The system began to develop in September 1995, at CKVR-TV in Barrie, Ontario. In 1995, owner CHUM Limited dropped CKVR's longtime affiliation with CBC Television and relaunched it as an independent station with a more youthful image in order to generate interest from viewers in the neighbouring Toronto market, where CKVR had long been available on basic cable. This included adopting a news format similar to the "CityPulse" newscasts on sister station CITY-TV, replacing its various classic television shows with more contemporary series, and picking up a package of games for the Toronto Raptors, Toronto's then-new NBA franchise. The resulting station became known as "The New VR".