Coventry broadcasting television

CBT is a local television station which broadcasts live programs from the company's Coventry studio. Throughout the day there are a number of news reports and at weekend the channel becomes a music station called CovTunes.
tv-am to CBT
CBT began life as a small three hour news program called tv-am (not to be confused with itv's tv-am) which ran from 6am to 8am Mon to Thurs. The original function of this channel was to provide a news service for taxis in the Coventry area. The two chosen presenters were Katie Allen and James Dalton, who made history by being the youngest news anchors at the time. Their ages were just 16 and 14. The idea behind this was to give tv-am a unique and interesting look encouraging people to watch.
After 9 months on air, tv-am fell into disaster losing almost all of its viewers. The company was about to be shut down until Freemantle Media Corporation decided to buy the station from The Allen Group for around £630,000. Although this deal saved the channel, significant changes were on the way. tv-am was shut down in February 2005. In June of that year, Freemantle launched CBT, keeping the two original tv-am presenters, who would present the morning news/magazine program, "The Morning Program". The service would be bradcast over broadband internet to any UK household with the required C-Box (RRP £150.00)
From this point, CBT expanded dramatically and soon moved to larger studios on the outskirts of Coventry. In the station's first year it introduced seven programs, all exclusive, and has guest such as Keane, Tony Blair, Richard Hammond and more. By late 2006, CBT had over 20,000 viewers in the UK.
The 2006 Problems
2006 saw some dramatic changes and problems for CBT. In December 2005, Katie Allen fell pregnant meaning that a new head female presenter was temporarily needed. Ann Cartwright stepped in but soon took over Monday-Thursdays with Gareth Smithford, leaving James and Katie with Friday shifts, although they remained the head presenters.
In October 2006, James Dalton left the presenting team of CBT's "The Morning Program" to work on BBC Wales' Torchwood. This is expected to have caused a drop in viewing figures of over 4,000 people.
Later that month the company's CEO Peter Sharp resigned over allegations that he used company money to pay for a family home. Former Ulster CEO Yusaf Chang stepped in and began making significant changes.
Firstly, Chang immediately removed all non essential staff claiming they were "a complete waste of viewers money". This comment sparked much controversy and triggered a revolt of CBT staff. The problems were eventually sorted out and the company began to see profit from December 2006.
== The "Blacknight" Deal ==
In mid 2008, the company made an announcement the code named the blacknight deal. This deal involved the return of James Dalton to the company. It was largely expected that he would return to the presenting team, however, to the shock of many his role was to join the company's board of directors. This made him one of the youngest people serving on any board in the UK. Dalton was invited to join the board by the then CEO Yusaf Chang. This decision saw the company's stock price increase by 20% in just one day.
CEO
Until 13 February 2009, Yusaf Chang was the Chief Exectutive Officer of CBT. On 9 February his daughter fell ill and died, causing him to prematurely step down as CEO of CBT. A board meeting was held on 16 February and it was decided that James Dalton would step into the shoes and become the interim CEO. It is unknown hoe long it will be before a full CEO is appointed. Dalton has demanded that he only be paid £100 per year as the company needs all the revenue it can get in the recession.
A special media event has been timetabled for 19 March 2009, where Dalton will announce some changes to CBT. It is not known what these changes will be or who they will concern, but it has already had much attention from the Freemantle Media board, who own the company.

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