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CTV London Gets Worse

180K views 691 replies 54 participants last post by  audiofool 
#1 ·
Southwestern Ontario's News Leader keeps lowering the standards that should be applied to local newscasts.......some of the worst anchors in the business, using old rehashed stories, taking US medical clips and using as if they were Canadian. The only positive for CTV London is the weather reporter. Interestingly enough one of the sports reporters is now doing general news......or is he just filling in. Time to rethink and have only one CTV station with appropriate staffing and current technology (HD) in place. Guess nobody complained when the morning news programing disappeared some time ago. I suppose if no one is watching then no one will complain.
 
#2 ·
This is probably being done on purpose by CTV. It's no secret that they never wanted the "A" network stations but were forced to either see a larger deal and acquisition fall through or submit to the CRTC ruling that forced the stations on them. CTV has been whining and trying to shut them down ever since. The CRTC could have, and should have, made a better decision that was acceptable to CTV. Under the original deal, I believe Rogers was to acquire the "A" network that included CFPL. That would have been much better for Londoners and the other cities affected.
 
#6 ·
Part of the issue with CTV Kitchener is that it's so close to CTV Toronto. From a network coverage perspective, it would have made more sense to make London a CTV station and Kitchener CTV2.

The other thing that needs to be done is for the CRTC to abandon their one station per market per owner rule for networks. There is no reason why there should not be both a CTV and CTV2 station in both London and Kitchener and also in Toronto. It's also the reason CTV was forced to take the "A" network. The CRTCs thinking is that it prevents too much media concentration in major markets but it hasn't worked. All it has done is helped to kill Canadian OTA. It's also unevenly enforced due to exemptions for cultural stations and some other types of stations. That's why some cities have two Omni stations but only one CTV station.
 
#9 ·
This station has been in decline since the Blackburn group sold it off.

In its heyday, they had news anchors with professionalism and they focused primarily on "local" news. Now the station seems to be staffed by inexperienced college journalism graduates.

I quit viewing this station almost 20 years ago when they tried the "musical podium" format that City TV used in Toronto.
 
#10 ·
they would need crtc permission to disaffiliate from main ctv network.And cfpl would need crtc approval to become main ctv network affiliate.
I am well aware of that. Stranger things have happened. We had two radio stations near here switch formats and call signs without approval. One is in Woodstock and the other in London. A few people complained but the CRTC did nothing.

I think only Toronto has Omni 1 & 2.
So does London. I believe Ottawa does as well. Not sure about other cities.

This station has been in decline since the Blackburn group sold it off.
It was in decline, as in losing money, before Blackburn sold it. The worst downturn happened when Blackburn owned CFPL dropped its CBC affiliation. Losing HNIC and CBC news was probably a major factor in the audience drop, though CFPL had its own popular news programming. (It was and still is the only local TV news.) CBC put up a local repeater of the Toronto station after CFPL disaffiliated. CFPL was sold to Baton Broadcasting. A few years later it was sold to CHUM. CTV acquired it when they purchased CHUM. With each sale, staff was fired and local programming cut. With the CTV acquisition, the cuts became ludicrous and the station became a parody of itself.
 
#11 ·
Gentleman, that format cfpl used for its news broadcasts, from city tv, was horrible! You'd have George Clark walking around or standing up with a shirt and tie, and when he'd have to throw the next news segment over to Kate Young, he'd always say "Kate?" or "over to you Kate". Kate Young would do the same to George....And they would use that steadicam also, to follow the news anchors around the newsroom..just an awful way of presenting a newscast... CFPL should of waited several more years to disaffiliate from cbc. The station almost went under. Thankfully Baton came to the rescue.
 
#12 ·
Our family moved to London in 1972 so I don't recall CFPL being a CBC affiliate. But I do remember anchors with professionalism, Jack Burqhart news anchor, Pete James on sports, Jay Campbell doing weather and Rick Wellwood doing entertainment.
These individuals spoke with finesse and handled tech glitches without difficulty. I also had the pleasure of touring the station back then and meeting the station engineer, Mr. Shack I believe his name was.
These days, it seems the news anchors have difficulty just reading the teleprompter at times.
 
#16 ·
CFPL was a CBC affiliate from day one, in 1953, as were all Canadian TV stations in the 1950s. CTV was not created until 1960. CKCO switched affiliation to CTV in 1964. That made CFPL the official Kitchener CBC affiliate station. CFPL disaffiliated with CBC in 1988 and became independent.

Classicsat, Baton invested heavily in CFPL and expanded its news department. It probably was some of the best years that CFPL had since the 1960s. Baton also owned CTV at the time. It didn't last long though. Baton sold CFPL and some other stations to CHUM in 1998, which then became the "New Network" (NewPL, etc.) BCE purchased CTV (formerly Baton) in 2000.
 
#17 ·
I've noticed an increase in those "pretend" local news stories on CTV Kitchener, too. Local reporter just does a newsroom voice-over using video of an out-of-market event obtained from newswires, as if there's any added value to local viewers by stripping out the originating reporter. On the bright side, the primary CTV Kitchener anchorperson announced she's soon going on leave; sigh of temporary relief to viewers because whenever she's at the desk, it's nothing but infotainment "coming up... then..." teasing riddled with irritating rhetorical questions. Does CTV [Two] London recap "the top stories we're following online"? That's one of the Kitchener station's formulaic abominations; makes it sound like their staff never leaves to actually go seek out news stories, instead just desk-jockeying and monitoring what's trending on competing news sources. :rolleyes: But if you think London is bad, try watching ultra-hokey CTV Atlantic, or keep track of the number of factual errors cited by certain CP24 reporters.
Altogether, Bell Media continues to rightsize, and further deterioration of local news is the result. The revolving door HR analogy is downright ridiculous because it's precisely how vertically-integrated mega corporations like BCE operate. Also not too surprising is how Bell is increasingly acting like it's above the law, with self-serving corporate edicts interfering with journalistic integrity. Makes me wonder how long before Bell decides to stop providing streaming versions of local newscasts for free on respective websites, and forces everyone to subscribe to CraveTV, instead. :eek:
I've often found it amusing how some people (usually Bell employees) are adament about budgeting protocol within BCE companies, as if Bell Media operates 100% independent of other Bell properties. Yeah, well, Bell Media isn't a publicly traded company on its own -- only BCE is, so if shareholders really decide the success or lack thereof, then those who control Bell Canada, The Source, Fibe TV, etc. also control Bell Media, and likely don't treat its accounting as mutually exclusive.
One final anecdote -- yesterday, CTV Kitchener announced that Bell Media was "partnering" with the Canadian Peregrine Falcon Foundation to have a nesting box installed atop the old microwave tower (actually owned by Bell Mobility, I believe) next to the station. Somehow I doubt Bell paid the Trylon-TSF riggers, seen in the shots they aired, to do this job; I'm surprised they decided to "allow" it at all, even if the charity paid for the rigging work, given the usual corporate excuses like liabilty risks. All the CTV bosses in Toronto seem completely disinterested in Kitchener/London... is anyone actually making managing decisions at local stations anymore?
 
#18 ·
Bell Media continues to rightsize
Or, depending on your point of view, wrongsizing. It amazes me how these companies replace all their staff with inexperienced community college graduates on an almost annual basis and expect to have any viewers (or other types of customers.) It's an insult to any but the most naive. What gets me is how some news people manage to mispronounce or mix up street names and other community facts. That's not news, it's just an insult.
 
#19 ·
^^^ So very well put!!
I remember stumbling upon a job posting for one of the Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none at CTV, a few years ago, and laughing when I saw that local geographic/demographic/socio-political/whatever knowledge was only listed as a "nice to have" not a mandatory requirement. So, all too often they hire people with zero experience in the locality where they're assigned, and journalistic credibility goes down the toilet, fast.

On a similar topic, I've even seen examples of a twisted form of product placement in local newscasts. Almost everytime CTV Kitchener shows a screenshot of their website, it seems intentionally cropped to draw attention to a banner ad for CraveTV. And I distinctly remember one live report from inside a local shopping mall, where they all-too-conveniently decided to frame the shot of the reporter such that the only store signage clearly focused in the background was that of the Bell store -- and the report had absolutely nothing to do with Bell. These CTV 'videographers' (oldschool 'reporters' haven't been hired in years) must either be forced to always tow the company line or else they're "incentivized" to feature all Bell affiliated companies in a positive light, as some of these examples simply cannot be mere coincidence.
I find today's public relations theatrics at Bell Media highly amusing... other media outlets are having a field day at their expense. :cool:
 
#20 ·
On a related topic. CTV London is now too intertwined with CJBK 1290 AM Radio. The same new stories from CTV News are running all day long on the radio, and the radio station also does a simulcast of the audio portion of the TV news at 6PM. Bell has destroyed CJBK along with CTV London. I used to listen to CJBK from 7AM until 1PM without fail, and then from 4PM to 6PM. CJBK no longer has a local talk show from 9AM until Noon - it is imported from St Catharines.

The end result of the combining of resources between CTV London and CJBK has been a huge reduction in my attention to either of the stations. I'm tuning over to competing stations.
 
#21 ·
It has become far too obvious that Bell and CTV don't care about London or its citizens. Come to think of it, neither does anyone else north or east of Woodstock. (And I'm not too sure of Woodstock either.) Can we secede and become the 51st state or maybe an 11th province? It's become pretty obvious that BCE, Rogers, Toronto and Ottawa all treat Londoners as third class citizens. Maybe we should become a city state like Monaco and just launder money and host casinos for the rest of Canada. Why let all that easy money go to the Cayman Islands and Switzerland?
 
#23 ·
Don't Forget Bell is from Quebec. I think they look after there own backyard first. I was so glad to ditch there satellite. Aleady ditched there land land line for Fido Home Phone, Can't wait till my Bell Cell Phone plan is over. Good riddance. I listen to AM980 almost exclusively as CJBK has gone down the creek without a paddle. As if anyone can relate to St. Catherines stories in London. The tv news on the radio is absolutely ridiculous.
 
#25 ·
Don't Forget Bell is from Quebec. I think they look after there own backyard first.
It's not just that. CTV seems to have written off anything southwest of the golden horseshoe, especially CTV2 properties. There is a thread about how CTV is upgrading news production in smaller centers elsewhere. I get it that BCE didn't want CFPL and that some stations are less profitable but it all seems very unprofessional. After reading about some recent incidents concerning Bell Media President Kevin Crull, I'm beginning to wonder if it's really a personal vendetta between Crull and the CRTC and not about business at all.
 
#26 ·
By accident, I caught part of a pre-recorded half-hour "CTV News Special: Medical Marijuana and Kids" aired on CTV Two London & Barrie stations, this evening. It must have been a local production done out of Barrie, based on the content. It was broadcast in full HD; shocking compared to their usual lousy SD live newscasts. Amusingly, in the closing shot, Tony Grace wasn't even in sharp focus, and the camera was mistakenly focused on the production control equipment in the background -- only noticeable when actually watching it in HD, no doubt. And in the case of CTV Two Windsor/London/Barrie, and CTV Kitchener, they seem to think nobody watches them on an HD set, anyway... :rolleyes:
Bell Media operates CTV like a bunch of megalomania clowns. I have to laugh when I see CTV Kitchener replacing their closed-captioning sponsor KOOL-FM (itself a local Bell Media radio station) with generic Virgin Radio or TSN Radio, also Bell Media stations that aren't even in-market for Kitchener-Waterloo. Hey Kevin Crull -- how 'bout you stop having fake "in-house" sponsors and actually go back to making some cash by soliciting external sponsors from the real open marketplace, instead?
 
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