Branding Omni.2 Subchannels 40.1 Omni Television | Slogan Diversity Television Translators see below | |
Channels Digital: 40 (UHF)
Virtual: 40 (PSIP) Affiliations Omni Television (O&O; 2002–present) | ||
CJMT-DT, virtual and UHF digital channel 40, is a Canadian multi-lingual television station located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is owned by the Rogers Media division of Rogers Communications as part of a triplestick (the only conventional television triplestick operated by the company) with sister multicultural station CFMT-DT (channel 47) and City flagship owned-and-operated station CITY-DT (channel 57). All three stations share studio facilities located at Yonge-Dundas Square on 33 Dundas Street East in downtown Toronto; CFMT maintains transmitter facilities located atop the CN Tower in downtown Toronto.
Contents
- History
- Programming
- Sports programming
- Newscasts
- Current on air staff
- Notable former on air staff
- Analog to digital conversion
- References
The station was launched on September 16, 2002 as a sister to CFMT; at this time, Rogers launched Omni Television as a blanket brand for the stations by branding the new station as Omni.2, followed by re-branding CFMT as Omni.1. The two stations are distinguished by their service of different cultural groups; CJMT caters primarily to Asian cultures (including South Asian and Chinese languages), while CFMT focuses on European and Latino cultures.
On cable, the station is available on corporate sister Rogers Cable channel 14 and in high definition on digital channel 530; on satellite, the station is also available on Bell TV channel 216 and in high definition on channel 1056.
History
The station signed on the air on September 16, 2002, broadcasting on UHF channel 44. In 2004, CJMT moved its channel allocation to UHF channel 69. The station was licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission as part of the same process that approved independent station CKXT-TV (channel 51, now defunct). The "J" in its callsign has no particular meaning, except that it was an available callsign that maintained the "MT" lettering (standing for "Multicultural Television") from CFMT (CJMT was formerly the callsign of a now-defunct AM radio station in Chicoutimi, Quebec).
In October 8, 2007, Rogers announced that the operations of the OMNI stations would relocate from 545 Lake Shore Boulevard West to 33 Dundas Street East. CJMT and CFMT integrated their operations into the building – which it shares with City flagship CITY-DT, which moved into the facility the previous month – on October 19, 2009.
In April 27, 2015, "OMNI.2" began Chinese language broadcasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Programming
As a multicultural station, CJMT airs programming in the South Asian languages (such as Urdu and Hindi), as well as in Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Somali and Afghan. As with its sister station CFMT, CJMT also airs syndicated English-language programming. The original series Metropia was also broadcast on the station, with repeats on CFMT. In 2014, CJMT began to regularly simulcast CBS late-night talk shows Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, both of which moved from the main Omni television channel. Both shows have since concluded, with their successors airing on Global and CTV Two respectively). The first season of the Fox series Empire also aired on CJMT (its second season moved to City).
Sports programming
During the 2007 season, CJMT began airing late-afternoon NFL games, usually the alternate to whatever aired on Sportsnet and CKVU-DT in Vancouver. These games were moved to CITY-DT as of the 2008 season. Rights to these games were later assumed by CTV. During the 2014 season, CJMT aired several Thursday Night Football games in simulcast with Sportsnet and CBS.
On June 27, 2013, CJMT broadcast Mandarin-language coverage of a Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball game started by Taiwanese player Chien-Ming Wang. This event marked the first ever Canadian MLB telecast in the language.
Newscasts
CJMT-DT broadcasts five hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with one hour on weekdays). The station carries two local newscasts aimed at Southern Ontario's Asian demographic, presented in the Mandarin and Cantonese languages.
CJMT launched its news operation the day the station began operations on September 16, 2002, with newscasts airing in Mandarin and South Asian languages as well as a Cantonese language newscast that moved to the station from sister station CFMT. The South Asian edition had previously aired once a week, and was known as South Asian Newsweek. The South Asian newscast was dropped in June 2013, due to corporate cutbacks at Rogers Media, that included the shutdown of production operations at CJMT's sister stations CJCO-DT in Calgary and CJEO-DT in Edmonton.
Current on-air staff
Notable former on-air staff
Analog-to-digital conversion
CJMT shut down its analogue signal, over UHF channel 69, on August 31, 2011, the official date in which full-power television stations in larger Canadian television markets transitioned from analogue to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 51. In August 2012, the digital signal relocated to UHF channel 40, after that channel was vacated due to the shutdown of CKXT-DT. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers originally displayed the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analogue channel 69, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition; however, its virtual channel was remapped to its physical digital channel 40 with the relocation of its digital signal to that frequency.