In February 2002, after competing with Toronto based Rogers Media and four other applicants, the CRTC granted an over the air multicultural television license to a group of prominent local entrepreneurs led by James Ho / CHMB / Mainstream.

In addition to James Ho the other founders included; Joe Segal, Robert Lee, Geoffrey Lau and Doug Holtby.

The television station, called Channel M (Multivan Broadcast Corp. or MVBC), was launched on June 2003 to serve more than 800,000 ethnic residents around the Vancouver Lower Mainland.

It signed on the air on December 10, 1959, as an easy listening station under the ownership of Vancouver Broadcast Associates Ltd. with 10 kW of power.

The station began airing Chinese-language programming on January 23, 1993, from 10:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily, then moved the start time for Chinese shows to 9 p.m. three weeks later.