reporting. CBYT retained limited functions such as master control for station identifications, public service announcements, occasional specials, and commercial insertions, but ceased independent local content production.

These reductions were part of a broader CBC strategy to centralize resources amid fiscal pressures, with similar cuts affecting other regional outlets. In 1993, the CBC further eliminated local newscasts at CBGT and four other Newfoundland stations, augmenting St. John's-originated news with field reports from remaining staff, without immediate layoffs at the affected sites. In August 2001, the CBC announced that both CBYT and CBGT would be shutdown completely by 2002, and that it's operations were to become fully integrated into CBNT's framework, ending any residual local autonomy as it transitioned to simulcasting all programming from St. John's, including its rebroadcasters like CBGT-1 within Appletown, with this consolidation reflecting ongoing CBC efforts to streamline costs in smaller markets during a period of sustained parliamentary funding constraints, though no major additional programming cuts specific to CBGT were documented beyond the earlier 1990s measures. However, CBGT was the first Canadian station to report any coverage on the September 11 attacks, especially when it came down to planes being diverted to Gander and it's population welcoming over 7,000 unexpected tourists from several of these planes into the small town. This not only saved CBGT at the last, but prompted the CBC to announce that it now had very different plans for the station.

Programming

(TBA)

Transmitters

CBGT had over 20 analog over-the-air television rebroadcasters in several northern Saskatchewan communities such as Corner Brook and Victoria Cove. Due to federal funding reductions to the CBC, in April 2012, the CBC responded with substantial budget cuts, which included shutting down CBC's and Radio-Canada's remaining analog transmitters on July 31, 2012.

City of licence	Callsign	Channel	ERP (W)
Corner Brook	CBGT-0	1 (VHF)	7,700
Appleton	CBGT-1	3 (VHF)	321
Norris Arm	CBGT-2	4 (VHF)	402
Glenwood	CBGT-3	6 (VHF)	3,000
Harbour Breton	CBGT-4	7 (VHF)	105
Stoneville	CBGT-5	9 (VHF)	180
Victoria Cove	CBGVT	12 (VHF)	60

Trivia

(TBA)

References

(TBA)

---