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CIII is a television station owned by CanWest Global which serves most of the province of Ontario. It is part of the Global Television Network.
Contrary to popular belief, CIII is not licensed as a Toronto television station. CIII broadcasts on Channel 6, from the town of Paris, Ontario, located between London and Hamilton. A series of rebroadcast transmitters relay the Paris signal to much of Ontario, including: Channel 41 from the top of the CN Tower in Toronto, Channel 22 from Stevenson, Ontario, Channel 29 from Oil Springs, Ontario Channel 55 from Fort Erie, Ontario, Channel 4 from Owen Sound, Ontario, Channel 7 from Midland, Ontario, Channel 27 from Peterborough, Ontario, Channel 2 from Bancroft, Ontario, Channel 6 from Ottawa, Channel 11 from Sudbury, Ontario, Channel 2 from North Bay, Ontario, Channel 13 from Timmins, Ontario, Channel 12 from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and is Cable 3 on most cablesystems across the province. CIII is not available in Thunder Bay; instead Thunder Bay Television stations CKPR and CHFD, broadcasts a large amount of Global programming. CIII has studios and offices in the Toronto suburb of Don Mills, and at the National Press Centre in Ottawa.
Most of CIII's rebroadcast transmitters use the call sign CIII followed by a number to denote their status as rebroadcasters. However, CIII's rebroadcasters in Sudbury and North Bay have the call sign CFGC instead.
CIII was launched as CKGN-TV on January 6, 1974, but has always been known as Global. Early on, its flagship news program "Global News" developed, and in the beginning it was anchored by Peter Trueman in Toronto and Peter Desbarats in Ottawa. During the 1980s Global greatly expanded its news operation, with an hour-and-a-half of news starting at 5:30 PM, plus news at noon and at 11 PM. By the end of the 1980s, the noon news was simply called "News at Noon", the 5:30 news was called "First News", the 6:00 news was called "The Six O'Clock Report", and the 11:00 news was called "The World Tonight". The newsroom was used as the backdrop for Global News throughout much of the 80s and 90s. From about 1986 to 1997, the anchors sat at a desk with a glass background imprinted with a map of the world. Originally, the land had a white outline with red horizontal lines throughout, and was changed to just the white outline in 1994. The map was removed completely in 1997, and in 1998 the news moved into a closed studio. Global News returned to its former newsroom background studio in 2003, with some modifications from previously. Anchors over the years have included Mike Anscombe, Beverly Thompson, John Dawe, Jane Gilbert, Peter Kent, Loretta Sullivan, Bob Macadorey (a veteran of radio station 1050 CHUM), Thalia Assuras, and others.
CIII has evolved into a much more Toronto-centric station in recent years, despite being licensed to a town a fair distance away from the Greater Toronto Area. Previously, it employed a number of freelance journalists from across the province who filed reports for Global News. This, along with extensive provincewide weather coverage, gave the station a distinctive Ontario feel for many years. While the main studio was always located in Don Mills, it was not a distinctly Toronto station until it began to rebrand itself in the late 1990s.
Presently, Global News is seen at 6 AM (Global News Morning), Noon, 5:30, and 11 PM. Global News Morning is anchored by Christine Crosbie and Alan Carter, and Anwar Knight with weather. Global News at 5:30 is anchored by Leslie Roberts, Michael Kuss with weather, Jim Tatti with sports, and Anne-Marie Mediwake with the "In Sight" segment. Despite its Toronto-centric approach in broadcasting to virtually the entire province, it provides extensive coverage of provincial politics from Queen's Park. This includes the weekly provincial political affairs program "Focus Ontario", seen Saturdays at 6:30 PM, and hosted by Graham Richardson. From 1994 to 2001, CIII also produced "First National", which was anchored by Peter Kent and seen at 6:30 PM weeknights. The program was replaced by Global National, anchored by Kevin Newman and originating from CHAN-TV in Vancouver.
CIII was originally owned by Global Communications, which was fully acquired by Izzy Asper in 1989. Asper's stations, including UTV in Vancouver, Channels 2 & 7 in Calgary, STV in Saskatchewan, CKND in Winnipeg, and MITV in the Maritimes formed a mini-network for a number of years, which evolved into the Global that Canadians know today. All of these stations began using the "Global" brand, in addition to CIII, in 1997.
Some information courtesy Nelson Media (http://members.shaw.ca/nelsonmedia/), The Bill Dulmage Radio & Televison Archive (http://billdulmage.com)
Slogans
- 1974 - Your New Point of View
- c. 1983-present - Global's Got It!
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