The station first signed on at 3:00 p.m. on October 25, 1954, on VHF channel 3 with 27,400 watts of power, and one live camera presentation from the transmitter room; CFRN-TV was Alberta's second television station and the province's second CBC Television affiliate. The station was founded by Dr. G. R. A. "Dick" Rice's Sunwapta Broadcasting Ltd. (Sunwapta is the Stony Indian word meaning "radiating waves"). Rice was a pioneer Edmonton broadcaster involved in putting CJCA, the city's first radio station, on the air in 1922; Rice died at the age of 92 on February 25, 1992.