Saskwest Communications Inc. - Canada ( SaskWest Television STV )

Beautifully engraved SPECIMEN certificate from Saskwest Communications Inc. This historic document was printed by the British American Bank Note Company Limited and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an angelic woman with her arms spread. This item has the printed signatures of the Company's President ( Don Brinton ) and Secretary.


Certificate Vignette

Global CanWest Television Inc.

1984 SaskWest Television Inc. (a new subsidiary of CanWest Broadcasting Ltd.,) filed an application for a new TV station to cover the Regina/Moose Jaw area.

Later in the year the CRTC called for applications for both Regina and Saskatoon.

SaskWest and two competitors, Harvard Development (CKCK-TV Regina and Allarcom Ltd. (CITV Edmonton) filed applications for both cities.

1985 After revised applications were made (technical and channel amendments) the CRTC held a hearing in Regina in June and announced the approval of the CanWest application.

Harvard and Allarcom appealed the decision to both the Federal Court of Appeal and the Federal Cabinet. The Cabinet instructed the CRTC to reconsider its SaskWest decision - a first in CRTC history.

1986 The CRTC held a two-day hearing in Regina to reconsider its decision and re-hear arguments.

After appropriate reconsideration, the CRTC again approved the application by SaskWest Television Inc.

Over the next 16 months, a team of CanWest/SaskWest technical, operational and programming personnel, headed by President Don Brinton, built two new Television stations, with all-new production, news, administration and transmitting facilities in Regina and Saskatoon. The studios and offices were identical in both cities. They were officially named in the broadcast licences as CFSK-TV Saskatoon and CFRE-TV Regina.

1987 On September 6th at 7:00 pm, both stations were officially opened simultaneously by Chairman/Owner I. H. Asper.

Promoted on the air initially as SK Regina and SK Saskatoon and then changed a few years later to "Global Regina" and "Global Saskatoon".

Source: Don Brinton - retired President of SaskWest TV

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About Specimens

Specimen Certificates are actual certificates that have never been issued. They were usually kept by the printers in their permanent archives as their only example of a particular certificate. Sometimes you will see a hand stamp on the certificate that says "Do not remove from file".

Specimens were also used to show prospective clients different types of certificate designs that were available. Specimen certificates are usually much scarcer than issued certificates. In fact, many times they are the only way to get a certificate for a particular company because the issued certificates were redeemed and destroyed. In a few instances, Specimen certificates were made for a company but were never used because a different design was chosen by the company.

These certificates are normally stamped "Specimen" or they have small holes spelling the word specimen. Most of the time they don't have a serial number, or they have a serial number of 00000. This is an exciting sector of the hobby that has grown in popularity over the past several years.