Citytv 2010: everybody knows this is nowhere

Moses Znaimer had big plans for January 19, 2010 — the release of his compilation album, Zoomer’s Choice: But I Still Believe in Love. But instead, the Toronto media buzz was dominated by news that the television brand he helped launch with a local UHF transmission in 1972, Citytv, were laying off newsroom staffers like it was 2009. The first rumour-feeding tweet appeared at 3:58 a.m. The press release from owner Rogers Media about how they were restructuring to “improve business and better serve audiences” was moved at 1:44 p.m. Plenty of time to engage in rampant speculation and, you would think, learn how to spell the surname of dismissed anchorwoman Anne Mroczkowski, who worked there for 30 years. While preoccupied with disappearing certain personalities from CityNews.ca, an attempt at transparency was made by the online news desk — which posted a story about the 60 employees terminated at Citytv stations in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Toronto. “Other affected employees found out about the layoffs on Tuesday morning,” it read. “Many were crying.” And then they quoted a gracious tweet from Aisling Slattery, a fired BreakfastTelevision co-host from Calgary. Then the page hosting the article went blank. Who can you trust to tell the truth?

CP24, of course, the all-news channel snatched from its Citytv spin-off origins by CTV — a company that had its own share of post-consolidation layoffs after buying all the assets of a family broadcasting business called CHUM. But, due to competition concerns, they were forced to part with Citytv. So, careful with that schadenfreude! Nonetheless, management reacted to the cancellation of the 5 p.m. newscast from Citytv with an announcement of their own: “CP24 Now Offers Toronto Viewers More Early News With LIVE AT 5 and LIVE AT 5:30.” Now, instead of veterinarian and real estate agent phone-in shows during that time slot, they will be doing what they do at 1, 2, 3 and 4 p.m. to “fill the void” — because you wouldn’t expect CBC to already be doing that with their 5 p.m. local show.

Those over a certain age remember when Citytv was a countercultural kinda thing — a 10 p.m. CityPulse newscast that did remotes from rock shows, compared to those button-down bingo callers at 11. And not all the faces were white! Why not use declining revenues as an excuse to go guerrilla again? Not going to happen when you’re owned by the cable company whose visionary founder Ted Rogers is no longer around. Currently, questions are being raised about what’s happened to the $680 million collected for community cable channels since 2002 — obviously, Cable 10 isn’t feeding into the viral video era with the offbeat ideas that inspired Wayne’s World. But such expectations have been drowned out in the era where nearly everyone who can type thinks they are smarter than the corporations making their media sausage, even if they are not.

The fact that Toronto’s editions of CityNews had lots of women on camera meant that six of the seven personalities let go from the Toronto newsroom were women — strange for a station whose American prime-time acquisitions are almost entirely female-skewed shows. The recent debacle surrounding The Jay Leno Show — which Rogers was banking on to help define Citytv — has dragged into the public consciousness the expectation that big-budget Hollywood programs will provide a lead-in audience for local television. The system was already running its course in Canada: why else did Rogers rush to apply for their own 24-hour information operation from their new studios in Yonge-Dundas Square? How the Rogers boardroom expects this to work was already revealed earlier this month, when they announced a “content partnership” between downmarket CityNews.ca and wonk website The Mark — which itself is relying on editorial input from academics and politicos who would rather have a platform for their views than compensation for writing.

But there is also this one 14-year-old on Twitter whose bio described himself as “the official #1 fan of Canada’s best TV channel — Citytv!!!” By the end of the day, he added: “Not much to be a fan of, anymore :’(.” Maybe he can grow up to run a city blog.

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