CFCM-DT

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CFCM-DT is the TVA owned-and-operated television station in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Owned by the Groupe TVA subsidiary of Quebecor Media, it broadcasts a high-definition digital signal on UHF channel 17 (or virtual channel 4.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter located at its former studios on Myrand Street in the former suburb of Sainte-Foy and its current studios are located in de l'Exposition Street near the Videotron Centre in the Quebec City borough of La Cité-Limoilou. This station can also be seen on Vidéotron channel 4 and in high definition on digital channel 604.

Until 2011, the station's transmitter facilities previously also hosted the transmitter for CBVE-TV (channel 5), the now-defunct local rebroadcaster of CBMT-DT/Montreal, when that station relocated to CBVT-DT's former analog channel (VHF channel 11), which broadcasts from Mount Bélair.

History

CFCM was Quebec's first private television station, going on the air for the first time on July 17, 1954. CFCM started out as a private bilingual CBC/Radio-Canada affiliate. The station's original owner was Télévision de Québec, a consortium of theatre chain Famous Players and Quebec City's two private AM radio stations, CHRC and CKCV.

At its launch, CFCM immediately linked up with both the CBC and Radio-Canada microwave networks. The station started broadcasting an all-French service on March 17, 1957, when Télévision de Québec launched CKMI-TV. When Radio-Canada opened CBVT on September 7, 1964, CFCM joined the loose association of independent stations formed by Montreal's CFTM-TV and Chicoutimi's CJPM-TV a year earlier. This was the forerunner of TVA, which was formally organized on September 12, 1971.

Télévision de Québec was nearly forced to sell its stations in 1969 because of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's new rules requiring television stations to be 80 percent Canadian-owned. The largest shareholder, Famous Players, was a subsidiary of American film studio Paramount Pictures (Paramount and parent company Viacom eventually sold Famous Players to rival Cineplex Entertainment in 2005). Eventually, Famous Players reduced its shares to 20% by 1971, allowing Télévision de Québec to keep CKMI and CFCM The company renamed itself Télé-Capitale in 1974.

For a time in the 1980s, the station's logo was a "4" resembling the logo of independent Spanish language station WAPA-TV in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

CFCM, along with five other stations, CKMI-TV, CHLT-TV, CHEM-TV and CFER-TV, were all purchased by Pathonic Communications in 1979. CFCM became the flagship station of Pathonic's new TVA-affiliated system.

Pathonic merged with Télé-Metropole, owner of CFTM, in 1990. Since then, CFCM has been a semi-satellite of CFTM, except for newscasts.

Currently, CFCM produces its own edition of the 6 p.m. bulletin, TVA Nouvelles, anchored by Pierre Jobin. It is the only TVA station to entirely produce its own evening newscast.

Digital television

In August 2011, CFCM-DT signed on the air.

With the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will list CFCM-DT's virtual channel as 4.1.

External links

• TVA Québec
• Template:History of Canadian Broadcasting
• CFCM-TV in the REC Canadian station database
• Template:TV Fool