CBFT-DT

CBFT-DT, virtual channel 2 (UHF digital channel 19), is the flagship station of the French language Ici Radio-Canada Télé broadcast network located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The station is owned by the Société Radio-Canada arm of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as part of a twinstick with CBC Television outlet CBMT-DT (channel 6). The two stations share studios and master control facilities based at Maison Radio-Canada on René Lévesque Boulevard East in Downtown Montreal, and CBFT's transmitter is located atop Mount Royal.

This station can also be seen on Vidéotron Montreal cable channel 2, Charter Plattsburgh channel 5 and Comcast Burlington channel 22. There is also a high definition feed available on Vidéotron digital channel 602. It is also seen on direct broadcast satellite throughout Canada.

History

CBFT was the first permanent television station in Canada (an experimental station, VE9EC, had been on the air in Montreal in 1931). It launched on September 6, 1952 at 4 p.m., beating CBLT in Toronto by two days. The station went on the air with the movie Aladdin and His Lamp, followed by a cartoon, and then a French film, a news segment and a bilingual variety show. The station aired programming in both French (60 percent) and English (40 percent), a practice common for many stations in Quebec at the time.