Strong winds blow up a sandstorm. Cue tumbleweed.

A mysterious rider on a black horse rides across the centre of the screen, leaving a trail of dust in the wind.

Now listen here, pilgrim, saddle up and get ready for a never-ending ride through the wild west, because the western classic rides again on the Lonestar channel.

"We applied [to the CRTC] for an adventure-style channel," said Anne Marie Varner, director of Canadian Production at Global Television, which will be launching the channel this fall. "[The Western] is a popular genre in Canada and was largely underserved. "We just don't do a lot of western programming in this country," she added.

The whole channel stands out in the digital channel competition, Ms. Varner said, because "in my mind there's nothing like it. This is a niche audience that is not served yet. And our research shows there is a great demand for this."

When looking at the types of programs to appear on Lonestar, Global examined the "classic" western show, where good guys always win, and bad guys never prosper - there's usually a good gunfight and some tough riding involved.

One of those is The Big Valley, a series that originally aired from 1965 to 1969, and which depicts the life of the close-knit Barkley family on their ranch at Stockton, Calif., in the San Joaquin Valley in 1878. In each episode, the Barkley family attempts to operate its sprawling 30,000-acre ranch while fighting the lawless elements of the old west. The Big Valley is a tough place to be - populated with schemers, murderers, bank robbers, Mexican revolutionaries and con men.

Other series include Rawhide, the Texas Rangers of the 1965 classic Laredo and Marshall Dillon, the syndicated version of the long-running Gunsmoke.

Lonestar also hosts the 1962 classic The Virginian, the first television show to expand to 90 minutes to cover their lives on the Shiloh ranch. James Drury played the anonymous title character, while Doug McClure played his sidekick Trampas.

What would a western channel be without Zorro? First airing in 1957, Zorro starred Guy Williams in the dual role of Zorro and his foppish alter-ego Don Diego de la Vega, with a supporting cast that included Gene Sheldon as his faithful manservant Bernado. Veteran George J. Lewis played Zorro's father, Don Alejandro. Although the series was immensely popular, it ran for only two years because of legal wrangling and produced just 78 half-hour episodes and four hour-long specials. The show's popularity also spawned a legion of loyal fans and a flood of "official" Zorro merchandise.

And who could forget the adventures of Ben Cartwright and his sons on the thousand-square-mile Ponderosa Ranch on Bonanza. The ranch is located near Virginia City, Nev., during and after the Civil War. Each of Ben's sons was born to a different wife, none of whom is still alive. The series premiered in 1959, and ruled television Sunday nights for 10 years.

In the Lonestar Cinema segment, the channel will attempt to air western classics starring Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, the Cisco Kid and a different range of westerns from the 1930s on, Ms. Varner said.

"This is where you first saw Roy Rogers and others on the big screen," she said. "There are a lot of big stars in these [western films]. There's a whole pile of Hollywood stars who acted in westerns in their heyday."

Prolific western writer Zane Grey finds a home on Lonestar, as does The Man from Snowy River.

Canadian series include Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Bordertown a western set in the late 1800s about a U.S. marshal and an RCMP corporal sharing policing duties in a town straddling the U.S.-Canadian border.