CKWS-DT

CKWS-DT is a television station serving Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It broadcasts a digital signal on VHF channel 11 from a transmitter near Highway 95 in Wolfe Island, south of Kingston and operates UHF rebroadcasters in Brighton on digital channel 30 (virtual 66.1), Spencerville on channel 26 and Beckwith Township (Smiths Falls/Perth) on channel 36. Its signal covers portions of Eastern Ontario from Campbellford to Morrisburg and from Perth to Oswego, New York in the United States, and is available on many cable systems throughout Eastern Ontario, and Northern and Central New York.

Owned by Corus Entertainment, its studios are located at 170 Queen Street in downtown Kingston. From 1954 through 2015, CKWS was an affiliate of CBC Television. CBC chose to end its affiliations with Corus's privately owned affiliates effective August 30, 2015. Beginning the following day, CKWS began carrying programs from the CTV Television Network.

History

CKWS signed-on December 18, 1954, as an affiliate of the CBC network. It was originally a joint venture between Roy Thomson and the Davies family, owners of the Kingston Whig-Standard (the source of its calls). The station has been sold three times: to the Kanatec Corporation, bought by Power Corporation in 1977 and to Corus in 1999.

CKWS

CKWS may refer to:

CKWS-FM

CKWS-FM is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 104.3 FM in Kingston, Ontario. The station airs a hot adult contemporary format branded on-air as 104.3 Fresh Radio.

The station is owned by Corus Entertainment, which also owns CFMK-FM and CKWS-DT.

History

The station was launched in 1942 as CKWS, a CBC Trans-Canada Network affiliate taking over CBC responsibilities from Queen's University radio station CFRC. Broadcasting on AM 960, the station was owned by Allied Broadcasting, a partnership of Roy Thomson and Rupert Davies, owner of the Kingston Whig-Standard newspaper. The call letters were derived from the newspaper's name, as was common at the time.

FM sister station CKWS-FM (now CFMK-FM) signed on in 1947 (originally as CKWR-FM), and CKWS-TV launched in 1954. For most of the 1960s and 1970s, CKWS battled local rival CKLC for listenership, since both stations had adopted a similar Top 40 music format, although CKWS always carried more news and community programming.

The stations were purchased by Paul Desmarais and Claude Pratte in 1977. In 1982, the station would move to new studios on Counter Street. In 1987 the station became part of Desmarais' Power Corporation and adopted the call letters CFFX, as it would no longer be associated with the television station, which retained the CKWS name. At the same time, CFMK-FM relocated its studios to the Counter Street location.