41 28.2 w 45.427528 n 75.691167 w 45.427528 ; 75.691167 chro s broadcast location chro tv pembroke ottawa ontario canada city pembroke ontario branding ctv two ottawa general ctv morning live morning show slogan ottawa s 1 morning show channels analog 5 vhf digital allocated 7 vhf translators 43 chro dt 43 ottawa virtual 43.1 psip affiliations ctv two owner bell media first air date august 19 1961 call letters meaning ro regional ottawa sister station s cjoh dt cfgo cfra cjmj fm ckkl fm former callsigns chov tv 1961 1977 former affiliations cbc television 1961 1991 ctv 1991 1997 independent 1997 1998 transmitter power chro tv 100 kw chro dt 43 50 kw height chro tv 162.9 m chro dt 43 177.0 m transmitter coordinates chro tv 45 50 2 n 77 9 49 w 45.83389 n 77.16361 w 45.83389 ; 77.16361 chro dt 43 45 13 2 n 75 33 49 w 45.21722 n 75.56361 w 45.21722 ; 75.56361 chro dt 43 website ctv two ottawa chro tv vhf analogue channel 5 is a ctv two owned and operated television station located in pembroke ontario canada . the station is owned by bell media as part of a twinstick with ctv outlet cjoh dt channel 13 . the two stations share studios alongside bell s ottawa radio properties located at the market media mall building on 87 george street in downtown ottawa s byward market and its transmitter is located on tv tower road near pembroke ; the station operates a digital only rebroadcaster on uhf channel 43 in ottawa . this station can also be seen on rogers cable channel 6 and in high definition on digital channel 595 . the station s pembroke facility which once housed its entire operation and produced a number of local shows now employs only about one staff member an on call engineer . the pembroke transmitter remains in operation but the otherwise vacant studio building is now unused . contents 1 history 1.1 as the new ro 1.2 as a channel ottawa 1.3 as a ottawa 1.4 as ctv two ottawa 2 digital television and high definition 2.1 digital channel 2.2 analogue to digital conversion 3 programming 3.1 past programming 4 news operation 5 references 6 external links history edit the station first went on the air on august 19 1961 as chov a cbc television affiliate owned by gordon archibald ottawa valley broadcasting the owner of am radio station chov . workers of the station unionized and a labour dispute began . a financial crisis in 1976 led to the station going dark for six days in august of that year . ottawa valley sold the station to j. conrad lavigne in 1977 . lavigne adopted the chro callsign and opened a sales office for the station in ottawa . lavigne s company subsequently became part of the mctv system in 1980 . while most of the mctv stations used mctv rather than their call letters as their on air branding chro continued to use its call sign although it used the same logo and programming schedule as the other mctv stations . in the late 1980s mctv filed an application to expand the service by adding a transmitter and broadcasting facilities in ottawa although this application was withdrawn in 1989 after northern cable the owner of the mctv system underwent an ownership change to be financed by selling off its broadcasting assets . 1 chro tv s logo under bbs affiliation used from 1994 1997 . under the ownership of baton broadcasting the mctv branding used on chro still remained . the previous mctv logo was dropped in 1994 when all of the other baton owned stations adopted a similar logo the only difference being the call letters . unlike other baton owned stations the mctv stations did not use their call signs in their logos . the logo featured multicoloured rings around the word bbs . 2 logo used in 1993 . in 1990 baton broadcasting acquired the mctv stations . because chro was carried by cable television companies in the ottawa market this was deemed an ownership conflict for baton which already owned ottawa s cjoh and would therefore have a de facto twinstick in competition with the cbc s cbot channel 4 . however the station s carriage in ottawa was also deemed essential to its survival since pembroke was too small a market to support the station on its own . therefore chro disaffiliated from the cbc and became a ctv affiliate . the canadian radio television and telecommunications commission crtc also ordered strict controls on chro s programming so that baton could not gain unfair audience advantage in ottawa by airing shows at different times on chro and cjoh . baton eventually became the sole corporate proprietor of ctv . as the new ro edit logo used as the new ro from 1998 2005 . in 1997 chro was one of several stations transferred to chum limited in exchange for the atv stations in the maritime provinces . chro did not have an over the air transmitter in ottawa until it came under chum s ownership . after being acquired by chum chro was rebranded to the new ro in 1998 and joined the newnet system . during its first two years under newnet affiliation chro operated from a small studio at 10 kimway avenue near cjoh s broadcast facility on merivale road . in february 2005 chum announced plans to consolidate the master control departments for chro ckvr cfpl chwi and cknx at 299 queen street west in toronto and to consolidate the traffic and programming departments at cfpl in london resulting in the loss of approximately 19 staff members from chro . on june 3 2005 at approximately 10 30 a.m. the pembroke master control signal came to an end as the new consolidated master control took to air . as a channel ottawa edit former a channel logo 2005 2008 . the station was renamed a channel on august 2 2005 along with the rest of the newnet system and began using the same logo as the rest of the system as well . on july 12 2006 ctv owner bell globemedia now bell media announced plans to purchase chum limited for c1 .7 billion with plans to divest itself of the a channel and access alberta stations . 3 on the same date chro cancelled its noon hour lifestyles program and its 12 30 p.m. weekday newscast citing low ratings and declining advertising revenues . anchors james hendricks and dave gross were also let go . 4 a plan was announced to almost fully automate the station s news production system which would see a few dozen staff members laid off by the start of the new year . on april 9 2007 rogers media announced an agreement to purchase all of the a channel stations including chro sextv the channel canadian learning television and access alberta . the deal was contingent on full approval by the crtc of the ctvglobemedia takeover of chum . 5 with crtc approval being contingent on the sale of the citytv stations instead rogers bought the citytv stations and ctv kept the a channel stations . the takeover transaction was completed on june 22 . with the chum acquisition ctv became the only english language private television broadcaster offering ottawa news coverage ; it owns both chro and cjoh tv which compete only with the cbc s cbot in offering local news . the crtc s decision to allow the joint ownership of cjoh and chro appeared to contradict its own rationale for forcing ctv to sell the citytv stations specifically that a single company could not own two stations in the same language based in the same large urban centre however even before ctv confirmed it would keep chro the twinstick was approved by the crtc on the basis of chro s financial situation and the stations prior common ownership until 1997 . 6 7 as a ottawa edit former a logo 2008 2011 . the station was rebranded as a on august 11 2008 along with the rest of the a channel system . the a soft launch began earlier in june 2008 in chro tv s press materials and local newscasts . 8 due to a major fire that destroyed the longtime studios of sister ctv station cjoh tv on merivale road in nepean on february 7 2010 cjoh integrated its operations with chro into the latter station s studios at 87 george street in ottawa s byward market which was already occupied by chro . as a result cjoh s newscasts began to be produced from the facility becoming the first time since the studios had any nighttime newscasts since the cancellation of chro s a news broadcasts in 2009 . 9 10 11 as ctv two ottawa edit on may 30 2011 bell media announced that the a television system would be rebranded as ctv two with chro switching its branding from a ottawa to ctv two ottawa . the official relaunch to ctv two took place on august 29 2011 . 12 in addition chro s morning show a morning was renamed ctv morning live . in addition chro started broadcasting in high definition as part of the relaunched system on august 31 2011 . digital television and high definition edit digital channel edit channel video aspect psip short name programming 13 43.1 1080i 16 9 chro main chro dt programming ctv two analogue to digital conversion edit on august 31 2011 when canadian television stations in crtc designated mandatory markets transitioned from analogue to digital broadcasts 14 chro s ottawa transmitter chro tv 43 ceased analog transmissions and began broadcasting in digital on its former analogue allocation of uhf channel 43 . chro s main transmitter in pembroke is not yet required to switch to digital since the crtc did not designate pembroke as a mandatory market . programming edit currently the station s locally produced programs include ctv morning live bob tv majic 100 top 20 countdown past programming edit ottawa senators hockey 20 regular season games a year of the canadian capital city s nhl team which were usually but not always broadcast on thursday evenings with dean brown as play by play announcer and gord wilson as commentator . games were broadcast through the 2007 08 season after which games were moved back exclusively to sportsnet east and later tsn5 also owned by chro parent company bell media news operation edit chro presently broadcasts 22 hours of locally produced newscasts each week all consisting of four hours each weekday and two hours on saturdays of a local version of ctv s local morning news program franchise ctv morning live . chro s first anchor team under newnet consisted of caroline redekopp and former ckvr anchor robert maxwell with ken evraire on sports former weather channel anchor elissa lansdell on weather and entertainment and weekend anchor james hendricks covering traffic and crime from the assignment desk . cyndi edwards hosted the new ro at noon which featured a mix of news lifestyle and entertainment reports . reporter sandra blaikie who joined chro in 2000 took over from caroline redekopp after her departure in 2002 . james hendricks by now the 11 p.m. anchor replaced robert maxwell after his resignation in autumn 2003 . hendricks also continued to anchor the late news until cory atkins late of cfrn tv edmonton signed on to be the new eleven oclock anchor in april 2004 . 15 in january 2007 chro began producing its newscasts with a new system called ross overdrive an automated production system that replaced the need for a switcher vtr operator graphics operator and many other staffers . some 25 staffers were affected by the change which had been announced some six months earlier . on march 3 2009 ctvglobemedia cancelled almost all of