Not a big NFL fan. So for the next 4 or 5 months weekend evening news will often be preempted on CTV or CTV2 with a game.

Yesterday, tuned in CTV Kitchener and a game was on. There was a quick promo telling viewers that the CTV Kitchener 6pm newscast was available on CTV.ca Southwestern Ontario.

So far so good, went to the website, found the newscast. 

The lead story? Boots the dog was lost and might have been stolen. Two minutes and forty seconds about a lost dog in Perth County that went missing last week. The White family has had Boots since Christmas and the dog greets the kids everyday when they get off of the bus. The White's think the dog may have been taken by someone. The report even included Sgt. Barry Cook of the Perth County OPP requesting that if anyone has seen the dog to get in touch with the detachment.

Nice, human interest story, but the lead?  Interesting that the second story was about the pending GM strike in the US and how this could impact the plants in Canada and companies that service GM in Southern Ontario. Linamar is a main supplier to GM in the US and Canada and is a major employer in Guelph/Kitchener/Waterloo and the region.

Nice that CTV did a story like this for the White family, and they seem to be great people with adorable kids.
 
Maybe small town local TV isn't dead after all!