My 90s and 2000s Experience: CJOH TV (Cable 7)

 Hey everyone, how were your weekends? Mine was pretty quiet. It was at least nice outside on Saturday so I could go outside for some fresh air. Today I'm going to be talking about a local TV station that I watched for as long as I can remember. It's known as CTV Ottawa now, but up until 2011, it was known simply as CJOH TV, Cable 7. Out of all of the local TV channels and national TV networks, CJOH is the one I have the most experience with. So, let's get into it!

Originally debuting in 1961, CJOH TV was a huge staple here in Ottawa, particularly in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s. In fact many of us who grew up in Ottawa in those decades, grew up with this station. For me it was the home of many of my favourite TV shows. Disney shows, teen dramas, sitcoms, both Star Trek and Star Wars shows aired on CJOH at one time or another. In fact, the last time I watched CJOH (now CTV Ottawa) was in 2023 when the series finale of The Goldbergs aired. It was also one of the channels that I got on the TV in my bedroom, both the original one that I got in the summer of 2001, when I was going to have surgery on my right knee and would be stuck in bed for a couple of weeks, and the TV/VCR combo set that I got for my 16th birthday in 2002. But, what made it so special?

Aside from the numerous TV shows I watched on that channel, from Degrassi: The Next Generation and The Big Bang Theory to Star Wars: The Clone Wars (first season and a half only) and Star Trek: The Next Generation (1989-1990), what made CJOH special, and different from CBC and The Global Television Network, was the people. Specifically the news anchors and the news reporters. It wasn't just that they were good at their jobs, but they were involved in the community. From 1989 to 2010, CJOH News, originally known as Newsline, Max Keeping and Carol Anne Meehan were the news anchors, along with J.J. Clarke as the weather reporter. There were others, some I met, others I never got the opportunity to meet, but Max, Carol Anne, and J.J. were the core trio, and the ones I interacted with the most, besides reporter Leanne Cusack.

My personal involvement with CJOH comes through my childhood as a disabled person, who spent my entire childhood being in and out of the local children's hospital, CHEO. Everyone at CJOH worked at the CHEO Telethon every year, and I was one of the many children whose story was told by CJOH. I even visited the studio (the one that was on Merivale Road) so I could be interviewed for the Telethon. Leanne Cusack, the reporter I mentioned earlier, was the one who interviewed me the most when it came to stories about CHEO. In fact, I remember one time where I was at the hospital for an appointment, and we happened to run into Leanne in the lobby as she was there to do a story for one of CHEO's anniversaries, and she asked if she could interview me quickly for the story. I agreed and we went upstairs to the 6th floor and she interviewed me near the nurse's station of the Medical Day Unit, a place where I spent a lot of my later childhood days.

During my many interactions with J.J., he would often joke with my parents that I might actually replace him as the weather reporter for CJOH News when he retired, being that my weather "predictions" that I would make in jest, would actually be right sometimes. I think that's one of the reasons I leaned towards being in the media, either TV or Radio, when I was deciding which program to apply to for my college application in the mid 2000s. Unfortunately, the TV Broadcasting program required students to carry heavy equipment around as part of the training, and even in my wheelchair, I wasn't able to lift and carry heavy equipment. But, I loved listening to the radio, so I ended up going for Radio Broadcasting instead of TV Broadcasting.

All of the people I've mentioned have either retired from broadcasting, left CTV Ottawa, or have passed away, but the CHUM Media Mall (now known as the Bell Media Mall) in the Byward Market, in Downtown Ottawa, had an open door event where the public could go in and meet the personalities both in front and behind the cameras and microphones (radio stations are in that building too), in 2010, and Brad took me. We were waiting in line to go in, and Max had come out to say hi to the people waiting in line, but, when he saw me he came right over, said hi, and then proceeded to lead Brad and I ahead into the building as if I was royalty. I got to see the people who I met growing up, as well as some of the radio hosts that I'd been listening to on MAJIC 100 since the station began in 1991, AND some of the TV hosts from CJOH's sister station, CHRO/The New RO/A Channel (now known as CTV 2). Max and Carol Anne both remembered me (I missed J.J.) and they were absolutely blown away that I was 23 years old, had been in college for Radio Broadcasting until I got sick, and how well I was thriving compared to the sick boy they met almost twenty years earlier. 

Growing up though CJOH was the channel where I watched all of the Disney Afternoon cartoons since we didn't have the American networks that aired that block. The first cartoons I remember watching on CJOH were The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, which were aired in an hour long block known as the Gummi Bears-Winnie the Pooh Hour. Later on, during the mid 90s, CJOH, as part of CTV, was owned by the Baton Broadcast System (BBS), and on weekend mornings they would air a children's programming block called BBS Master Control, hosted by former YTV Program Jockey, Jenn Beech, which aired all the Disney Afternoon and One Saturday Morning (which became ABC Kids in 2002) animated shows like Gargoyles, Timon & Pumbaa, Jungle Cubs, Aladdin: The Animated Series, and the Disney produced seasons of Doug.

There were also two local shows that we watched on CJOH when I was growing up. The first was Homegrown Cafe, which was basically a local variety show hosted by J.J. Clarke, and featured many singers and actors, including Ryan Gosling. Which is crazy to me. The second was called Regional Contact, which was hosted by Joel Haslam and Kathie Donovan, and they went to different locations in the Ottawa Region to try out different foods, and other activities run by local people. It used to air on Saturday nights at 6:30 pm, between Newsline/CJOH News and airings of Star Trek: The Next Generation (in the early 90s obviously) since the Saturday night newscasts were only half an hour long while the weeknight newscasts were an hour long.

I could go on and on about all the shows I watched on CJOH over the years, but, I think I'll leave it off here. The channel was a huge part of my life for so many years, between the CHEO Telethons, watching the news with my parents, watching everything from sitcoms to Star Trek, to knowing the on air personalities.

Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. I'm not sure if I'll have more blog posts for you this week, but my next post is going to be my 400th post on this blog, so I might do that post later this week or wait until next week, I dunno yet. Until then have a great rest of your day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.