Speaking of changes, there was a time when local radio stations could expect a windfall of ads for candidates in an election campaign. Not so much in this race. 

I have not heard even a single spot for either Olivia Chow or Brad Bradford (or Chris Alexander when he was still running.) And outside of fringe candidate Edward Gong, whose commercials are only running on CFRB as far I can tell and Linda Jackson, trying to get re-elected as a councillor in the City Of Vaughan, touting her accomplishments on AM640, I haven't heard any one else begging for your votes on the air. 

That's either because they no longer think radio is an effective medium to deliver their message or they don't have the cash to buy time. Or both. 

Whatever the reason, the airwaves have been strangely silent in this year's election. Not that I've really missed them. But anything would be better at this point than those Spence Diamonds "Holy Shine" spots that run what feels like every 40 seconds. 

Good on CHCH having election night coverage for Hamilton/Niagara.  Toronto is well covered between CBC, CP24 and CityNews 24/7 and various websites.  The days of every channel covering a local municipal election are long gone and not necessary.  I take it that AM 640 and Newstalk 1010 will have coverage?  Or maybe 1010 will simulcast the audio of CP24.

However I do miss City TV's unique coverage of elections that RA spoke of.  Didn't matter if it was municipal, provincial or federal, they always made it a party and fun.  City made it a celebration of democracy, which elections really are.

RadioActive wrote:

I remember how much work we all had to put in at the TV station where I work whenever these was an election. Municipal, provincial or (the worst one because it went on so late waiting for the west coast) federal, they all meant special coverage on traditional TV. 

I remember City TV used to have something called "Party Politics," in which they'd throw a party inside the main studio, invite a lot of guests to comment on the results, while having a guy play piano in the background and serving hors d'oeuvres. They'd also have reporters at all the major candidates headquarters, waiting for reaction. It was expensive and it went on most of the night in primetime. They even printed up T-shirts for the staff to wear that night. (See some of them below.)

Not anymore. 

I took a look at some TV listings online and if they're correct, if you want to follow the results of the municipal elections in any city on Oct. 26th, you'll mostly have to go online or on cable to do it. If the schedule is to believed, most of the major commercial broadcasters in Toronto will stick with their regular simulcast line-ups, shunting coverage to their streaming news channels, like CP24 or CityNews 24/7.

Only the CBC is going to be going most of the night with the results, with a 7-10PM special on all its platforms, including OTA TV, radio and online. 

Global, City TV and CTV all plan to stick with their U.S. simulcast line-ups, although there could be cut-ins for updates during primetime. The rest will appear on their websites or streaming services or you'll have to wait until the 11 o'clock news.

CHCH has a special results show lined up from 9-11 PM. 

But on most of the commercial stations, those not interested in using up bandwidth will either have to watch the CBC or listen to the radio, subject to last minute substitutions. It's the latest example of how broadcast TV has changed, with stations not willing to give up a night of popular American series, and how those major results shows are now yesterday's news. 

I don't think these election shows are "yesterday's news" considering the amount of time and resources each station puts into them. In this day and age, it's just as easy to get a YouTube stream of Global or CTV's election show on your living room TV as it is tuning in to cable 3 or channel 9.

Also, some of these election broadcasts on streaming appear to have the same resources put in to them as if they were on an actual broadcast channel. And I'm not going to criticize the networks for running regular programming on their broadcast channel that will earn them some money while they're making an effort to cover elections (commercial free) on streaming. 
 

HI RA,
Check out these classics, still in the closet, collecting dust, just like CityPulse.

I may be a bit bias since I was working for CHUM/City at the time, but I used to really enjoy CityPulse’s election coverage! They did it up right, Rob Brown “tickling the ivories” reporters at various headquarters, great pundits and all in a party atmosphere. No one nowadays could touch it, plus as RA and The Foxer posted her, they had decent crew wear, no one else did that as far as I know. Good times!

I do contract traffic work (commercial scheduling, billing etc.) for a few SW Ontario radio stations, and on one of my stations, there have been so many ad buys by election candidates that there is rarely a commercial break without a spot for a candidate. Even at least one municipality has purchased airtime to promote advance polls and where to find voting information in general for that municipality.