Bluepoint Investment Corporation has bought CKX, taking the Brandon, MB station from CTV for the modest price of $1. The company plans to re-program it with ‘extremely local’ and what it calls ‘wow television’ says founder and owner Bruce Claassen.

The veteran ad man, who is also head of the Toronto firm Aegis Media Canada, plans to program CKX with male-aimed and more sensationalist shows in the evening, in the vein of Spike TV, while targeting women during the day.

The station is about to lose its affiliation with CBC, though Claassen hopes to make a deal with the pubcaster for shows on a ‘menu’ basis — picking mostly news and other information programming. Bluepoint is also in talks with E1 Entertainment and Alliance for movies and other programming.

The station’s 39 employees are expected to keep their jobs. ‘Our assumption is that it’s business as usual,’ he tells Playback Daily. The deal is subject to CRTC approval.

Bluepoint is a new company, founded three months ago and fronted by CEO Colin Berrie. It has no other broadcasting assets though Claassen says it plans to make other purchases, focusing on local, community stations.

Claassen also plans to focus on ‘extremely local’ programming. ‘If they’ve got a drag race going on down the street, we follow that. It’s going to be something that will give them both entertainment plus a sense of community,’ he says.

CKX is one of the three stations that CTV planned to shut down if they were not sold off by the end of the summer, citing the financial and regulatory difficulties of conventional television.

Curiously, Shaw Communications had previously offered to buy all three stations for one dollar each, though that offer was later withdrawn.

The deal follows the recent sale by Canwest of two of its troubled E! stations to Channel Zero.

Claassen is not put off by the problems facing conventional, local stations. Buying in ‘makes all the sense in the world,’ he says. ‘If you look at many media industries the ones that seem to be the ones that are most successful are the ones that are closest to people’s hearts.’

‘The local daily newspaper might be hurting but the community newspaper is still doing well and part of that reason is because they are extremely local and extremely connected to their communities and in final analysis I think that has got some power,’ he adds.

With files from Sean Davidson

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This story has been corrected. Channel Zero bought two of Canwest’s E! stations, not CTVgm’s A stations as originally reported.