The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » Few OTA Broadcasters Providing On-Going Election Coverage Monday

RadioActive · October 19, 2018 11:45 am

If you ever needed a sign of how times – and broadcasting – have both changed because of the Internet, you need look no further than next Monday night. Cities across Ontario will be voting in a municipal election that, to be honest, hasn’t exactly led to huge headlines across the province.

In the old days, every station in the city would devote hours to coverage of the results once the polls closed. (I remember spending weeks preparing for it at the TV newsroom where I worked, readying everything from locations, live hits, graphics, supers, etc. etc. It seemed to take forever, but you had to be ready for anything.)

But not, apparently, this year.

There’s already been some controversy when the CBC confirmed its TV stations in this province would be carrying "Murdoch Mysteries" instead of the election results. In fact, you won’t see much coverage until the 11 PM news that night. Even the Toronto Star’s TV critic has weighed in, wondering what gives.

Murdoch’s latest mystery: the case of the missing election coverage

Still, they’re not alone. I just tiptoed through the TV tulips for Monday night, and only one OTA TV station is actually doing anything – and even then, it’s not much. CTV has scheduled one hour just after the polls close at 8 PM, for its sole election special. After that, it’s back to "Magnum P.I." at 9, "The Rookie" at 10 and "CTV National News" at 11, which likely won’t much care about local elections here. That means beyond the occasional cut-in or lower screen update (if they do them at all) CTV won’t really have much on the vote until 11:30 PM.

But that’s a lot better than the rest of the Toronto stations.

Consider:

Global

Global informs its audience about who won by showing “The Neighbours” at 8, “Happy Together” at 8:30, 9-1-1 at 9, and the always informative “Bull” at 10. (Although the title of that last show may well be what they should call a show on the candidates’ promises!)

City TV

The old City TV made its name on election night coverage, with its “party politics,” which consisted of literally holding a party in its newsroom complete with piano player and snacks, and adding commentary from experts in between. Those days are long gone.

Monday night’s line-up consists of a two-hour simulcast of “Dancing With The Stars” at 8 and NBC’s “Manifest” at 10. They'll get to the winners at 11.

TVO

Not sure what TVO is planning, but Steve Paikin’s "The Agenda" airs at 8, followed by “How The Earth Changed History” and “The Amazing World of Gravity.”

So over-the-air broadcasters seem to have completely ceded everything over to CP24 on cable, pundits on their collective radio outlets, and their various websites to provide actual breaking coverage. Yes, it’s been a pretty dull race but there are some interesting flashpoints – the reduction of Toronto council to just 25 seats means there are a number of familiar faces who won’t win this game of musical chairs. That’s where the real drama is this time around.

I’m not sure if I’m saying they’re wrong in doing this (although you’d think the CBC would at least do a full 2 or 3 hour show) but it definitely marks a sea-change in how it used to be done – and how it appears they’ll be doing it from now on.

radiokid · October 19, 2018 12:13 pm

City is moving their coverage to a dedicated channel on cable and online live stream, to their defense. The delivery just may not be OTA.

RadioActive · October 19, 2018 12:55 pm

Yes, but the reduced council races - where some longtime incumbents are competing against each other and will be turfed out - makes it far more interesting than it otherwise might be. I hope we won't get cheated out of seeing Giorgio Mammoliti's concession speech, which early polls indicate may well comes to pass.

That's worth the price of admission right there.

Dale Patterson · October 19, 2018 1:13 pm

The scripted TV shows you mentioned will get much higher ratings, so I imagine it's a no-brainer for the powers-that-be to run them and post the results online. But you're right, times sure have changed from the days of wall-to-wall coverage of local elections on OTA stations.

RadioActive · October 19, 2018 1:15 pm

Indeed, there's no question about the reason and with so many other sources for instant breaking or developing news, they may be doing the right thing. But it truly marks the end of some kind of era in broadcast TV.

mace · October 19, 2018 1:31 pm

In addition to higher ratings than election coverage, CTV, Global and CITY get to simsub all those evil American ads from the originating U.S. networks.

Hansa · October 19, 2018 2:08 pm

To be honest, why spend 20 minutes watching the screen, waiting for results in your ward to show up, or be mentioned on air, when you can just check them instantly online? The only reason to listen to or watch an election broadcast now is for analysis which is hit and miss depending on who is on the panel (please, not Warren Kinsella). I used to get a kick out of watching Hugh Segal or Stephen Lewis giving their take on provincial or federal elections since they'd always have a witty take, and Colin Vaughan was always entertaining on CITY, but the colour commentators most stations have these days are usually mindless partisans with nothing particularly interesting to say.

Hansa · October 19, 2018 2:10 pm

CBC will apparently have a webcast in addition to radio coverage.

Glen Warren · October 19, 2018 3:08 pm

Actual poll closing times will vary by municipality, but for the most part polls will close at 8 pm on voting day.

The other aspect to keep in mind is that most larger municipalities are using a voting tabulator system or have been using these type of systems for the last few municipal elections. Result numbers will be available very quickly on Monday evening just after the polls officially close.

In the municipalities that are using the technology, when you cast your ballot on Monday it is immediately fed thru an optical character recognition scanner and your vote is automatically read and stored in the scanner drive. When the polls close, the DRO or Poll supervisor simply upload the scanned ballot results to the municipal election computer system. The vote tabulator systems have also been used for the advance poll dates. As well, many municipalities have also offered eligible voters to vote on-line. So these results are also available very quickly after the polls close.

Most municipalities will also post results on the civic website...

Really, with advancements in technology, its all over in about half an hour compared to the previous elections where it could drag on for 2 to 3 hours.... or more....

So it is easy to understand why broadcasters no longer mount a full up election broadcast....

RadioActive · October 19, 2018 3:50 pm

Of the three types of elections, the municipal was my favourite to cover. The reason? As Glen Warren noted above, with the exception of a very few too-close-to-call races, it was over early. The Ontario vote was similar, although there were so many areas to keep track of, it mostly went on a little longer.

But the worst of the worst was the federal election, before the days when there was universal poll closing times across the country. Waiting and waiting and waiting for 8 PM to hit out in B.C. was agonizing, especially if the projections had already picked a winner. But our News Director would make us stay on the air, repeating the same results and analysis over and over and over, until there was nothing left to say - and making everyone say it again!

I recall one close race where the leader vying for P.M. was from B.C. The votes from there would determine who won the country, so we stayed on until 3 AM, when they finally announced the winner. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of the audience had long since gone to bed. Now THAT was a long night.

And because they never hold an election on a Friday, we had to be back around noon the next day!

Having said all that, I'm pretty sure there will still be major OTA coverage of the next federal election in 2019. For whatever reason, the municipal vote isn't seen as being anywhere near as important (even though the decisions of councillors probably affect our lives more than anything that Ottawa does.)

Media Observer · October 19, 2018 5:23 pm

radiokid wrote:
City is moving their coverage to a dedicated channel on cable and online live stream, to their defense. The delivery just may not be OTA.

What channel is City using for its coverage?

radiokid · October 19, 2018 6:22 pm

Channel 368 on Rogers. They have been pushing on promos.

Media Observer · October 19, 2018 6:27 pm

Thanks to both of you.

I'm not a big CITY watcher; but the political junkie in me always enjoy channel hopping on election nights.

Last edited by Media Observer (October 19, 2018 6:31 pm)

Glen Warren · October 21, 2018 12:59 pm

I've seen a promo on CHCH. They are airing a special election results broadcast at 10pm on Monday evening.

I assume it will focus largely on Hamilton, and Niagara area results.

Brad · October 21, 2018 8:54 pm

CHCH did the same thing during the last municipal election. But local community channel Cable 14 had them beat in calling the winners before they even got on the air at 10pm.

Last edited by Brad (October 21, 2018 8:54 pm)

Glen Warren · October 22, 2018 12:31 am

grilled.cheese wrote:
I hope CHCH brings in Frank D'Angelo for election coverage.

with Rob and the band.....

betaylored · October 22, 2018 5:00 am

RadioActive wrote:
Yes, but the reduced council races - where some longtime incumbents are competing against each other and will be turfed out - makes it far more interesting than it otherwise might be. I hope we won't get cheated out of seeing Giorgio Mammoliti's concession speech, which early polls indicate may well comes to pass.

That's worth the price of admission right there.

During one of the roundtable discussions last week on 'Moore In The Morning' Jerry Agar suggested, quite seriously almost, that if/when Giorgio Mammoliti loses, he should have his own weekend radio show on Newstalk 1010. Jerry said that G.M. would be a natural for the airwaves, (I'm paraphrasing here), and the surprised/shocked/dismayed? reactions of the other panelists made for an amusing moment.

Re: covering the election. Once again it comes down to the almighty dollar, and the cost/benefit analysis, with John Tory not having a worthy opponent, makes not covering the election a smart move for most.

Last edited by betaylored (October 22, 2018 5:01 am)

Hansa · October 22, 2018 8:28 am

The closure of Rogers community channel 10 is keenly felt. It was about the only outlet in Toronto for voters to hear from their local candidates via its ward by ward all candidate debates.

RadioActive · October 22, 2018 8:35 pm

So all the big stations provided online coverage of the election results, although CTV also did a live 8-9 pm special on their OTA station.

It was decidedly a mixed bag.

CITY TV

City TV did a show that could well have been on their airwaves, with reporters, live on scene, interviews, graphics etc.

CBC Toronto

CBC was on YouTube and had a traditional TV look to it.

CTV Toronto

CTV's was on air so maybe that was the reason I couldn't get their website feed to work, despite trying it several times. (Still, that doesn't make a lot of sense because Bell has made it a point to provide a lot of this kind of thing online to eat up data.) Anyway, here's what I saw on their site:

GLOBAL/GNR 640

Global/640's was perhaps the most bizarre of all. Instead of live locations, graphics, reporters on scene etc., those who watched their coverage online saw a single static camera shot of a radio studio that didn't even feature any close-up of faces.

Not exactly riveting television.

RadioActive · October 22, 2018 9:15 pm

I thought both 1010 and 640 did OK jobs with their respective experts on the radio, but I was absolutely astounded that RB didn't go to John Tory's acceptance speech live.

Instead, they talked about the results, had a slurring-sounding John Moore promoting the re-elected Mayor on his Tuesday morning show (perhaps the cocktail hour came too soon or he was just tired) and went to commercials and a traffic report, as Tory was giving his thanks to the crowd.

I can't believe they didn't have it, although the whole thing aired uninterrupted on 640. A technical glitch or deliberate? Either way, it was a very strange call. But at least I got to hear part of Giorgio Mammoliti's gloomy concession speech, so that was something.

And one more thing - if you live in Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Mississauga, Brampton, Oshawa or any of the areas outside T.O. and wondered who won in your riding, you wouldn't find it on the radio, TV, or in most of the newspapers online. Outside of the occasional mention about the close race between Patrick Brown and Linda Jeffrey running for mayor in Brampton, it was all Toronto all night - as if no one else existed.

dsgraham · October 23, 2018 12:14 am

I saw this in Vancouver a couple days back. Our current municipal TV election was only covered by one channel. Kudos to that channel. Everybody else stuck with their scheduled programming and HNC at CBC. No wonder why the municipal vote turnout is so dismal and unlikely to get better with our licensed broadcasters.

Radiowiz · October 23, 2018 3:32 am

I think it would be funny if channel 368 were to actually bring in better ratings than City TV itself.

RadioActive · October 23, 2018 5:03 pm

betaylored wrote:
During one of the roundtable discussions last week on 'Moore In The Morning' Jerry Agar suggested, quite seriously almost, that if/when Giorgio Mammoliti loses, he should have his own weekend radio show on Newstalk 1010. Jerry said that G.M. would be a natural for the airwaves, (I'm paraphrasing here), and the surprised/shocked/dismayed? reactions of the other panelists made for an amusing moment.

Mammoliti appeared on Jim Richards' show the day after he lost, and Richards seemingly quite seriously told him to get in touch with the Brand Director so they could discuss him doing a show on NT1010.

A few hours later, Giorgio stood up Oakley on 640, who had announced he would be a guest, doing an election post mortem on his show. But he never called in and they couldn't seem to find him.

Coincidence or deliberate dodge? You decide.