Help SAVE CHCH...WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT

Hey everyone,

The CHCH television station may close completely and we need YOUR support.
I apologize for this post being somewhat off topic, however I feel the CHCH television station is an important part of Hamilton, and means a great deal to Tiger-cat fans, the community and those in the Hamilton, Halton and Niagara region.
If we lose CHCH, we will not only lose coverage of the Tiger-cats, but also our only news source for the Hamilton, Halton and Niagara region. WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!

For those unfamiliar with the situation:
Parent company Canwest Global has accumulated a massive debt over the years, and is now making cutbacks and may close CHCH completely unless a buyer or alternative can be found.
A few months ago we lost anchors Connie Smith and Dan Mclean along with a number of other staff members, Now the station may be closed completely unless a buyer or alternative can be found.

CHCH staff members are proposing a new plan for their troubled station that would allow it to be owned and controlled by community members. In April, CH’s Donna Skelly and a group of CHCH staff members will approach the CRTC with their community-based business model. If successful, the TV station would use a governing structure similar to a hospital. Rather than being operated by a large media company, CHCH would be governed by a board of directors made up of community leaders. The station needs to raise $500,000 from the community to go ahead with the plan.

What you can do to help:
Join the facebook group "SAVE CHCH NEWS" for the latest updates: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=122995560692

Visit the website: http://www.savechch.com/

Contact your MP (mailing addresses can be found on the facebook group)

Come out to our community Rally on March 17th down at the station and sign the petition.
(Several guest speakers will be attending...more info on the facebook group)

Contact the CRTC and tell them you care about local television:
CRTC : Erreur 404/404 Error | CRTC
or call: 1-877-249-CRTC (2782)
or write:
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada, K1A 0N2

Please help save local television and support CHCH. We cannot do this without YOUR HELP.

Thanks for your support, and I look forward to seeing many of you down at Ivor Wynne for the 2009 season.

I feel your pain my friend but times have changed and media as evolved. The days of tv and paper news and entertainment are close to being over. All anyone needs now is a broadband internet connection.

Let technology evolve and let go of these old antiquated methods. The spec will be gone within 5 years also.

The days of print news are dead my friend, next you'll be wanting your milk delivered with your newspaper in the morning. There's no use for it anymore newspapers are a waste of paper and space. 40% of the things are ads and besides maybe the 2 or 3 intriguing stories or headlines it's all crap filler which I can just jump on the internet if I wanna read it.

CHCH news has got to be the least professional news cast in Canada, Nick Dixon can't do a single commercial-to-commercial segment without screwing up somewhere along the line same with Michelle "I just smoked a" Dube which is why she has the same problem as him, they mess up the easiest words, and sentences, it would probably be cheaper and better to have a few communications students from each high school have a week to do their version of the news, it would probably be just as intelligent if not more.

Local news is Dead Don't matter TV Radio or Paper... We got our new From Internet

I'll still support this cause we need the jobs here

I feel for people losing their jobs, but I am a high school teacher, and Donna "angel of mercy" Skelly has perpetually bashed teachers as having the easiest/most cushy jobs in the world, which proves that she really doesn't have a brain in her head. (Try teaching high school for a week, Donna, and get back to me).

I would like to see exactly what most of the people working at CHTV do on a daily basis. I think Matt Hayes spends more time working on his tan than caring about the weather. Mark Hebscher probably spends about 30 seconds writing his nightly rant (which kills about 5 minutes of the newscast). Ken Wech's sportscast basically regurgitates every story that I've already heard about already by reading the web, plus it features virtually no Ticat news, even though the Ticats are a big part of the city. And most of the stories that are broadcast on CH Morning live are recycled throughout the day on CH at noon and on CH at 6. The hardest working guy at CH is probably the guy who gasses up their cars so they can take hour long breaks in the morning and afternoon, right before and after their three hour long lunch break. I hope these people land on their feet, but their industry has become financially unviable not only because of the tough economic times, and poor management decisions by CanWest, but also because (honestly) most of what they do is basically just filler, and the average Joe sees that, and wants much more from today's media.

I don't want to see CHCH close but really, the news is absolutely terrible, and I don't watch any other shows on the channel.

CHCH is one step ahead of Cable 14. You look at all the other stations, like Ctv, City Tv and the big 4 american networks. Their news is good and easy to watch.

Nick messes up every show. Half the time he's not even looking in the right camera.

Their news stories are about 5 seconds. When Stelco announced a shutdown, they talked about it for about 30 seconds at the beginning of the show. They had about 5 minutes at 6:30 but it was like they didn't even care.

Hell, look at the plane crash in Buffalo, it was on all 3 of their local stations for a week. Most of their news was about the crash.

Hamilton loses an institution and to them it's just another place shutting down.

Everything about CHCH is pathetic. I only really watch to see the Ticat news but it's buried so deep in the show, it doesn't really matter.

I think the Spec is right behind it. The news is terrible and the Saturday paper is worse now since they put in all of those stupid sections.

Most people replying probably don't remember when CHCH was a real local station. It covered the community, produced programs of local interest, and even produced kid's shows that sold across North America (Hilarious House of Frightenstein, anyone?).

Once it became gobbled up by a network it lost whatever edge that it had. Would community ownership work? You better bet that some changes would have to be made... but it's worth the risk.

And to all you doomsayers out there regarding tradional media. Yes, times are changing. But the times also point to niche and connective enterprises that produce and distribute content. Lose the major papers and you'll lose the major news gatherers. When that happens all the bloggers will know what to talk about will be what happens in their own back yards. That's why I'm happy to see the reorganization of media- to ensure that we'll have coverage and to ensure that the daily news will come to me whether I want it on paper or electronically. My only fear is that the providers that I want will die and I'll have to take my news from somebody whom I don't trust.

...and THAT'S why it's worth supporting a NEW CHCH. Let's see the plans. Will it just be a rebroadcaster of sludge with surface news or will it be a creative hub that marries the best of the old with emerging technologies through intelligent partnerships. I'll hope for the latter.

I for one will miss CHCH if it goes down the tubes.
We need local content and local opinions in our News and especially our sports.
Keep CHCH.
Don't relegate us to Argo stations (GLOBAL &TSN) and Internet news,gasp!!!

I can't believe some of the negative comments above.....?

Hey guys,

I don’t want to start an argument here, if you are not in support of the station that is fine. Everyone has their own opinion and is entitled to it. I don’t want to start a debate or anything on the forums.

I am merely trying to make people aware of the situation who may not already be (I spoke with a number of people at the CH benefit concert last night who were totally unaware of the stations situation).
I know the people of Hamilton are very passionate about their city, so I am just trying to help get the word out.
I should also state I am in no way affiliated with the station, I am just a supporter trying to get the word out there and let people know what is going on.

For those that support the station, we greatly appreciate the support,

Thanks for your time, and I look forward to getting back on the forums once the games start up again and sharing my photos with all of you. (I already have my season tickets for 2009).

Thanks again.

I think there is always going to be a need for both print and TV news. My mother loves to watch CH morning live and I enjoy it too. I don't always want to spend every waking moment in front of a computer.

I support CH and hope it manages to survive this terrible economic time.

I support CH TV because it provides an important service to the community

I would like to see CH TV get rid of their e-entertainment based programming
and stress local news and sports from the Hamilton, Niagara and Halton area

and offer similar but more in depth community-based
programminng like Cable 14 provides in Hamilton now.

P.S.

Those of you who are hijacking this thread.

If you took your soap boxes down to Gore Park
and ranted away about CH and the new world order

I would respect you for getting off your butt,
showing you face and attracting your own audience

but I have no respect for anyone who
sits anonymously behind a keyboard

and subjects a captive audience to their views
on something other than what the person
who started this thread wants to announce.

Please stay on topic.

Having been in the newspaper industry for over 30 years…I’ve heard the naysayers tell me that newspapers are going to die for about 20 years now. Well guess what, newspapers are still here! Yes, technology has changed how we get the news, but there is still an appetite for the written word, and advertisers still want to use print as the vehicle to get their message to the purchasing public so newspapers will be around for quite a while yet.

Having said all that, local TV such as CHCH definitely has a role to play. Nowhere else will you get LOCAL news on your TV and just like BG, I don’t want to spend all my time in front of a computer - especially if you have to spend your days in front of one at work!

:thup: :thup:

Ever hear of the NY Times? Its almost dead. Its 2009.. why kill trees for news when we can just turn on our computers? This isn't the stone age. Move on.

Have to admit, since I got the Internet at home recently, it's a different world. Print stuff is going bye bye and TV could be more about the big games, movies and that with a big screen and great sound. Local news, go Internet, I don't need a TV for that or a bi screen or sound. Most of it's a waste of time, advertising and on air peronalities that basically are boring and not very funny trying to make local news like it's the Grey Cup. It ain't.

I do like getting my Saturday print Spec though, with a cup of coffee, this is good. And I feel for people who can't or don't have the net at home and don't want it like my mom.

8) Oh yes, how dare anyone complain or find any fault with those God like and elitest teachers !!!
  No one else in any other job has it as tough as them, or works any way near as hard as they do !!

  Your above coments just prove that fact.

  All the rest of society are just a bunch of ignorant grunts, contributing nothing to this world  !!

  Spoken like a true and oh so typical teacher  !!!!!      <!-- s:roll: -->:roll:<!-- s:roll: -->

I never watch CHCH anymore with the exception of the News once in a while.

I find all the on-air personalities non-inspiring for some reason. I can't put my finger on it but my eyes glaze over when I listen to them.

Donna Skelly drives me around the bend with her arrogance.

Helicopter girl is ok.

The programming during the day is so boring it's off the charts as far as I think.

Question:

How does Hebscher keep his eyes so dilated all the time and how does he manage that blank stare? It must be a gift.

CHCH needs to invest in some HD cameras, then i'll throw my support behind them. :wink:

i can't believe you people really... If the spec goes then there's no spec.com so bang there's another local news source gone, and funny enof u people to lazy to flip channels to watch the local CHCH news and think you can get it better on the internet. The internet's great and all but there's some things that shouldn't be replaced ie. CHCH news. You forget also that not everybody has internet, so you're cutting alot of people off and expecting them to either buy a computer and pay for internet or watch Toronto news stations so we can hear what happened in the "Greatest city in Canada"..... I fully support CHCH, they have a long history of being involved in the community with such thing's as the annual McMaster Children's hostipal fundraising marathon. We should toss all this away because people think they're going to find way better local news off Google news???!?!?!? ROFLMAO! Up with CHCH!

I have no idea what CHCH on air personalities make but I recently heard Bob McCown of Rogers Sportsnet makes like about $600,000-$700,000 a year, for knowing and talking sports. I thought he might have made $150,000 tops. Way too much money compared with what a teacher makes IMHO, a good teacher who puts in time after school and on evenings marking, preparing lessons for the next day etc.

So if some on air personalities lose their job making more than teachers, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. Don't get me wrong, I love Bob McCown and them, but really, that money for knowing about sports? Come on industry. I'd love to know what someone like Matt Hayes makes. Again, likeable and knowledgable guy but...

Sorry to say this Cheesegod but people haven’t stopped watching TV.

CNN and other 24 hour news and sports stations have taken over. Also, cable stations like History Channel, A & E, Bravo and a plethora of other interesting channels which program to the consumer’s desires have pushed the likes of CHCH to the curb. It was up to CHCH to get with the program (no pun intended) and keep up and they failed huge. This whole “E” thing they have going is the worst idea I’ve ever seen.

Skelly’s plan involves a bail-out from the CRTC fund if I’m not mistaken. It will never happen.

It’s over.