CBUT-DT

CBUT-DT, virtual channel 2 (UHF digital channel 43), is a CBC Television owned-and-operated television station located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, which serves as the Pacific Time Zone flagship of the network. The station is owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as part of a twinstick with Ici Radio-Canada Télé outlet CBUFT-DT (channel 26), which is operated through corporate subsidiary Société Radio-Canada. The two stations operate from the CBC Regional Broadcast Centre on Hamilton Street in downtown Vancouver, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Seymour. On cable and satellite, the station is available on Shaw Cable, Telus TV, Bell TV and Shaw Direct.

History

The station first signed on the air on December 16, 1953; as such, CBUT is the oldest television station in Western Canada. The station's original studio facilities were located inside a converted automotive dealership at 1200 West Georgia Street (on the intersection of Bute Street) in downtown Vancouver. However, CBUT was not the first television station to serve Vancouverites; KVOS-TV (channel 12, now a Me-TV affiliate), across the border in Bellingham, Washington, had signed on months earlier as a CBS affiliate. CBUT has broadcast in English for most of its existence, except for a period from 1973 to 1976 when French language programmes from Télévision de Radio-Canada aired on weekend mornings; this secondary affiliation ended when CBUFT (channel 26) signed on in September 1976. CBUT was known mainly as "Channel 2" from its inception until 1976.