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February 1, 2021 11:20 am  #1


Bell's London, Ont. Stations Soon To Be Under Same Roof As CTV

First it was CHUM, CFRB and CKFM that gathered under one corporate roof in Toronto. Now CJBK and two other Bell-owned London stations will all soon be in the same building as CTV. 

Stations on move as longtime London radio headquarters listed for $1.5M

 

February 1, 2021 12:26 pm  #2


Re: Bell's London, Ont. Stations Soon To Be Under Same Roof As CTV

Makes sense to move everyone into one big building. 

Now, is CTV London going to get some infrastructure upgrades so that their local news is in HD? (Probably not...)

 

February 1, 2021 12:49 pm  #3


Re: Bell's London, Ont. Stations Soon To Be Under Same Roof As CTV

ED1 wrote:

Makes sense to move everyone into one big building. 

Now, is CTV London going to get some infrastructure upgrades so that their local news is in HD? (Probably not...)

Didn't their local news go HD a few years ago?  They made a big deal about it back then.  Or is it just simulated HD for the studio cameras? When they zoom back and show the set the cameras look HD but the picture quality in studio doesn't seem as sharp as other stations. All of the news reports are fine.  Even CTV Windsor's studio shots seem sharper than London.

 

February 1, 2021 2:33 pm  #4


Re: Bell's London, Ont. Stations Soon To Be Under Same Roof As CTV

Took long enough, having a Rogers radio station in a Bell Media building, especially with all the vertical integration these days.

 

February 1, 2021 2:36 pm  #5


Re: Bell's London, Ont. Stations Soon To Be Under Same Roof As CTV

paterson1 wrote:

ED1 wrote:

Makes sense to move everyone into one big building. 

Now, is CTV London going to get some infrastructure upgrades so that their local news is in HD? (Probably not...)

Didn't their local news go HD a few years ago?  They made a big deal about it back then.  Or is it just simulated HD for the studio cameras? When they zoom back and show the set the cameras look HD but the picture quality in studio doesn't seem as sharp as other stations. All of the news reports are fine.  Even CTV Windsor's studio shots seem sharper than London.

I had thought they went HD in 2018 - one of the last (if not the last) local television news operations in North America to do so. They were years behind stations in much smaller US markets such as Erie.

CTV was relatively slow in converting to HD compared to at least CBC. CTV's CJOH in Ottawa didn't begin local HD production until 2014, after several years of the Ottawa CBC station broadcasting local news in HD.

Last edited by MJ Vancouver (February 1, 2021 2:40 pm)

 

February 1, 2021 2:39 pm  #6


Re: Bell's London, Ont. Stations Soon To Be Under Same Roof As CTV

Local news on CTV Two in London, Windsor, Barrie, and Vancouver Island, as well as CTV Northern Ontario are only broadcasting in widescreen standard definition, not HD. The rest of the CTV networks have gone HD for local news.

CTV may have purchased HD field and studio cameras for some or all of these locations, but its internal infrastructure/video switcher may only be capable of broadcasting SD video (widescreen or 4:3).

Side note, CTV News Kitchener is broadcast in high definition through a control room at CTV Toronto. Studio presentation and news gathering are still done in Kitchener. 

 

Last edited by ED1 (February 1, 2021 2:40 pm)

 

February 1, 2021 2:53 pm  #7


Re: Bell's London, Ont. Stations Soon To Be Under Same Roof As CTV

RadioAaron wrote:

Took long enough, having a Rogers radio station in a Bell Media building, especially with all the vertical integration these days.

If you think that's awkward, consider what happened in that crazy week in I think it was 2008, when Bell took over CP24 and City TV and then was forced by the CRTC to send Channel 57 to Rogers. At the time, both stations were not only in the same building, but the same newsroom!

I have a friend who was there at the time and he told me it was positively surreal. Secret line-up meetings would be held by both staffs, in order not to tip off the other what was coming in their 6 PM news. People who were colleagues one day were competitors 24 hours later, suddenly dividing the staff into two camps. Some prominent personalities, who had been all Kumbaya the day before, stopped talking to each other, as a Cone of Silence descended between the teams. 

And because they had no time to prepare - the deal for CHUM and the CRTC ruling that Bell couldn't have both CP24 and City, because they would control too many stations, happened within about a few days of each other - it stayed that way for months! It wasn't until Gord Martineau suggested the Yonge & Dundas building where City eventually wound up (and a couple more months of prep to get that place ready to host a broadcast facility) that it finally ended. 

At least the Rogers radio outlet in London likely has its own studios and offices. These were two fierce competitors forced to work side by side, sometimes literally at the next desk. Imagine having to work for months on end in that kind of scenario! As odd as it sounds, it actually happened. 

Perhaps they could make a sequel to "Broadcast News" out of the incredible arrangement. I'm just not sure anyone would believe it.  

     Thread Starter
 

February 1, 2021 4:05 pm  #8


Re: Bell's London, Ont. Stations Soon To Be Under Same Roof As CTV

CTV Two (CKVR) still under the same roof and property and 1000ft tower in Barrie.  Lots of infastructure these days being built around it.  Hope it stays as its a legend in the area. 

 

February 1, 2021 4:56 pm  #9


Re: Bell's London, Ont. Stations Soon To Be Under Same Roof As CTV

In Ottawa, Bell's stations are all under one roof near the Byward Market - and it resulted from the big fire at the CJOH facilities in Nepean in 2010. The radio stations were already at the market, so TV moved in there after the fire where it remains today.

It helped that there was already a somewhat disused TV operation there that belonged to A-Channel (now CTV 2), which had stopped producing nightly newscasts there a year earlier.

Corus seems to be more decentralized with its radio and TV studios; Global in Toronto is split between Corus Quay and the Don Mills studios where they've been since 1974, while here in Vancouver Global BC and Global National broadcast out of the original BCTV studios in Burnaby while Corus has its radio stations in downtown Vancouver.

Last edited by MJ Vancouver (February 1, 2021 5:02 pm)

 

February 1, 2021 5:34 pm  #10


Re: Bell's London, Ont. Stations Soon To Be Under Same Roof As CTV

ED1 wrote:

Local news on CTV Two in London, Windsor, Barrie, and Vancouver Island, as well as CTV Northern Ontario are only broadcasting in widescreen standard definition, not HD. The rest of the CTV networks have gone HD for local news.

CTV may have purchased HD field and studio cameras for some or all of these locations, but its internal infrastructure/video switcher may only be capable of broadcasting SD video (widescreen or 4:3).

Side note, CTV News Kitchener is broadcast in high definition through a control room at CTV Toronto. Studio presentation and news gathering are still done in Kitchener. 

 

Thanks for the explanation ED1. London's studio shots are never as clean as their field reports.  Even CTV Windsor studio quality picture is better than London and seems very close to HD quality. CTV Kitchener local is definitely HD.  

CTV London is a good sized building and can easily accommodate the three radio stations. Doesn't have the visibility of Wellington Rd however, not that it really matters.    It will be interesting to see what they end up getting for the Wellington Road location.  I think it may have been built around 1973/74 when CJBK was really doing well ratings and revenue wise and then had an addition in 1979/80 when BX 93 came on the air. 

 

February 1, 2021 6:14 pm  #11


Re: Bell's London, Ont. Stations Soon To Be Under Same Roof As CTV

paterson1 wrote:

ED1 wrote:

Local news on CTV Two in London, Windsor, Barrie, and Vancouver Island, as well as CTV Northern Ontario are only broadcasting in widescreen standard definition, not HD. The rest of the CTV networks have gone HD for local news.

CTV may have purchased HD field and studio cameras for some or all of these locations, but its internal infrastructure/video switcher may only be capable of broadcasting SD video (widescreen or 4:3).

Side note, CTV News Kitchener is broadcast in high definition through a control room at CTV Toronto. Studio presentation and news gathering are still done in Kitchener. 

 

Thanks for the explanation ED1. London's studio shots are never as clean as their field reports.  Even CTV Windsor studio quality picture is better than London and seems very close to HD quality. CTV Kitchener local is definitely HD.  

CTV London is a good sized building and can easily accommodate the three radio stations. Doesn't have the visibility of Wellington Rd however, not that it really matters.    It will be interesting to see what they end up getting for the Wellington Road location.  I think it may have been built around 1973/74 when CJBK was really doing well ratings and revenue wise and then had an addition in 1979/80 when BX 93 came on the air. 

I believe the building was further expanded in 2000, as CIQM and CKSL moved there from City Centre (which is where the four Corus stations are now located) following the sale of those two stations to Telemedia.

 

February 1, 2021 10:47 pm  #12


Re: Bell's London, Ont. Stations Soon To Be Under Same Roof As CTV

In London isn't TV unionized and radio isn't?  How do you combine them?

 

February 1, 2021 11:40 pm  #13


Re: Bell's London, Ont. Stations Soon To Be Under Same Roof As CTV

Prod Guy wrote:

In London isn't TV unionized and radio isn't?  How do you combine them?

That's not uncommon.  The on air people from TV wouldn't normally be on radio or vise versa.  Same with the rest of the staff in other departments. Also every department at CTV London may not be unionized.  They will be in the same building which wouldn't have anything to do with being unionized.  I worked for a couple of newspapers where some departments were unionized and other departments were not.  They never had any issues.

 

February 1, 2021 11:49 pm  #14


Re: Bell's London, Ont. Stations Soon To Be Under Same Roof As CTV

Prod Guy wrote:

In London isn't TV unionized and radio isn't?  How do you combine them?

Bell Ottawa has unionized TV and non-union radio, and the TV newscasters read radio newscasts.