Broadcast TV is no longer an option for the residents of the northern Manitoba community of Thompson after the last signal in the small city shut down.
The CRTC recently approved Bell Media’s application to delete CKYT-TV, channel 9, which had relayed CTV Winnipeg (CKY-DT). CKYT had broadcast in analog with 2.185kW.
Bell’s filing says CKYT’s facility would have needed about $25,000 in repairs just to remain on the air in analog, and its location more than ten hours from Winnipeg by car made repairs difficult. A conversion to digital would have cost up to $100,000.
Thompson is an isolated mining community of about 13,000 people that’s as far north as you can drive on a trunk highway in Manitoba. The city has a commercial radio station and a CBC Radio One station with local morning and midday shows.
The silencing of CKYT comes nine years after the CBC shut down two TV transmitters that had operated in Thompson as part of a national reduction in broadcast service. Numerous smaller communities across Canada lost all broadcast TV reception at that time, but some communities have continued to be served by private broadcasters such as CTV.
CTV still has a half-dozen analog rebroadcasters elsewhere in Manitoba.