Media in Thunder Bay

Television

Thunder Bay receives CTV and Global service from a locally-owned twinstick operation rather than network-owned stations, the largest city in Canada and the only one in Ontario with such an arrangement.

Thunder Bay Television usually uses the on-air branding scheme of Thunder Bay Television, and then the name of the network to which the channel is affiliated, except in cases when the channel is airing programming from a network to which it is not affiliated, when the network name is substituted for the channel's call sign.

WBKP channel 5, the CW affiliate in Calumet, Michigan can be received in Thunder Bay with an outdoor roof antenna and a digital-capable television or receiver.

Cable

The cable provider in Thunder Bay is Shaw. The community channel on Shaw Cable is branded as Shaw TV, and airs on cable channel 10.

American network affiliates on cable in Thunder Bay come from Minneapolis–Saint Paul: KSTP-TV (ABC), WCCO-TV (CBS), KARE (NBC), KTCA (PBS/TPT) and KMSP-TV (Fox). Other Canadian network affiliates available to all cable subscribers in Thunder Bay include CBLT-DT (CBC) and CBLFT-DT (Ici Radio-Canada) from Toronto and CFTM-DT (TVA) from Montreal.

Radio

Thunder Bay is home to 11 radio stations, all of which broadcast on the FM band.

There are four commercial radio stations based in the city — Rock 94.3 and CKPR 91.5, owned by Dougall Media, the parent company of Thunder Bay Television and Thunder Bay's Source, and Magic 99.9 and Country 105, owned by Acadia Broadcasting Limited. The city receives CBC Radio One as CBQT-FM and CBC Radio 2 as CBQ-FM, at 88.3 FM and 101.7 FM respectively. The French Première Chaîne is available as a repeater of Sudbury-based CBON-FM on 89.3 FM. Lakehead University operates a campus radio station, CILU-FM, at 102.7 FM.

On May 16, 2008, the Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada was given approval by the CRTC for a broadcasting licence to operate a specialty low-power FM commercial radio programming undertaking in Pickle Lake and a transmitter in Thunder Bay. The station broadcasts at 96.5 FM in Pickle Lake and has a rebroadcaster at 98.1 FM in Thunder Bay. It airs content in English, Ojibwe, Cree, and Oji-Cree

September 2010, Thunder Bay Information Radio began to broadcast frequent weather reports and community events.CKSI-FM. The station's creator Bob Seed was a former CBC radio broadcaster. The station broadcasts at 90.5 FM from the top of the Thunder Bay Regional Sciences Centre. The station is also Thunder Bay's emergency radio station featuring reports from the MTO, OPP and other various emergency services. In 2012, the station entered into a partnership with Great Expectations Marketing which publishes a number of community newspapers.

Out-of-market radio

One station, CFQK, operates outside of Thunder Bay, broadcasting on 104.5 FM in Kaministiquia. The main signal is not widely receivable in Thunder Bay itself, although the station also has a rebroadcaster on 103.5 FM in Shuniah, with the call sign CKED, which can be heard in the northeastern part of Thunder Bay. As of 2014, the station broadcasts a hot adult contemporary format, branded as Energy 103 & 104. CFQK-FM and its rebroadcaster CKED-FM had gone through a number of format changes since the station was launched in 2002.

The broadcast of WGLI-FM 98.7, based in Hancock, Michigan, is occasionally receivable in the city and has a small listener base. Since CKPR ended its AM transmission in September 2007, American country station WJMS 590 AM from Ironwood, Michigan has been receivable during the day.FM 91.3 American public broadcast, similar to CBC radio, receivable in car radios.

Print media

Thunder Bay has one daily newspaper, The Chronicle-Journal, which has a circulation of approximately 28,000 and has coverage of all of Northwestern Ontario. There are two weekly newspapers — Thunder Bay's Source, operated by Dougall Media, and Canadan Sanomat, a Finnish language paper.

Thunder Bay also has a locally-owned monthly arts and culture magazine, The Walleye, which is distributed for free throughout the city and surrounding area. The Walleye is also available online and the website provides insight into the local arts, culture and entertainment scene.

Superior Outdoors is a locally-owned outdoor lifestyle magazine that is published twice a year (November and May). The magazine was started in 2007.

Lakehead University's student newspaper is called The Argus, and is published weekly during the school year.

The Chronicle Journal publishes a free weekly called Spot every Thursday, focusing on entertainment.

The city produces a bi-monthly publication to citizens titled yourCity, which is also available online in a PDF format.

Netnewsledger is a daily updated website that reproduces press releases and lists current events in Thunder Bay, and allows politicians to connect to their constituents.

Great Expectations Marketing publishes four quarterly community newspapers: Bay & Algoma Community, Current River Times, Simpson & Victoria Place, and Westfort Community. The community newspapers feature various local businesses and also support local charities and nonprofit organizations. The newspapers are delivered to community households, and may also be viewed online at www.gemarketing.ca.