I am posting an email I received earlier today…
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As you are aware…A Channel is being shut down by CTV on August 31st 2009. As you may or may not be aware…CTV has canceled the morning show that aired on A in Windsor/London as of today. All those people who worked so hard on everyday were let go this morning when they finished this mornings show – the last ever show.
There is a fight on to save this station, including a online petition, as well as asking everyone in Windsor and Essex County and well as Chatham/Kent to contact the CRTC.
I would hope that maybe you can use your website to promnote this cause……… We need to save this station. It is up to us.
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/atvwindsor
CRTC : http://www.crtc.gc.ca/RapidsCCM/Register.asp?lang=E
or call: 1-877-249-CRTC (2782)
or write:
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada, K1A 0N2
CTV Globemedia:
Bonnie Brownlee, Senior Vice President,Corporate Communications,
Thanks Andrew for posting this…I’m an employee at A News in Windsor. We just received word that CTV will keep the station open until the end of August which is better than we expected. I don’t believe that the fight is over yet and there’s still a chance to save our station and the local news this city deserves. Please let everyone you know that we need to keep letting the CRTC know that we want to stay alive..
This is sort of nuts, isn’t it? We’ve been fighting for CJAM to stay on the air, now A channel, next will be the grand-daddy of all fights CBC.
I guess we’ll just be handed over to the US media giants after the dust settles! Who needs local content? (London is NOT local)
So why is a large conglomerate like Bell Globemedia, which owns CTV, closing down A-Channel in Windsor the only option? They only bought it two years ago. Why isn’t selling the station an option? Rogers expressed interest in it and they weren’t interested in selling it to the competition. Maybe a local radio station would take it. They could also donate it St. Claire College for a student run TV station instead of closing it down. I mean, if a radio station can turn a profit in Windsor, why can’t a TV station like A-Channel do the same? It doesn’t make any sense.
What’s the real motive behind this conglomerate saying it must be shut down because it’s been losing money for the past 10 years? Is CRTC forbidding them to sell it to someone else or is the CRTC saying they can’t own so many stations and they don’t want to give it to the competition? It’s kinda like if Daimler shut down Chrysler instead of selling it for 10 cents on the dollar because it’s the competition. They could have said the same thing–it’s been losing money for the past 10 years. If a business is losing money, sell the station at loss and let someone else take a stab at trying to make it profitable. At 10 cents on the dollar, I’m sure you’ll find a buyer. Screw this monopoly, we won’t let the competition acquire it crap.
CTV says they’re not going to renew the license. There’s a discussion on the topic on http://www.mibuzzboard.com
Here’s a link to the discussion:
http://www.mibuzzboard.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=28387&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0