It all started with a ribbon cutting and a baseball game. On September 28, 1955, Ralph Snellgrove cut the ribbon to officially launch CKVR-TV in Barrie, and right after, the station aired its inaugural broadcast—a live World Series game from Yankee Stadium. That moment marked the beginning of a new era for local television in central Ontario. Snellgrove teamed up with station manager Jack Mattenley to bring television to a region that, until then, could only pick up signals from Toronto or Buffalo. “We were all green as grass,” Mattenley recalled in a 2015 interview. “We didn’t know one thing from another.” But they had a plan. First, they bought 15 acres of farmland on Beacon Road near Essa Road, a high-altitude spot perfect for broadcasting in a time before cable or satellite. Then came the equipment. They purchased $17,000 worth of gear from a startup in the U.S., some of which Mattenley admitted, “was terrible.” Still, the team pushed forward. CKVR quickly became a hub of creativity, airing everything live, from cooking shows and music programs to game shows, talk shows and newscasts. As the station grew through the 60s and ’70s, it expanded its reach into Muskoka, pitching the region as ‘Summer City’ to advertisers hoping to reach vacationers in cottage country. CKVR has weathered its share of tough times. In 1977, a plane crashed into the station’s 1,000-foot transmission tower, killing all five people on board and knocking the station off the air. It took nearly a year to rebuild. In 1995, the station rebranded as ‘The New VR,’ appealing to a younger audience with a faster-paced, more energetic style, and featured VRLand News and ‘Very Roger.’ This image lasted a decade before the station rebranded once again, first as ‘A Channel’ in 2006, and eventually taking on the CTV brand in 2011. Over the years, the station has been a launchpad for several well-known broadcasters. Keith Radford became a well-known news anchor in Buffalo, Andrea Canning got her start in Barrie and moved on to NBC News, Anne-Marie Green is now in New York with CBS, and Kevin Frankish, who got his start in the 80s in Barrie became a household name hosting Breakfast Television with City TV. These are just a few of the talented journalists who once worked at the little station perched on the hill. Today, 70 years after that first broadcast, the station still stands on the same hill, serving the same purpose: bringing local news to the community. All this week, CTV News at 6 will travel down memory lane with some familiar faces and important moments that have helped to shape the station into what it was and has become.
