Media in Red Deer, Alberta
Radio
Television
Until August 2009, Red Deer was served by a local television station, CHCA-TV channel 6, carrying programming from Canada's E! network. CHCA closed on August 31, 2009 due to economic troubles endured by its parent company, Canwest.[1]
All of the city's other television services are rebroadcasters of stations from Edmonton. Red Deer is not designated as a mandatory market for digital television conversion.
After CHCA dropped its longtime affiliation with CBC Television in 2005, Edmonton's CBXT set up a rebroadcaster in Red Deer. Radio-Canada outlet CBXFT already operated a rebroadcaster there, and both stations had been available for decades on cable in the city. They were shut down with the CBC's other rebroadcasters in 2012, meaning Red Deer residents need cable to watch CBC and Radio-Canada programming.
Cable television in Red Deer is served by Shaw Communications, who operates a local community channel under the "Shaw TV" name. Discounting Shaw TV, Red Deer, with a population approaching 100,000, is one of the largest standalone urban centres in Canada (i.e. one that is not part of a larger metropolitan area) without a local TV station.
Newspapers
- Red Deer Advocate
- Red Deer Express
Online News Media
- Todayville: A digital local news platform launched by the former VP of CFRN-TV-6.
- rdnewsNOW: Launched as an independent online video news start-up founded by a former CHCA-TV staffer, it is now part of the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group, sharing news resources with CHUB-FM and CFDV-FM.
References
- "Canwest closing TV stations in Alberta, B.C.". cbc.ca, July 22, 2009.