CH Victoria's Noon News Cancelled

[tvanonymous]

From Victoria Times Colonist, Thursday January 18, 2007

CH Dropping Noon News Show

The noon-hour news on CH Vancouver Island is about to end, part of a restructuring the station says will free up resources for other news shows.

CH station manager Rob Eberle said yesterday the last noon news show will air on February 2nd of this year. No decision has been made on what program will take its place.

Eberle said the end of the show means 12 people will be affected, with five of them losing their jobs. Some bumping will occur and severance packages will be awarded.

Most of the staff affected are technical and support people. But viewers will miss the reporting of Scott Fee and Jenny Matechuk, who worked part itme mostly on weekends and sick leave of senior reporting staff.

Eberle said the audience for the noon news has been weak, and by ending that program the station will put more resources into the 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. news shows.

Richard Konwick, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, local 815, said word of the end of the noon news came as a profound shock.

Konwick said television and television news are in flux right now, fighting off competition from the Internet and specialyt cable channels.

"Television is volatile right now,"he said. "Anything can happen in the industry."




--On a side note, rumours out there that Gordie Tupper is also gone when the noon show goes.

[alex11]

Wow, that came as a surprise. That leaves Global BC for noon news coverage for Greater Vancouver/Vancouver Island.

Well, good for CH for having more focusing on the evening broadcasts. The only that that stands out from CH from A-Channel is a full-hour of late-night news and weekend news.

I've just seen Scott Fee on CH and it says he's leaving? Isn't that a bit too fast?

I really don't think Gordie Tupper's leaving. He's like a back-bone of CH. But the friends I've talked to, the mention of CH Vancouver Island, the first thing comes to their minds is Gordie Tupper.

I wonder if other CH stations, CH Red Deer and CH Hamilton will also face a restructurring for their station?

P.S. Was this a one of the things CH was going to do before it changes its name back to CHEK. Or is the name change even going to happen?

[alex11]

However, Gordie Tupper does have the option for working part time on CH News at 5 and CH News at 6.

[sean08]

Does CH have morning news? and do you guys think this will effect my local station, CHBC?

[zacharack]

alex11 said:

However, Gordie Tupper does have the option for working part time on CH News at 5 and CH News at 6.

And I think he's picked up the CH News @ 6 option as I thought I saw a promo with him saying he's the weather forecaster for CH News @ 6.

[alex11]

If that's true then, Gordie is the weather forecaster for CH News @ 6 then Ed Bain would only work on CH News @ 5 and 11?

[tvanonymous]

Technically Ed Bain doesn't work on the 11 show. 11pm weather is taped. Otherwise Ed would get no sleep as he's also a radio morning show host.

[alex11]

sean08 said:

Does CH have morning news? and do you guys think this will effect my local station, CHBC?

CH has a re-broadcast of CH News @ 11 every morning except on Sunday mornings at 6 AM. But not local, live full Island morning show.

I don't really think it'll effect your local station. Frankly, the deletion of CH News @ Noon has to do with local viewership on the Island.

[editguy]

Is that because A Channel is kicking their butts?

[catnip]

A-Channel doesn't have a noon newscast.