Media in Ottawa–Gatineau
The following media outlets are located in Canada's National Capital Region, serving the cities of Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec. The two cities, which are adjacent and each receive virtually all television and radio stations operating in either city, are considered a single media market.
Most of the region's FM and TV stations, regardless of which community they are officially licensed to, transmitted from Camp Fortune in the Gatineau Hills. Other TV stations transmit from a tower located in Manotick, in the rural south portion of Ottawa. Ryan Tower, the former transmitter tower at Camp Fortune, was taken down on November 4, 2012 and its services and some antenna elements were transferred to a new, nearby tower.[1]
In addition to the market's local media services, Ottawa is also home to several national media operations, including CPAC (Canada's national legislature broadcaster), the digital political newspaper iPolitics, and the parliamentary bureau staff of all of Canada's major newsgathering organizations in television, radio and print. The city is also home to the legal headquarters of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation although operational headquarters for English- and French-language services are located in Toronto and Montreal, respectively.
Radio
AM stations
| Frequency | Call sign | Branding | Format | Owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AM 580 | CFRA | 580 CFRA | news/talk | Bell Media Radio | |
| AM 1200 | CFGO | TSN 1200 Ottawa | sports | Bell Media Radio | |
| AM 1310 | CIWW | CityNews | news | Rogers Media | |
| AM 1630 | CHYW | tourist information | Macdonald-Cartier International Airport | (defunct?) [2] | |
| AM 1670 | CJEU (AM) | Radio Oxygène 1670AM Radio-Enfant-Ado |
children's radio | Fondation Radio-Enfant | French (Gatineau) |
FM stations
Weatheradio
| Frequency | Call sign | Branding | Format | Owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 162.550 MHz | VBE 719 | Weatheradio Canada | weather alerts | Meteorological Service of Canada |
Shortwave (SW)
| Frequency | Call sign | Branding | Format | Owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3330 kHz 7850 kHz 1 14670 kHz |
CHU | time signal | National Research Council of Canada | shortwave radio station. 1On January 1, 2009, CHU moved its signal from 7335 kHz to 7850 kHz. |
Other radio stations
The following radio stations that can also be heard in the National Capital Region:
- CHLK-FM 88.1 FM, a community radio station operating out of Perth, Ontario.
- VEF315 88.7 FM, a community radio station operating out of Vankleek Hill, Ontario. [3]
- CKS608 91.9 FM, an ultra-low power campus and internet radio station from La Cité collégiale in Ottawa. [4]
- VF8013 92.3 FM, a very low-power French-language Christian radio station located in Ottawa. Air times of this radio station may vary. [5][6] [7]
- CHRC-FM 92.5 FM, an adult contemporary radio station operating out of Clarence-Rockland, Ontario.
- CJRO-FM 107.7 FM, a very low-power community radio station in Carlsbad Springs, Ontario. CJRO-FM is also heard via low-power transmitters on 107.9 FM Vars and 107.7 FM Embrun/Russell serving south-east rural Ottawa.
- Some Montreal AM radio stations can also be heard in the area, such as CKGM 690, CKAC 730, CJAD 800 and CHRF 980.
Defunct radio stations
- 96.5 CFDT-FM (east side) and 99.9 CFDT-FM-1 (west side), very low-power tourist information radio stations that served motorists along Highway 417. It is uncertain when or if these stations were ever in operation.[8][9][10]
- 96.5 FM was also used in 2002 for a special event radio programming at 96.5 MHz in Gatineau with the call sign CIRC.[11]
- CIIO-FM, operated over various frequencies on 104.7 FM, [12] 99.7 FM and [13] and 97.5, a tourist information station owned by Instant Information Services has been off the air since 2011. [14] Instant Information Services also operated CIIF-FM 97.5, also a former french-language tourist information station in Ottawa.
- 95.7 FM CKAV-FM-9, the local outlet of the Aboriginal Voices radio network; off the air since late 2014.
- CIOX-FM 101.1 FM (also known as Xfm), alternative rock radio station operating out of Smiths Falls, Ontario. It has been on the air from 2000 to January 2004.
- 970 AM CKCH, ceased operations in 1994.
- 1350 AM CIRA-5, a Gatineau-based French language rebroadcaster of CIRA-FM Montreal ceased operations in early 2015.
- CKO 106.9 FM was the Ottawa affiliate of the national CKO all-news network which ceased operations in 1989.
Television
Despite being one of Canada's largest metropolitan areas, many of the "local" stations serving Ottawa–Gatineau are, in fact, based in the Greater Toronto Area. Notably, the country's #2 and #3 private-sector broadcast networks, Global and Citytv, respectively, rely on repeaters of their Toronto-based stations, not originating stations, to serve Ottawa viewers. Despite this, however, Ottawa–Gatineau is unique among Canadian television markets, as the only market in all of Canada which has terrestrial access to virtually the entire range of Canadian broadcast networks and systems in both English and French — the larger Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver media markets each lack over-the-air access to some of the services in their market's minority language. The sole exception is aboriginal network APTN, which only has broadcast coverage in the North, but is carried on cable in Ottawa and indeed throughout the country.
Of the fourteen stations available over the air, only six actually originate from the area and provide local news. These six stations are currently owned by only three companies, with two stations apiece: the CBC (with stations for its English and French networks), RNC Media (which owns the local affiliates of the two private French-language networks, TVA and V), and Bell Media (which owns stations associated with its CTV and CTV 2 networks).
Both of the CBC stations carry local evening newscasts in their respective languages. The two Bell Media-owned stations, while nominally maintaining separate news operations, do not currently compete against each other for local news; CTV airs local newscasts at midday and in the evening, while CTV 2 only broadcasts a morning newscast. As for the RNC Media stations, the TVA affiliate carries a local evening newscast, whereas the V affiliate only airs short news updates.
| OTA virtual channel (PSIP) | Actual channel | Rogers Cable (Ottawa) |
Vidéotron (Gatineau) |
Call sign | Network | Language | Transmitter location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | 25 (UHF) | 8 | 6 | CBOT-DT | CBC Television | EN | Camp Fortune, Gatineau | |
| 6.1 | 14 (UHF) | 3 | 8 | CIII-DT-6 | Global | EN | Camp Fortune, Gatineau | Rebroadcaster of CIII-DT (Toronto) |
| 9.1 | 33 (UHF) | 5 | 2 | CBOFT-DT | Ici Radio-Canada Télé | FR | Camp Fortune, Gatineau | |
| 11.1 | 22 (UHF) | 18 | 11 | CHCH-DT-1 | Independent | EN | Manotick, Ottawa | Rebroadcaster of CHCH-DT (Hamilton) |
| 13.1 | 16 (UHF) | 7 | 7 | CJOH-DT | CTV | EN | Camp Fortune, Gatineau | |
| 14.1 | 20 (UHF) | 14 | 240 | CJMT-DT-2 | Omni Television ("Omni 2") |
EN | Manotick, Ottawa | Rebroadcaster of CJMT-DT (Toronto) |
| 24.1 | 24 (UHF) | 2 | 10 | CICO-DT-24 | TVOntario | EN | Camp Fortune, Gatineau | Rebroadcaster of CICA-DT (Toronto) |
| 30.1 | 30 (UHF) | 69 | 3 | CIVO-DT | Télé-Québec | FR | Camp Fortune, Gatineau | Rebroadcaster of CIVM-DT (Montreal) |
| 34.1 | 34 (UHF) | 11 | 5 | CFGS-DT | Noovo | FR | Camp Fortune, Gatineau | |
| 32.1 | 32 (UHF) | 10 | 4 | CHOT-DT | TVA | FR | Camp Fortune, Gatineau | |
| 15.1 | 15 (UHF) | 25 | 55 | CITS-DT-1 | Yes TV | EN | Manotick, Ottawa | Rebroadcaster of CITS-DT (Hamilton) |
| 43.1 | 35 (UHF) | 6 | 12 | CHRO-DT-43 | CTV 2 | EN | Manotick, Ottawa | Rebroadcaster of CHRO-TV (Pembroke) |
| 60.1 | 27 (UHF) | 16 | 239 | CFMT-DT-2 | Omni Television ("Omni 1") |
EN | Manotick, Ottawa | Rebroadcaster of CFMT-DT (Toronto) |
| 65.1 | 17 (UHF) | 15 | 13 | CITY-DT-3 | Citytv | EN | Manotick, Ottawa | Rebroadcaster of CITY-DT (Toronto) |
| – | – | 22 | – | – | Rogers TV | EN | – | Rogers Cable community channel |
| – | – | 23 | – | – | TV Rogers | FR | – | Rogers Cable community channel |
| – | – | – | 9 | – | MAtv | FR | – | Vidéotron community channel |
Rogers Cable and Vidéotron are the main cable providers in Ottawa and Gatineau, respectively. For many years, Ottawa cable systems piped in stations from the nearest American city, Watertown, New York. Ottawa is more than six times as large as the Watertown market, and the Watertown stations relied heavily on advertising in Ottawa for their revenue. However, in the late 1980s, all Watertown stations except PBS outlet WNPE-TV (now WPBS) were dropped in favour of stations from Rochester, New York. They have since been replaced with stations from Detroit, though WPBS is still carried in Ottawa.
Newspapers
Daily
College and university
- Algonquin Times
- The Charlatan
- Fulcrum
- La Rotonde
- The Otis
- The Leveller
Community
- Barrhaven Independent
- Barrhaven Weekender
- Canada Chinese News
- Capital Chinese News
- Centretown Buzz
- Centretown News
- Cumberland Communiqué
- Ecolatino (Latin/Italian community)
- The Epoch Times (Chinese Edition)
- Glebe Report
- Hogs Back News
- Il Postino (Italian community)
- Image
- Kanata Kourier Standard (Now defunct)
- Kitchissippi Times
- La Nouvelle
- Mainstreeter
- Manor Park Chronicle
- Manotick Messenger
- The Manotick Review
- The Mike on a Mic Show
- Muslim Link
- Nepean This Week
- New Edinburgh News
- Newswest
- L'Ora di Ottawa (Italian community)
- Orleans Star
- The OSCAR
- The Ottawa News
- Ottawa Jewish Bulletin
- Ottawa South Weekender
- Ottawa This Week (various)
- Ottawa Weekend Chinese News
- Packet
- Queenswood Newsliner
- Riverviews
- The Spectrum
- Stittsville News
- Stittsville Weekend Signal
- Vistas
- West Carleton Review
- Weekly Journal
Other publications
Other media
- CPAC
- Parliament Hill offices of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation corporate headquarters
- Head office of Canadian Geographic
- rabble.ca
References
- "Historic local radio/TV transmitter tower taken down". CTV Ottawa, November 4, 2012.
- Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2017-227, Findings regarding market capacity and the appropriateness of issuing a call for radio applications to serve the Ottawa-Gatineau radio market, CRTC, June 30, 2017
- vankleekfm.com
- www.labradio.ca
- Decision CRTC 97-44, New French-language religious FM radio programming undertaking, CRTC, February 6, 1997
- VF8013-FM, French/Religious, Ottawa Fabrique de la Paroisse du Sacré-Coeur du diocèse d'Ottawa - Canadian Communications Foundation
- VF8013 - fccdata.org
- Decision CRTC 89-263
- New Canadian FM and technical changes since 18th Edition FM Atlas (under "deleted" section)
- Former Ottawa Valley Radio Stations, Canadian Communications Foundation (see former stations)
- Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2002-71 Special event radio programming undertaking, Fondation radio enfant (du Canada), CRTC, March 14, 2002
- Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2005-601
- Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2007-75
- CIIO-FM - Canadian Communications Foundation
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