About PowerBoat Television

PowerBoat TV is a weekly half-hour television show focusing on power boats and the boating lifestyle.

This season marks a very special year for all of us involved with PowerBoat Television, both past and present, as we enter our 20th year of bringing you the best of what’s new in recreational boating.

In 1989, Ted Rankine and Chris Henry sat down to develop a new Canadian television show. The result was PowerBoat Television, which first went to air in 1990.

Over the years the look has changed with various logos for the show, along with improved graphic and editing capabilities, and the boats have certainly changed. In the first episode of the inaugural season, we tested a Canadian Edition AE 21, considered to be one of the best performance boats of its era. In 2010, we’ll test a new Sea-Doo RXT-X 260 personal watercraft, a Regal 4060 Commodore and several boats in between.

Just as the style and design of the test boats have changed, so have the show’s on-air personalities as various folks have come and gone over the years. For the first few seasons, Chris Henry was the principal host. Eventually, Chris persuaded Ted Rankine to step in front of the camera and the rest was history. Most of you will remember Ted, of course, but you may also recall such talented contributors as Mark Rotharmel, Peter Wilson, Mike Milne, Jim Payetta and Mike Burns.

Mike Gridley's first appearance on PowerBoat TV was as a guest on the summer show in 1999, as he was filming a video on the Ottawa River. Mike ultimately joined the team full time in 2004. That same year, Matt Spencer worked with the show as part of a high school co-op placement. A fortuitous meeting several years later led to him rejoining PowerBoat TV as its newest host.

Over the years, PowerBoat Television’s success has created some spin-off shows. The first was Boats and Places, launched in 2000 in conjunction with the re-branding of the magazine of the same name. Airing for several years, Boats and Places was created to explore distant exotic waters and luxury yachts. In 2005, PowerBoat Television branched out and created My Boat, a special boating DIY show that aired for two seasons. While the show is now gone, My Boat segments remain a popular part of the current PowerBoat TV show.

The crew has always known the show would succeed, so it seems natural its parent company would grow. Lifestyle Integrated has now branched out to encompass other media – magazines, websites, e-newsletters and DVDs. Today, PowerBoat Television keeps company with a large family of properties, including Boats&Places magazine, Boating Ontario magazine, Boattest.ca, Boatbuys.ca, Boaternews.ca and two DVD series – Discover Cruising and Boat Handling 101.

To celebrate the show's anniversary, we’ll feature some of the highlights of our 20 years on television from time to time over the course of the 2010 season – of course, we’ll continue to bring you what’s new as well.

Speaking of “New for 2010,” PowerBoat Television will be saying farewell and thanks to our broadcast partners at ATV and OLN as the show moves to Global Television nationally for this season (which commenced Saturday, January 2, 2010).

And a very sincere thank you to our loyal and enthusiastic viewers, who have made PowerBoat such a success over the years. We look forward to continuing to bring you all that’s new and exciting in recreational boating for another 20 seasons.

As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions, so drop us a line at info@powerboattv.com.