Corus Entertainment’s family of Ontario over-the-air broadcast stations signed a program supply agreement with Bell Media on May 20, 2015. Under the terms of this agreement, CHEX Peterborough, CKWS Kingston, and Channel 12 Durham disaffiliate with CBC Television on August 31, 2015, to become CTV affiliates.

This marks the end of CHEX and CKWS’ CBC Television affiliations. CKWS’ CBC affiliation dates back to December 18, 1954, while CHEX marked its March 25, 1955 debut with Hockey Night in Canada. Channel 12 Durham, technically CHEX-TV-2 serving the Oshawa area, launched in 1992 as a CHEX rebroadcaster, becoming a CHEX semi-satellite in 1993. No reasons for the affiliation changes are given beyond Dave McCutcheon, Corus Entertainment general manager for television and radio in the Peterborough, Kingston and Oshawa regions, mentioning CBC’s change in direction and wishing to maintain the NEWSwatch brand.

One might wonder why Gloryosky mentions the Corus Entertainment affiliation changes. Simply put, I live in the area currently serviced by CHEX, CKWS, and Channel 12 Durham. They are the only CBC private affiliates in Ontario, at least for the next three months and change. I wrote a piece about CHEX and CKWS’ local programming for Gloryosky’s previous incarnation as URBMN in 2009. Admittedly, I rarely watch CHEX, CKWS or Channel 12 Durham, yet they are the most local stations in my current area. For them to change affiliations for the first time in their histories is a small, yet notable change in the world of Canadian over-the-air broadcast television.

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