CHCH-TV was founded by Ken Soble, a leader of Hamilton's urban renewal movement and the owner of radio station CHML (900 AM).

Hamilton is part of the Toronto market, and Toronto-based CBLT already provided full network service to some of CHCH's viewing area.

[8] In the fall of the same year, Soble's Niagara Television which was the licensee of CHCH, put forward a proposal for a network to be branded as NTV.

However the application faced numerous regulatory hurdles and delays, and its main financial backer which was Power Corporation of Canada, backed out in 1969.

CHCH became a national superstation on January 1, 1982, when Cancom (now Shaw Broadcast Services) began carrying the station and three others (CHAN-TV in Vancouver, CITV-TV in Edmonton, and TCTV, which was essentially a rebroadcaster of CFTM-TV in Montreal) to cable television providers in remote regions of the country that otherwise only had access to the CBC.

Different promotional slogans referring to either Hamilton or Ontario as a whole, reflecting the station's cable coverage across the province, and a blue-coloured, 3D variation of the longtime "circles" logo were used.

Promos had a vocal song from Frank Gari which was part of the Pride Inside music package also used by the station's newscasts and movie presentations (originally commissioned by another channel 11 which is WBAL-TV in Baltimore).

The move launched a secondary television system for Canwest's stations in medium-sized cities located near larger markets.

[12] A grassroots group which was fronted by Live @ 5:30 co-host Donna Skelly announced an intent to purchase CHCH from Canwest and return the station to its former local focus.

[15] On June 30, 2009, Channel Zero announced that it would purchase CHCH and CJNT-TV in Montreal from Canwest in exchange for $12 in cash and the assumption of various station liabilities.

[18][19] Channel Zero took control of the station's programming at midnight Eastern Time on the morning of August 31, beginning its tenure with a film from the 1980s.

[20] CHCH also debuted additional original local programs Sportsline (hosted by Mark Hebscher and Clint "Bubba" O'Neil), and launched a second series with Ed the Sock, the entertainment newsmagazine spoof I Hate Hollywood.

On June 8, 2011, at Channel Zero's upfront presentation for advertisers for the 2011–12 television season, the company announced a programming distribution deal with 20th Century Fox, giving CHCH and CJNT access to show first-run exclusive broadcast movie premieres, most notably Avatar, which first aired in May 2012 on both stations, featuring the director's cut version of the film not shown in theatres.

[32][33][34] A few programs from Bloomberg Television such as Studio 1.0, Good Fortunes and The Daily Brief were added to the station's schedule the following week.

[36] Since Fall 2016, CHCH has replaced many airings of these programs with newly acquired daytime shows on weekdays, and movies on the weekends.

As an independent station, CHCH produced local programs such as the children's talent show Tiny Talent Time (which was revived in September 2014 in honour of the station's 60th anniversary),[40] Jane Gray's Hobby Time and a daily talk show hosted by Elaine Callei.

The station also produced a number of important Canadian syndicated series in the 1970s and 1980s, including The Pierre Berton Show, The Hilarious House of Frightenstein, Me & Max, Party Game, The Baxters, the Canadian version of Supermarket Sweep, and Smith & Smith, and was the original television home of The Red Green Show.

As of September 2018, CHCH's daytime programming consists of locally produced newscasts geared primarily to the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario, and a block of classic television series airing weekdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and featuring sitcoms and dramas from the 1970s and 1980s.

The station broadcast home games from the Hamilton Red Wings (a minor league hockey team in the OHA Junior "A" league that was an affiliate of the NHL's Detroit Red Wings) from the Hamilton Forum (which were both owned by Ken Soble) on Thursday nights in the 1960s, with Norm Marshall doing the play-by-play.

The station later reproduced World Wrestling Federation programs for Canadian audiences before the company's focus shifted entirely to cable television.

For a number of years, CHCH also broadcast Sunday afternoon coverage of regular season games from the NFL's Buffalo Bills because CTV (and later, the Global Television Network) had to choose the Detroit Lions for its Ontario stations as part of that network's NFL coverage (the Bills are now seen primarily on Sportsnet Ontario; the Lions have returned to CTV).

[45]In late 2008, Canwest placed CHCH's longest serving news anchors, Connie Smith (whose last day on the air occurred on November 28, 2008) and Dan McLean (who left on December 12) on forced retirement, blaming financial troubles and budget cuts.

A few local non-news programming were also cancelled at this time including At Home, Sportscope, Niagara Express, and Straight Talk.

As a result, the station moved the original Morning Live broadcast's start time by a half-hour and its end time by one hour, running it from 6 to 10 a.m.[46] Its heavy weekday newscast total was largely due to a prominent daytime rolling news block on weekdays (airing from 4 a.m. to 5 p.m., along with an hour-long newscast at 6 p.m., and 11 p.m.).

[48] The restructuring was viewed by some as a union-busting[49] attempt in light of a December 14 note sent by a CHCH News Account manager, Kathleen Marks, to a prospective advertiser indicating that the new company would not be burdened by the union or old CanWest debt.

According to the Toronto Star, "Under Ontario law, businesses must honour existing collective agreements when they take over a company unless they dramatically change the nature of the work being performed.

Sarah Gardiner of Channel Zero also countered the union-busting allegation, stating that it was false and adding that "Many unionized employees were hired" [by the new company].

[50] A news item on the CHCH web site which was dated December 15, indicated that no severance pay had been offered to any employee, although all were union members.

[45] The CHCH web site said that "Going forward, Morning Live will air between 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., the 6 o'clock newcast will be anchored by Nick Dixon and Taz Boga, and Taz will return for a half hour at 11:00 p.m."[51] Metroland Media reported that Nick Dixon would also produce the 6 p.m. newscast, and that the on-air personalities or reporters who had been laid off[53] include Lori D'Angelis, Matt Hayes, Sean Cowan, Donna Skelly, Ken Welch, Scot Urquhart, Lauran Sabourin, Liz West, Mark Hebscher, Jaclyn Harper (Colville), Natalie Marconi, Miranda Anthistle, and Elise Copps.

Square Off became a podcast called Unplugged, and later No Fun Intended by former co-hosts Mark Hebscher and Liz West; it had the same format.