station in st. john s newfoundland and labrador . for the canadian service of the russian ntv network see ntv canada . this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message cjon dt st. john s newfoundland and labrador canada branding ntv slogan canada s superstation channels digital 21 uhf virtual 21.1 psip subchannels 21.1 ntv hd 21.2 oz fm affiliations global note 1 ctv note 2 yes tv note 3 owner stirling communications international newfoundland broadcasting company ltd. first air date september 6 1955 call letters meaning canada joins on newfoundland presumed meaning or c st. john s broadcast area sister station s choz fm former callsigns cjon tv 1955 2011 former channel number s analog 6 vhf 1955 2011 former affiliations cbc television 1955 1964 ctv 1964 2002 ; primary global 1974 2002 ; secondary ch 2002 2007 e 2007 2009 transmitter power 482.3 kw 1 height 254.6 m transmitter coordinates 47 31 31 n 52 42 48 w 47.52528 n 52.71333 w 47.52528 ; 52.71333 cjon website ntv cjon dt uhf channel 21 branded on air as ntv short for newfoundland television is an english language independent television station located in st. john s newfoundland and labrador canada . the station is owned by stirling communications international primarily owned by the estate of geoff stirling and his family . cjon s studios are located on logy bay road in st. john s and its transmitter is located atop the south side hills . the station also operates additional rebroadcast transmitters throughout the province . through extensive coverage in canada this station can be seen on rogers cable channel 5 st. john s ; eastlink cable channel 7 most other parts of nl ; bell aliant fibreop channel 27 nl ns nb pei ; bell tv channel 199 ; telus optik tv channel 30 ab bc ; sasktel max channel 30 sk ; and vid otron illico channel 405 qc . on shaw direct the channel is available on 310 classic or 063 advanced and in high definition on channel 054 classic or 554 advanced . there is a high definition feed offered on rogers cable channel 521 eastlink tv channel 605 and bell aliant iptv channel 404 . ntv is well known for its unusual mix of programming particularly in the overnight hours . although nominally an independent station in practice it sublicenses programming via secondary affiliations with other networks and television systems . entertainment programming is licensed from global and yes tv sports programming from ctv and news programming from global and ctv . contents 1 history 2 programming 2.1 early 1990s to 2002 2.2 2002 to present 2.2.1 the missing programming 2.3 local programming 2.4 overnight programming 3 news operation 4 technical information 4.1 retransmitters 4.2 digital television and high definition 4.2.1 digital channels 4.2.2 analogue to digital conversion 5 notes 6 references 7 external links history edit in 1955 newfoundland broadcasting company ltd. owner of cjon radio 930 am applied for and received a licence for the first television station in newfoundland . newfoundland broadcasting was jointly owned by geoff stirling and don jamieson . the station went on the air later that year on september 6 as a cbc television affiliate . it was newfoundland and labrador s first television station and remains the province s only privately owned station to this day . stirling has contended that his was the only group willing to invest in such a station although other sources have suggested that stirling and jamieson used their political connections to prevent the cbc from opening its own station in newfoundland first . this scenario is somewhat unlikely because until 1958 the cbc was both the primary broadcast regulator in canada and a broadcaster in its own right the former role taken over in 1958 by the independent board of broadcast governors the forerunner of the canadian radio television and telecommunications commission crtc . however the cbc owned cbyt in corner brook launched soon after in 1959 . when it began operations cjon s first studios and offices were located at the prince of wales building in buckmaster s circle and the transmitter on kenmount road . in any event the cbc launched cbnt channel 8 in 1964 and cjon tv became an affiliate of the new ctv network . during the mid 1970s it was known as nbc for the newfoundland broadcasting company until 1978 when wlbz the bangor maine affiliate of the u.s. based national broadcasting company became available on cable to be replaced later by wdiv from detroit and whdh tv from boston . to avoid confusion cjon tv was rebranded as ntv although as late as august 1978 the newfoundland herald s tv listings continued to refer to ntv as nbc including listing the local newscasts under the title nbc news . 2 in 1972 cjon tv became one of the first television stations in canada if not the first to broadcast around the clock every night see overnight programming below . in 1977 stirling and jamieson unwound their partnership with jamieson taking the am radio stations with cjon radio being renamed cjyq . in later years many of the am stations were eventually sold and in several cases shut down . stirling kept ntv and the newly launched fm station choz . 1983 saw ntv and oz fm s operations move to their present building on logy bay road with a new transmitter on the south side hills . cjon was the only ctv affiliate not to participate in the network s 1993 restructuring from a cooperative to a corporation . however it retained a nominal interest less than 0.1 percent until baton broadcasting bought controlling interest in the network in 1997 . ntv became available on c band satellite in 1994 . the original purpose of this was to ensure that viewers in rural regions were able to receive the best signal possible . it also brought the station to labrador for the first time . however it became a popular choice for satellite viewers across the continent as ntv s signal was unscrambled free . the station began to make reference of its new coverage area in its promotions and branding ; it adopted the globe logo it maintains today and modified its slogan to your five star satellite network . due to issues involving program rights it left c band in 1996 . ntv eventually returned to c band but as an encrypted digital signal which required an expensive roughly 1500 receiver to decode . it also became available on the bell tv and shaw direct direct broadcast satellite services beginning in 1997 . the increased audience reach on these services and through digital cable services far beyond that in newfoundland and labrador alone has led the station to brand itself most recently as canada s superstation . due to its location some programs that ntv airs are first shown on this station before any other north american station airs them . this is signified with a world television premiere bumper that airs at the beginning of those programs although in the case of some syndicated programming the bumper may be used simply to indicate that the program airs on cjon tv before the local u.s. affiliate airs it . for instance the oprah winfrey show aired on ntv at 2 30 p.m. nt 18 00 utc in winter 17 00 utc in summer ; compared to 5 30 p.m. nt via wcvb tv from boston or wxyz tv from detroit and may hence be indicated as a world premiere although wls tv in chicago where oprah was based aired the program at 9 00 a.m. ct 11 30 a.m. nt . ntv disaffiliated from ctv in 2002 in a dispute over affiliation terms . for most of its tenure as a ctv affiliate ntv had aired the base 40 hour block of ctv programming including national advertising essentially for free since ctv paid ntv for the airtime . it then purchased rights to additional ctv programming for which ntv could sell all advertising . however early in the 21st century around 2001 and 2002 ctv tried to make ntv pay for the base 40 hour block as well with no possibility of airtime payments in a form of reverse compensation . ctv then raised rights fees for national ctv programming well beyond what stirling and other ntv officials claimed they could pay . as a result ntv officially became an independent station at the start of the 2002 03 television season . however for all practical purposes it is a global affiliate although this did not include news programming which it still primarily receives from ctv until cjon added global s national evening newscast in 2009 ; see below . ntv is the only canadian television station to broadcast 2 national news programs global s global national and ctv s ctv national news and until 16x9 s cancellation in june 2016 aired both 16x9 and ctv s newsmagazine series w5 tv series ntv is not the only television station that lost its affiliation status with a major television network and became independent in 2002 . other similar disaffiliations with u.s. stations occurred at that time in ways similar to that of ntv over contract disputes both of which were longtime network affiliates for their given areas and both of which became independent stations afterwards . the two stations are nbc affiliate kron tv in san francisco and longtime cbs affiliate wjxt in jacksonville florida . however in 2006 kron became the san francisco bay area s affiliate of mynetworktv then a television network owned by rupert murdoch s news corporation and 20th television and now a television broadcast syndication service and from 2010 to 2011 took a secondary alternate nbc affiliation by airing selected nbc programming when the local nbc owned and operated station kntv no relation to cjon tv in san jose could not do so . a similar switch would later occur in 2009 when three stations of the now defunct ch e system chch tv in hamilton ontario cjnt tv in montreal and chek tv in victoria british columbia all went independent following the collapse of e coincidentally like cjon chek was originally a cbc affiliate and later a ctv affiliate . the disaffiliation did however remove one major side effect of ntv s carriage of ctv programming . whenever possible ntv promoted its brand and removed any traces of ctv branding despite the fact that it was a ctv affiliate . the large opaque bug that resulted one specifically modified to cover the ctv logo during network time was the subject of significant mocking and complaining by viewers . other canadian stations have routinely used opaque bugs themselves when airing programming through u.s. networks with which the station had no affiliation . however ntv s bug was so bright that some viewers complained it could have burned into television screens ruining them . ntv now uses opaque bugs only for some u.s. simulcasts while the remaining ctv news broadcasts are now co branded with both logos . programming edit main article list of programs broadcast by cjon dt early 1990s to 2002 edit until the fall of 1992 ctv programming made up a clear majority of ntv s schedule although acquired programming from canwest global and others was present . however from 1992 on when ctv reduced its programming to 40 hours per week ntv suddenly became much more reliant on other broadcasters primarily canwest which owned the canadian rights to many dominant programs of the era such as the simpsons and seinfeld but also baton broadcasting and wic . instead of relying on any one group it took what it considered the best programming from all