CHEK-TV, BC’s first TV indie, goes down
p2pnet news view | TV:- Sad news for Vancouver Island.
Staff at CHEK-TV, based in Victoria, BC’s capital, had pink slips on Wednesday, along with the news the station is closing down after more than 50 years of delivering news and local programming.
“About 80 Canwest Global employees will lose their jobs as of Aug. 31 after the company closes two of its television stations,” says the Daily News, going on:
“Canwest Global announced Wednesday that financial losses at CHEK-TV and Canwest’s Red Deer station prompted the decision. The company’s Kelowna station will become part of Canwest Global’s larger Global television operations.”
Nanaimo journalist Kendall Hanson heard the news late yesterday morning, says the story, quoting him as stating:
“Even though the writing has been on the wall for some time, it’s still hard to believe it would come to this.
“CHEK News has been a pillar on Vancouver Island for a long time. It’s difficult to see how a station with such good ratings will close.”
It was British Columbia’s first private television station, signing on the air as a CBC affiliate on December 1, 1956, says the Wikipedia.
Daily News – CHEK TV is going off-air, July 23, 2009
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July 23rd, 2009 at 3:07 pm
The writing’s been on the wall for CanWest for some time now.
They’ve been losing money hand over fist and didn’t get the subsidies they were looking for recently.
I expect to see more rurally-driven stations to start disappearing soon.