canada that this station is affiliated to see city tv network . for urban areas in general see city . city dt toronto ontario canada city toronto ontario branding city toronto ; city general citynews newscasts slogan everywhere general toronto s news newscasts channels digital 44 uhf virtual 57 psip subchannels 57.1 city translators see below affiliations city o & o ; 2002 present owner rogers media rogers communications rogers broadcasting first air date september 28 1972 call letters meaning city also refers to the city network sister station s tv cfmt cjmt radio cftr chfi cjcl ckis former callsigns city tv 1972 2011 former channel number s analog 79 uhf 1972 1983 57 uhf 1983 2011 digital 53 uhf 2003 2011 former affiliations independent 1972 2002 transmitter power 21 kw height 501.4 m transmitter coordinates 43 38 33 n 79 23 14 w 43.64250 n 79.38722 w 43.64250 ; 79.38722 licensing authority crtc website www.citytv.com toronto city dt virtual channel 57 uhf digital channel 44 is a city owned and operated television station located in toronto ontario canada . the station is owned by rogers media a division of rogers communications through its rogers broadcasting limited division as part of a triplestick the only conventional television triplestick operated by the company with omni television stations cfmt dt channel 47 and cjmt dt channel 40 . the three stations share studio facilities located at 33 dundas street east on yonge dundas square in downtown toronto ; city maintains transmitter facilities located atop the cn tower in downtown toronto . on cable city is also available on corporate sister rogers cable channel 7 and digital channel 133 ; on satellite the station is available on bell tv channel 214 . there is also a high definition feed on rogers cable digital channel 519 and bell tv channel 1053 . the station was best known for its unconventional approach to news and other locally produced programming creating the basis upon which the city television network of which city dt serves as the flagship station was built . contents 1 history 1.1 sale to rogers media 2 programming 2.1 sports programming 3 news operation 3.1 notable current on air staff 3.1.1 notable former on air staff 4 transmitters 5 digital television 5.1 digital channel 5.2 analogue to digital conversion 6 references 7 external links history edit former version of the citytv logo used from 1972 to 2005 . the station first signed on the air on september 28 1972 broadcasting on uhf channel 79 an allocation given to the station as all of the vhf licences in the toronto area were taken by other parties . it operated as an independent station and its transmitter operated at an effective radiated power of 31 kw . the founding ownership group channel seventy nine ltd. consisted of among others phyllis switzer moses znaimer jerry grafstein and edgar cowan . the four principal owners raised over 2 million to help start up the station with grafstein raising about 50 % of the required funds znaimer raising around 25 % and the remainder being accrued by switzer and cowan . the channel 79 licence was granted to the company on november 25 1971 . 1 the station operated from studio facilities located at 99 queen street east near church street at the former electric circus nightclub . the station lost money early on and was in debt by 1975 . multiple access ltd. the owners of cfcf in montreal purchased a 45 % interest in the station and sold its stake to chum limited three years later . city was purchased outright by chum in 1981 with the sale of moses znaimer s interest in the station . znaimer remained with the station as an executive until 2003 when he retired from his management role but continued to work with the station on some production projects . 2 in 1976 the station s main transmitter began broadcasting at 208 kw from the cn tower . the station switched channel allocations on july 1 1983 moving to uhf channel 57 the result of industry canada s decision to reassign frequencies corresponding to high band uhf channels 70 to 83 to the new amps mobile phone systems as a result of a ccir international convention in 1982 . on september 1 1986 a rebroadcast transmitter was put into operation in woodstock city tv 2 on channel 31 which also served nearby london ; another transmitter was set up in ottawa in 1996 city tv 3 on channel 65 . 299 queen street west the former home of citytv toronto . in 1987 city and the other chum owned television properties moved their operations to the company s headquarters at 299 queen street west which became one of the most recognizable landmarks in the city . on march 30 1998 chum launched cablepulse 24 cp24 a local cable news channel whose programming used anchors from and featured reports filed by city tv s news staff rebroadcasts of the station s citypulse newscasts and select programming from city and other chum stations . despite efforts to extend the brand to other major markets for 30 years city was the only canadian station to identify on air as citytv with citytv and city serving as interchangeable names for the station . in july 2001 however chum purchased ckvu tv in vancouver from canwest global communications ; ckvu changed its branding to citytv in july 2002 making citytv a two station system . in 2005 three more citytv stations were added in calgary ckal edmonton ckem and winnipeg chmi after chum purchased the a channel television stations and other assets owned by craig media the existing a channel brand was revamped and was transferred to chum s former newnet stations . when the three a channel stations switched to the citytv brand on august 2 2005 the flagship citypulse newscast was renamed citynews . sale to rogers media edit see also 2007 canada broadcast tv realignment citytv logo used from 2005 to 2012 . some stations still have this logo on their building exteriors and even some vehicles . on july 12 2006 ctvglobemedia announced its offer to acquire chum limited and its assets including the citytv stations and related cable properties for 1.7 billion . 3 since ctv already owned television stations in all citytv markets including toronto where ctv owns and operates cfto tv channel 9 the canadian radio television and telecommunications commission crtc stipulated the sale of the citytv stations as a condition for the approval of the chum purchase . the citytv stations including city were subsequently sold to rogers communications the sale was approved by the crtc on september 28 2007 and rogers took ownership on october 31 . ctv kept ownership of 299 queen street west where chum s specialty television channels now owned by ctv such as cp24 muchmusic star bravo and space would remain . as such rogers had to find a new home for city tv s operations . rogers subsequently purchased 33 dundas street east the former olympic spirit building located at the edge of dundas square to house the operations of its toronto television stations ; city tv moved into the new facility on september 8 2009 . 4 5 the citytv system expanded into western canada in 2009 when the jim pattison group signed a deal to carry the system s programming on its stations in kamloops prince george and medicine hat ; 6 rogers signed a long term affiliation renewal agreement for the pattison stations in september 2012 . 7 rogers gained two more outlets in a cable only channel in saskatchewan and a station in montreal to broaden and expand its national coverage beginning in 2013 effectively transforming city from a television system to a television network . 8 9 10 11 on october 3 2011 rogers media launched the citynews channel a 24 hour regional news channel for the toronto area utilizing the resources of city dt s news department and other rogers owned news and media properties such as all news radio station cftr 680 am and maclean s magazine . the channel used the same news wheel format as cftr with traffic and weather reports at the top and bottom of every hour sports news at 15 and 45 minutes past the hour and business news at 26 and 56 minutes past the hour . in addition to rolling news programming citynews channel aired simulcasts of citytv toronto s news programming and an audio feed from cftr during the overnight hours . 12 due to financial difficulties rogers ceased citynews channel s live broadcasts on may 30 2013 with the channel permanently shutting down on june 30 2013 . 13 14 in november 2012 the station started edging away from using the citytv branding in its voiceovers and began calling itself city television although the citytv branding was still heavily seen in promos and on bugs on the lower right portion of the screen . throughout the decades announcers have informally referred to the station as city during select voiceover announcements ; however throughout december of that year the station s and entire system s website phased in the city branding completely . the first full time usage of the sole branding of city occurred on air on december 31 2012 coinciding with the city new year s bash broadcast . programming edit main article list of programs broadcast by city city control room during doors open toronto 2012 city tv and the city system network has traditionally pursued a programming strategy targeting hip young and urban audiences and featured science fiction series such as the stargate and star trek franchises with significant cult followings . the citytv system has also sometimes aired more adult oriented fare than most television stations including the softcore film showcase baby blue movies and the television edition of naked news both of which were shown very late at night . city also aired the oprah winfrey show from its debut in 1986 until the start of the 1992 93 season when the show s broadcast rights were purchased by ctv and its local affiliate cfto tv which aired the talk show until it ended its run in 2011 . shortly after its takeover by rogers citytv s long running great movies block was canceled in favour of running more series . late night reruns of the great movies block were replaced by infomercials . the station has also produced much more local programming than most other canadian television stations including the daily talk show cityline hosted first by dini petty then marilyn denis and now tracy moore ; magazine series such as the newmusic toronto rocks fashiontelevision life on venus ave. and movietelevision ; and interactive series such as speakers corner . as well the station often pursued synergies with its sister cable networks sharing programming with muchmusic bravo space and cp24 . the station also produced the citytv new year s eve bash a live concert special from nathan phillips square although it still sponsored the event it was replaced on air with dick clark s new year s rockin eve in simulcast with abc for 2014 . 15 16 sports programming edit on march 2 2008 city aired its first toronto blue jays major league baseball game a spring training game against the cincinnati reds 17 both citytv and the blue jays are owned by rogers media . this is not the first time that a live sporting event has aired on a citytv station it also served as the canadian broadcaster for monday night football until its u.s. rights moved from abc to espn and in canada to tsn in 2006 . beginning with the 2007 nfl season as part of rogers media s broadcast rights with the nfl ; two late season games are shown by city and vancouver sister station ckvu tv weekly the opposite