The station first signed on the air at 10 p.m. on
December 31, 1960; its first official day of programming was on
January 1, 1961. The inaugural program broadcast on CFTO was a
telethon for the
Ontario Association for Community Living, hosted by broadcaster Joel Aldred, complete with a
fireworks ceremony. The station was founded by Baton Aldred Rogers Broadcasting, a
joint venture between
Telegram Corporation (owned by the
Bassett and
Eaton families), Aldred-Rogers Broadcasting (owned by Joel Aldred and
Ted Rogers), and
Foster Hewitt Broadcasting, which owned radio station CKFH (1430 AM, now
CJCL on 590 AM). The 'Baton' portion of the name was pronounced , rather than the
conducting tool's traditional pronunciation. Joern Dressel), first introduced during the transition to colour television in 1965. It was unused for much of the 1980s in favour of a blue "circle 9" design before returning . This version was later used as the basis for the logo used by the
Baton Broadcast System. The station's first children's show, shown on weekday afternoons, was ''The Professor's Hideaway'', starring Stan Francis. American television network
ABC held a minority share in the partnership, which it sold to each of the partners shortly before CFTO-TV went on the air. Ted Rogers' uncle J. Elsworth Rogers was a minority (and originally primary) owner of Western Ontario Broadcasting, Ltd., owners of CKLW-TV (now
CBET) in
Windsor, Ontario (which was mostly owned by
RKO General). The station's original studio and transmitter facilities were located at 1550 McCowan Road, later renamed 9 Channel Nine Court. In March 1961, Aldred sold his interest in the station, and on October 1 of that year, CFTO became a charter affiliate of CTV, as well as the network's flagship station. In 1970, Ted Rogers sold his interest in CFTO and the Bassett-Eaton group sold their interest in
Rogers Cable in an exchange of assets. On May 31, 1976, CFTO began transmitting its signal from the
CN Tower, while its studios remained in
Agincourt. CFTO began broadcasting in
stereo in 1985. In 1991, the station joined with several other Ontario stations to form Ontario Network Television, which evolved into the
Baton Broadcast System, a subsystem within the CTV network. In 1995, CFTO began operating rebroadcast stations at
Orillia (on UHF channel 21) and
Bobcaygeon (near
Peterborough, on UHF channel 54). When CTV's stations proposed to buy the network and run it as a
cooperative in 1966, the
Board of Broadcast Governors initially balked at the proposal. CFTO was by far the largest, richest and most profitable station (it was more than double the size of the next-largest station,
CFCF-TV in
Montreal). This led to fears that CFTO would dominate a station-owned network. The BBG was only appeased when the station owners promised that each owner would have an equal vote, regardless of how large it was. As it turned out, though, Baton gradually grew powerful enough that it was able to buy controlling interest in CTV in 1997, changing its name to CTV Inc. in 1998. On January 27, 1998, the
Eaton family sold its 41% interest in CTV. On that same day, the Baton Broadcast System merged into CTV. With rumours of an impending takeover,
Bell Canada proposed to buy CTV Inc. for $2.3 billion; this was approved by the CTV board in March 2000. The deal still required approval from the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), but with the promise of the largest benefits package ever presented to the regulators, the deal was approved on December 7 that year. By February
2005, the station stopped using its call letters in its on-air branding (opting to use the "CTV" name), a branding convention that became official on several CTV stations throughout the country in October 2005. BCE later sold most of its interest in CTV, with the parent company being renamed
CTVglobemedia. BCE Inc. later reacquired 100% control of CTVglobemedia's assets for $1.3 billion in 2011, with the parent company being renamed once again to
Bell Media. ==Programming==