After much back and forth o­n that issue, CH is finally coming to Alberta. RDTV in Red Deer will officially become CH Red Deer in the first week of September and bring CH programming to Alberta, the Calgary Herald [1] reports today.

This marks an important milestone in the development of Global CanWest. By introducing CH in Alberta, Global will at long last be able to offer the same schedule (on both Global and CH) as in the rest of country, thus bringing Global much closer to being an actual national network.

RDTV used to be a CBC affiliate, but over recent years, it also aligned itself with Global. This meant that the schedule had to be shared more or less equally between CBC and Global programming. Primetime was fully set aside for CBC programs, while some selected CH programs would air between 7pm and 8pm as well as between 11pm and 12am.

Last year, the CRTC approved RDTV's de-affiliation from CBC and green-lighted its transformation to a fully-fledged CH station. However, this was delayed, because CBC had to install additional transmitters in the area to ensure full availability of its programming. The process now seems complete, and CH will move into Alberta the first week of September.