The Alberta Government launched ACCESS on June 30 to provide educational programming for insertion in the schedules of certain commercial Alberta television stations.
On January 9, The Alberta Educational Communications Corp. was granted a licence for a television station at Calgary. CIAN-TV would operate on channel 13 with a power of 1,800 watts.
On December 1, ACCESS was granted a television licence for Edmonton, CJAL-TV would operate on channel 9 with an effective radiated power of 9,000 watts, to rebroadcast the programs of the Access Network Educational Television Service.
On February 5, the CRTC approved the application to amend the licence for the English-language television station at Calgary, authorized in Decision CRTC 84-8, by decreasing the effective radiated power from 1,800 watts to 1,600 watts.
On July 20, Learning and Skills Television of Alberta Limited was given approval to acquire the assets of The Alberta Educational Communications Corporation (ACCESS). The purchaser, LTA, was a private, for-profit corporation controlled by CHUM Limited through its ownership of 60% of LTA's voting shares. The vendor, ACCESS, was the independent corporation responsible for broadcasting educational programming in Alberta and was controlled by its Board of Directors appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council of Alberta on behalf of Alberta's Ministry of Education and Ministry of Advanced Education and Career Development. In 1993, the Government of Alberta undertook a re-evaluation of all provincially-funded activities, and announced that it would not provide direct funding for ACCESS beyond 1994.
In February, CHUM Ltd. acquired the remaining 40% interest in Learning & Skills Television of Alberta Ltd., giving the company 100% of the shares. Among those selling their shares: Olympus Management Ltd. (Moses Znaimer), director and Chairman and Executive Producer of LTA; and CHUM’s President and CEO Jay Switzer.
August 31 was the deadline for conversion of mandatory market TV stations to digital from analog. This broadcaster was licensed as a satellite-to-cable operation and not required to offer over-the-air service. Because of the costs involved in converting CIAN and CJAL to digital, it was decided these over-the-air operations would end on August 31. The station would continue only as a satellite-to-cable operation.
Updated February, 2012