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CBWT-DT (channel 6) is a CBC Television station in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It has common ownership with Ici Radio-Canada Télé station CBWFT-DT (channel 3). The two stations share studios on Portage Avenue and Young Street in Downtown Winnipeg; CBWT-DT's transmitter is located near Red Coat Trail/Highway 2 in Macdonald.
A few months later, on May 31, 1954, CBWT began as a bilingual station on channel 4 with an effective radiated power of 60,000 watts. In the same year KRDK-TV began broadcasting on channel 4 from Fargo, North Dakota, and there were concerns of interference between the two stations. CBWT's first equipment consisted of an RCA Victor TT10AL transmitter and a six-section Super Turnstile Type TF-6AM antenna, located atop the station's roof.
One of CBWT's first large mobile production was Ice Revue, broadcast from the Winnipeg Winter Club in March 1956. However, the equipment was different and there were complains of television receivers becoming stuck in the vertical or horizontal hold when the mobile unit switched cameras. Older tube-television sets had a sync generator which was blamed for the reception problem.
On September 30, 1956, the station connected to the Trans-Canada Microwave Relay System, which allowed Winnipeggers to watch CBC Television programming on the same day it was broadcast in Toronto and Montreal. To celebrate this link, CBC Television produced a special one-hour program, Along the Tower Trail, the Winnipeg segment featured a view of the CPR's Marshalling Yards, the Saint Boniface Cathedral, a prairie harvest clip, and a musical piece sung by the Andrew Mynarski School choir. By late 1957, it was decided to move CBWT from channel 4 to channel 3. The changeover occurred in April 1958.
Eye-To-Eye was a weekly local current affairs program broadcast from 10:15 to 11 p.m. every Tuesday and was the predecessor to 24Hours. It debuted on October 20, 1959, and was similar in style to Close-Up on the national network. The first topics covered were: "The Slums of Winnipeg", "Civic Politics – A Sick Joke" and "Interview – Two Young Ladies". Eye-To-Eye was produced by Ken Black and Warner Troyer.
On April 24, 1960, the station became Canadian English-only, while Canadian French programming moved to the newly launched CBWFT. At the same time two video tape recorders, worth $75,000 each, were installed at the station to replace the kinescope system used previously. The local version of Reach for the Top debuted in 1962 and was hosted by Bill Guest, alternately by Ernie Nairn. The program ran until 1985.
On November 16, 1964, CBWT swapped channels with CBWFT and higher-powered transmitters were installed on a new antenna mast near Starbuck, Manitoba. This enabled reception as far as away, and improved reception in the towns of Portage la Prairie, Gimli, Carman, Winkler, Morden, Morris, Letellier, Emerson, Altona, and Dominion City. It continues to be the tallest free-standing structure in the province. The move to VHF channel 6 also permitted people in the coverage area to hear the English feed's audio on FM radios tuned to 87.7; this option was no longer available after the station shifted to digital and shut down the analogue transmitter.
There was a large National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET) strike action throughout the CBC organization in the spring of 1981, and production of 24Hours was halted. Strike action began at 10:30 p.m. on May 3. Shortly after the Brian Mulroney government came to power in 1984, they made major cuts to the CBC, and as a result, 86 staff members were let go at CBWT. A second round of major cuts in December 1990, had a negative effect on local production, especially on the resources of 24Hours.
On February 27, 1997, CBC Manitoba announced that it would update and expand its studio facilities by at a cost of $2.8 million. In 1998, CBC Manitoba's newsroom and studios were expanded into a new building, after essentially using portables and an abandoned church for many years. The new studio featured a window looking down onto Portage Avenue. It was one of the first CBC stations to transition to a new digital Betacam SX format. The first television broadcast from the new studio occurred on Monday, September 21, 1998.
Previous programs produced at CBWT include Fred Penner's Place, It's a Living, and .
, CountryWide and a local edition of CBC News at Six (formerly the local segment of from 2000 to 2006 and 24Hours from 1970 to 2000) have been produced at CBWT. In addition, The National has an investigative unit based at the station.
3's Company was a local program broadcast in the early 1960s, hosted by Mary Liz Bayer, Bill Guest, and Jose Poneira, and similar to Living Winnipeg. Bayer had become the host of her own show, The Mary Liz Show, one year earlier. The Medicine Show was a local production shown nationally from January 1980 to August 1982. Show Business, hosted by Tom McCulloch, and Ten O'Clock Live, a music program from a local bar, were produced by CBWT in 1981.
In Search of the Perfect Summer was a summertime series produced by Sean Sullivan and was co-hosted by Anne Harding and Laurie Mustard in the 1982 season. It was nominated Best Variety Program on Television in the 1982 Winnipeg Broadcast Awards. Mustard won Best Host/Interviewer for the series.
Between 1983 and 1986, Mustard hosted the Winnipeg edition of a Sunday morning program for kids called Switchback. By 1989, the Winnipeg program was cancelled and amalgamated with the CBKT Regina edition of Switchback, contributing a portion of the program content.
The end of regional non-news programming came in 2000–01, when Breakaway, a program profiling Manitoba towns which had aired since June 1987, was canceled in a round of CBC budget cuts. Co-host Sandi Coleman went on to host the morning program on CBC Radio One Yukon.
CBWT broadcast Living Winnipeg, another regional non-news program, weekdays from January 15, 2007, until the program was cancelled across the network in 2009.
The first big news story CBWT covered was on June 8, 1954, about one week after the station opened, when the Time Building at 333 Portage Avenue caught fire. The Time Building was across from the Eaton's building.
At one time, Western Manitoba Broadcasters (a subsidiary of Craig Media) and CBC Manitoba had an agreement where the Dauphin retransmitter (CBWST 8) would carry a local newscast in place of the Winnipeg news, under the branding of Intermountain Television (IMTV). The program was called IMTV The Report and was broadcast at 5:30 p.m. in the 1980s and 1990s.
News at Noon was CBWT's half-hour news program that ran until January 1985, when the network program Midday took the timeslot. It had been previously called Noon Hour, which was a 60-minute program. Midday ran until 2000, but local news programming has not returned during the noon hour. 24Hours, an hour-long news and current affairs program, had run from 1970 to 2000.
On January 5, 2024, longtime CBC Manitoba meteorologist John Sauder signed off for the final time. Sauder had been with the CBC for 16 years, joining in 2008 from rival broadcaster CKY-TV.
On April 5, 2024, weeknight anchor Janet Stewart announced she would be leaving the television broadcast for a year to host Radio Noon on CBC Radio One. In May 2024, the corporation announced that Brittany Greenslade would host the 6 p.m. broadcast for one year.
| +Subchannel of CBWT-DT ! scope = "col" | Channel ! scope = "col" | Res. ! scope = "col" | Aspect ! scope = "col" | Short name ! scope = "col" | Programming |
CBWT began extending its signal using various methods, beginning in June 1962 with CBWBT in Flin Flon and CBWBT-1 in The Pas using kinescope recordings from CBWT. Later on, CBTA in Lynn Lake became part of the Frontier Coverage Package in September 1967. From 1968 onwards, CBWT used the province-wide microwave system to provide live television signals.
At one time, CBWAT in Kenora offered separate local news programming from CBWT, which was discontinued in 1979–80 when CJBN-TV went on the air.
| Baldy Mountain (Dauphin) | CBWST | 8 (VHF) | 120,000"List of Broadcasting Stations in Canada". CRTC. 1975. | Began operation on June 19, 1960 |
| Churchill | CHFC-TV | 8 (VHF) | 8.9 | Previously a CBC North transmitter until 1981; began operation as CHGH-TV on May 17, 1965 |
| Cross Lake | CBWNT | 12 (VHF) | 8.9 | |
| Easterville | CBWHT-2 | 11 (VHF) | 8.9 | |
| Fairford | CBWGT-2 | 11 (VHF) | 2,000 | |
| Fisher Branch | CBWGT | 10 (VHF) | 27,400 | Formerly CBWT-1; began operation January 31, 1967 [4] |
| Flin Flon | CBWBT | 10 (VHF) | 68 | Began operation June 8, 1962 |
| Gillam | CBWLT | 8 (VHF) | 5 | Began operation October 3, 1969 |
| Gods Lake Narrows | CBWXT | 13 (VHF) | 2,400 | |
| Grand Rapids | CBWHT | 8 (VHF) | 5 | Began operation November 29, 1968 |
| Jackhead | CBWGT-15 | 5 (VHF) | 3,400 | Began operation June 7, 1977 |
| Lac de Bonnet | CBWT-2 | 4 (VHF) | 8,400 | Began operation May 27, 1968 |
| Leaf Rapids | CBWQT | 13 (VHF) | 260 | |
| Little Grand Rapids | CBWZT | 9 (VHF) | 230 | |
| Lynn Lake | CBWRT | 8 (VHF) | 8.9 | Began operation as CBTA-TV on September 18, 1967 |
| Mafeking | CBWYT | 2 (VHF) | 4,000 | |
| Manigotagan | CBWGT-3 | 22 (UHF) | 151 | |
| McCusker Lake | CBWUT | 10 (VHF) | 240 | |
| Moose Lake | CBWIT-1 | 9 (VHF) | 8.9 | |
| Nelson House | CBWPT | 11 (VHF) | 8.9 | |
| Norway House | CBWOT | 9 (VHF) | 8.9 | |
| Oxford House | CBWVT | 8 (VHF) | 8.9 | |
| Pickle Lake | CBWDT-6 | 7 (VHF) | 5 | |
| Pikangikum | CBWDT-5 | 9 (VHF) | ||
| Piney | CBWT-3 | 29 (UHF) | 25,000 | |
| Pukatawagan | CBWBT-1 | 11 (VHF) | 8.9 | |
| Red Lake | CBWET | 10 (VHF) | 570 | |
| Snow Lake | CBWKT | 8 (VHF) | 5 | Began operation on February 22, 1969 |
| South Indian Lake | CBWQT-1 | 10 (VHF) | 8.9 | |
| The Pas | CBWIT | 7 (VHF) | 288 | Formerly CBWBT-1; began operation June 13, 1962 |
| Thompson | CBWTT | 7 (VHF) | 296 | Began operation April 1, 1965 |
| Wabowden | CBWMT | 10 (VHF) | 8.9 | |
| Wassagomach | CBWWT | 9 (VHF) | 3,400 | |
| Atikokan | CBWCT-1 | 7 (VHF) | 2,800 | Began broadcasting November 3, 1964 |
| Big Trout Lake | CBWT-1 | 13 (VHF) | 10 | |
| Dryden | CBWDT | 9 (VHF) | 8,900 | Began operation March 26, 1963 |
| Ear Falls, Ontario | CBWJT | 13 (VHF) | 10 | |
| Fort Frances | CBWCT | 5 (VHF) | 50,500 | Began broadcasting July 30, 1964; also served border regions of north-central Minnesota, including International Falls |
| Ignace | CBWDT-2 | 13 (VHF) | 8.9 | |
| Kenora | CBWAT | 8 (VHF) | 8,000 | Began broadcasting December 5, 1959 |
| Osnaburgh | CBWDT-4 | 13 (VHF) | 8.9 | |
| Red Lake | CBWET | 10 (VHF) | 570 | Began broadcasting on July 27, 1954 |
| Sandy Lake | CBWDT-7 | 10 (VHF) | 10 | |
| Savant Lake | CBWDT-3 | 8 (VHF) | 8.9 | |
| Sioux Narrows | CBWAT-1 | 4 (VHF) | 8.9 | |
| Cumberland House | CBWIT-2 | 9 (VHF) | 8.9 |
| Island Falls | CBWBT-2 | 7 (VHF) | 330 |
| Pelican Narrows | CBWBT-3 | 5 (VHF) | 13.2 |
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