Formerly a private affiliate of CBC Television and Télévision de Radio-Canada, the station was acquired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1973 and converted to a rebroadcaster of Montreal's CBMT.
Since it was considered very unlikely another company would be willing to buy these stations, their licenses were renewed temporarily under the existing ownership.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was given approval to purchase CJCL-TV and CFKL-TV on March 30, 1973.
CJCL changed its call letters to CBNLT and continued to operate as a separate station until 1991, when it became a satellite of CBNT in St. John's, while CFKL became CBSET-1, a repeater of Sept-Îles' CBSET, which, in turn, was a semi-satellite of Montreal's CBMT.
As of July 31, 2012, both CBNLT and CBSET-1 have shut down due to austerity measures implemented at the CBC.