About Us

Our History

CHCH-TV was founded by Ken Soble. Soble was a leader of Hamilton's urban renewal movement, and owner of CHML radio. CHCH began broadcasting in 1954 as a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) affiliate from the CHCH Television Tower, a transmitter located at 481 First Road West in Stoney Creek. At the time, all private stations were required to be CBC affiliates. In 1961, CHCH disaffiliated from the CBC and became the first independent television station in Canada. The move to become an independent station was twofold. First, Toronto's CBLT already provided full network service to the same area the CHCH signal could be received and secondly, the station's managers wanted to produce a larger amount of local programming, instead of being forced to carry CBC programming.

In 1990, Western International Communications (WIC) purchased CHCH. Although CHCH had been available on cable in many Ontario markets for years, in 1997 CHCH's broadcast signal coverage was expanded throughout Ontario, in an effort to compete with the reach of Global (CIII) and Baton Broadcast System. In turn, WIC renamed the station ONtv, as in "Ontario Television", in line with the naming pattern of many of its other stations such as BCTV, ITV, and RDTV.

Local news shifted focus from the station's core market, the Hamilton area, toward Ontario as a whole, in an attempt to challenge what was then a regional news service provided by Global. However, with Hamilton being largely an afterthought, and other local stations already strong in the ratings, the shift was unsuccessful, and CHCH's ratings dropped significantly.

In 2000, Canwest purchased WIC and assumed control of its stations. Since Global already served Ontario and Toronto, Canwest rebranded the station CH on February 12, 2001 and subsequently launched the CH Television Network in September of that year. This move launched a secondary television system for Canwest's stations in medium-sized markets. Local news coverage was revamped and re-focused on the Hamilton/Halton/Niagara region.

Operation Today

In 2007 CH was re-branded as E! Everything Entertainment for all non-news related, prime time and fringe programming, and returned to the original call letters CHCH News for all news programming. Currently, the station broadcasts over 40 hours of local content each week.

For more information visit www.chchnews.ca

Facilities and Location

163 Jackson St. W
PO Box 2230 Station A
Hamilton, ON
L8N 3A6

Main Switchboard: 905-522-1101