Al Bruner was a Canadian television broadcaster and the co-founder of Global TV.

Before Global

Bruner was born in Leamington, Ontario

Leamington, Ontario

Leamington is a municipality in Essex County, southern Ontario, Canada, and has a population of 31,113. It includes Point Pelee, the southernmost point of mainland Canada. It has a large H. J. Heinz Company factory and is known as the "Tomato Capital of Canada", with 4 km² of this crop in the...

 in 1923. In his early days Bruner sang in Wayne King

Wayne King

Wayne King was an American musician, songwriter, singer and orchestral leader. He was sometimes referred to as "the Waltz King" because much of his most popular music involved waltzes; "The Waltz You Saved For Me" was his standard set closing song in live performance and on numerous radio...

's Detroit orchestra, but soon found his way into broadcasting by helping to establish the Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

-based television station CFTO-TV

CFTO-TV

CFTO-DT, broadcast on channel 9 and cable 8, is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, owned by Bell Media. Currently branded as CTV Toronto, it is the flagship station of the CTV Television Network, and was one of the charter members of the network when it was launched in 1961. It...

, which went on the air in 1961. However, Bruner's eyes turned to Hamilton

Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...

 when the founder of CHCH-TV

CHCH-TV

CHCH-DT, channel 11, is a television station originating in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, with transmitters located throughout Ontario. CHCH currently operates as an independent station, having previously served as a CBC Television affiliate, and more recently as the flagship station of the...

, Ken Soble, asked him to become the sales manager at his station, which had recently become disaffiliated with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

, and was the first independent radio station in Canada. Bruner wanted to launch a satellite to broadcast CHCH-TV coast-to-coast, and had contracts for the transmitters all ready but could not gain regulatory approval for the idea and it failed.

At Global Television

In the early 1970s there were only two major television networks in Canada; the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

, the original Canadian broadcaster, and the CTV Television Network

CTV television network

CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...

, which was an amalgamation of every other independent broadcaster in Canada bar CHCH-TV, which remained independent during Bruner's time there. Along with Peter Hill

Peter Hill (journalist)

Peter Hill is a British journalist and a former editor of the Daily ExpressRaised in Saddleworth, he left Hulme Grammar School at 15 and worked in a woollen mill before gaining employment in local papers in Yorkshire and the North West...

, Bruner founded Global Television

Global Television Network

Global Television Network is an English language privately owned television network in Canada, owned by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, as part of its Shaw Media division...

, with the vision of establishing a cross-country network of UHF

Ultra high frequency

Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres...

 transmitters. However, the new company could only manage a six-transmitter network in southern Ontario, that stretched from Windsor

Windsor, Ontario

Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...

 to Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, but could not obtain a transmitter that would reach Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

. The network, which promised high levels of local content, launched on January 6, 1974. However, after three months in business the station ran into financial trouble and was purchased by Canwest.

After leaving Global, Bruner worked on devising broadcasting technology, and pitched his idea of local insertion

Local insertion

In broadcasting, local insertion is the act or capability of a broadcast television station, radio station, or cable TV system to insert or replace part of a broadcast network feed with content unique to the local station or system...

, unheard of at the time, to the broadcasting community in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. However, his ideas never reached fruition as he died in a New York post office of a heart attack in 1987.