Here's the post in question....

http://chch.com/chch-news/why-we-cancelled-your-saturday-evening-news/

67GreenRambler wrote:

How does keeping employees on salary and telling them to stay home save costs?

This is stunting to draw attention to one of manager O'Brien's pet issues.

Serious question: Would you rather he BS you as to the reason why?

Anything is better than the situation  back in 2015. 
Good for them for steering clear of that:  https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/headlines/chch-news-files-for-bankruptcy-cancels-friday-and-weekend-newscasts-1.3361492

John Best, the former news director of CHCH, laments the loss of local news and Channel 11's decision to cancel its Saturday newscast.

"The loss of CHCH news would be a devastating blow to the millions of people who have no other source of local television news– or indeed any local news– as radio stations go off the air and community newspapers disappear to be replaced by largely click-bait news aggregators."

CHCH Saturday news cancellation another blow to local journalism
 

I think local broadcasters should be mandated to carry at least one locally produced newscast daily. When they air it is up to them. Two weekends ago when the trade deal fell through, I really couldn’t find any coverage except for Carney’s speech, and even that wasn’t carried by most broadcasters, Radio One really dropped the ball on that one as most here know.

Brad wrote:

It's one damn day a week. And as O'Brien said in The Spectator interview, it's their least viewed newscast of the week. As someone who did watch the Saturday news, it's mostly car crashes, police blotter, community events, cultural festivals, and a story from CHEK News as we "head out west". Not really anything that's going to impact your life in the next few minutes.

All true. But what happens on that isolated Saturday when there's an explosion in downtown Hamilton, authorities put a shelter in place order out or a police officer gets shot?

The problem with cancelling a Saturday newscast is you never know when something urgent might happen that the public needs to know about on that day. And with the loss of news-oriented CHML in 2024, there are fewer news voices in The Steel City than ever.

The automated FMs left there surely don't have anyone in on the weekend, which probably means Hamilton residents would have to rely on a 680 News or The Spectator's online site to get any real information. And the latter requires a subscription. 

Brad wrote:

The shelter in place would only be known by 6pm. When was it issued? Perhaps CHCH.com would have it up as soon as it was issued, but I highly doubt TV audiences would find out before 6pm.

What if? if? if?

How much money are you gonna drop in the slot machine before you walk away? 

Well, having worked in it for years, I can only tell you one of the most annoying things about news is you never know when something big is going to happen. I'll never forget the day of the first space shuttle disaster. It was a Saturday morning, and a precious day off. 

I woke up in the morning, turned on the radio and heard the news of the thing blowing up.

At the time, I was the producer of the station's news website, which always had to be updated. And as soon as I heard about the shuttle disaster, I knew my weekend was gone. We had hired a guy with not much experience to work those hours and the stories and sidebars were coming in like a flood. I rushed down to the station without being asked and got to work handling the overflow. And I don't think I got back home until about 9 PM that night. 

My point is you never know when something might happen and you have to provide instant coverage. To do that, you have to make sure the people are in place. I feel really bad for CHCH that they had to do resort to this. (The CBC's local Saturday news has far less excuse.) But if you want to be the place viewers tune for local or breaking news, you have to have someone there. Or viewers will look elsewhere. And if they don't think you're reliable, they won't always come back. 

Jody Thornton wrote:

Wasn't that a weekday?  I remember hearing about while we were at school.  I was in Grade 10 at Cayuga Secondary.

I know the Columbia crash in 2003 was a Saturday.  I was late for a CKPC shift because I slept in with a hangover.  Yes I had severe anxiety and drinking issues in my thirties, which I deeply regret, but have long recovered from.
 

Could have been the other one, but that's not how I remember it. I know for sure it was a Saturday, because I remember being P.O.-ed that I was losing one of my precious weekend days! But that's the news business during an emergency.

I still remember seeing some of City TV's coverage of the shuttle disaster. Even in the midst of tragedy, there was some humour.

At the time, the late David Onley had just written a book called "Shuttle," an almost prescient story of a disaster on board the spacecraft. He was brought in as an expert and while he was on the air with Gord Martineau, they sent a staff member to the Arcade on Yonge St., which at the time had a science store. 

They managed to get their hands on the very last model of the shuttle in the shop and rushed it back to the station, so Onley could use it as a prop. They managed to get it assembled and handed it to him during a break. As they came back on air, Martineau asked him to demonstrate what might have happened. (No one knew at that exact moment.) 

As David handled the model, it broke apart in his hands, leaving both men red faced. But given what happened, it somehow seemed to be appropriate and it provided the only behind-the-scenes laugh anyone there got on that otherwise solemn day.