I occasionally watch the local newscasts on the network affilliates from New York and Los Angeles. All are polished extremely professional and they have full time sports and weather presenters and/or meterologists seven days a week. They make CFTO's newscast look like something out of North Platte, Nebraska. I will bet KNOP can afford a weather presenter every night of the week.

paterson1 wrote:

I have noticed when I watch Global Toronto or Global National they never seem to have technical glitches.  With Corus on somewhat of a death watch and with their cutbacks it is odd that they usually put out a superior product technically than CTV Toronto's local newscasts.  To be honest I haven't really noticed any change in the quality of Global's newscasts over the past year which is a credit to them considering the state of Corus.

CTV Kitchener puts out a decent local news product so it is a mystery why CTV Toronto has so many problems on air. 
 

I agree that CTV Kitchener has a decent newscast then CTV Toronto does. CHCH has a pretty good newscast and they always have a weather person like Steve Ruddick or Shelly Marriage weeknights and weekends and they do both the 6 and 11 news while Brian West does Morning Live. I do sometimes watch the newscasts from Detroit too and they are great too.
But sometimes CHCH and CTV Kitchener does have some problems on air and I have not seen any mishaps lately on both stations.

Sloppy start to CTV's budget coverage today.  No audio for about the first ten seconds and then for a couple of minutes hosts Omar Sachedina and Vassy Kapelos were looking at the wrong camera most of the time.  Looked more like something you would see on Listowel cable TV.  CTV became a lot better after 5pm when coverage continued on CTV News Channel.  CBC's coverage had no set but just in a busy hallway in parliament.  CBC with Rosemary Barton and David Cochran was better overall and also improved after 5pm when coverage continued on CBC News Network.  I like David Cochran, he is not afraid to inject some humour from time to time and this spills over to his guests and other anchors. 

Last edited by paterson1 (November 4, 2025 7:12 pm)

paterson1 wrote:

Sloppy start to CTV's budget coverage today.  No audio for about the first ten seconds and then for a couple of minutes hosts Omar Sachedina and Vassy Kapelos were looking at the wrong camera most of the time.  Looked more like something you would see on Listowel cable TV.  CTV became a lot better after 5pm when coverage continued on CTV News Channel.  CBC's coverage had no set but just in a busy hallway in parliament.  CBC with Rosemary Barton and David Cochran was better overall and also improved after 5pm when coverage continued on CBC News Network.  I like David Cochran, he is not afraid to inject some humour from time to time and this spills over to his guests and other anchors. 

One of David’s lines in particular made me laugh on election night this past April - “the arse is out of ‘er”, referring IIRC to the gutting of the NDP.

The types of problems are only going to get worse.

When staffing levels were higher, every station had a few people who were absolute nerds about the tech that makes the newscasts happen. They were usually a little older and more expensive. They've largely been laid off.

The younger replacements know how to use the systems, but they don't all understand the how and why they work. It all works fine, until something goes wrong.

RadioAaron wrote:

The types of problems are only going to get worse.

When staffing levels were higher, every station had a few people who were absolute nerds about the tech that makes the newscasts happen. They were usually a little older and more expensive. They've largely been laid off.

The younger replacements know how to use the systems, but they don't all understand the how and why they work. It all works fine, until something goes wrong.

Here's the thing, there have been many stations all over this continent that have been on control room automation for years and have pretty much got the process down pat (aside from the occasional errors). We can see this just by watching the "smaller" CTV stations on TV or on their websites. Even 

Whereas CTV Toronto is supposed to be the #1 station in the nation's largest market, and the flagship station of Canada's #1 commercial TV network. CFTO is supposed to be the gold standard in how a newscast should look and feel. So either the automation system was not installed properly and aren't able to  to figure this system out, or they can't be bothered to and demonstrate a level of malicious incompetence on a daily basis. 

Also, I would give the younger staff members a bit more credit. They are the ones who would have to maintain and tweak the automation systems long after the more experience folks get shown the door. So they ultimately have to know how a switcher/audio board/routing panel etc works. 

Last edited by ED1 (Yesterday 9:55 pm)