This is by no means new - in fact it's a few years old - but I stumbled across it on Wednesday and frankly, couldn't stop watching it. It's the anniversary video for CHEK-TV in Victoria, a television station with a storied history that goes all the way back to 1956. It was supposed to be a CBC affiliate, became a CTV station for a time, and was taken over by Global's then-owners. 

It remains one of the west coast's most successful independent TV stations, but it has an incredible back story. When Global went to sell the place, they couldn't find a buyer. With only hours before the channel was going to be shut down forever, the employees managed to come up with $15,000 each to buy a piece of the business and saved the station. The workers now own it, a dramatic development that's told much better in their anniversary video. 

It also includes a great irony - a new building was put up to house CHEK as a CBC affiliate and paid for by the Corporation, when they suddenly came under control of CTV. Years later, CBC would need a place to house its radio station and they not only wound up back at CHEK - but now they had to pay rent to lease part of it out!

(I wish they explained what happens when somebody needs a raise and whether that's an issue if it's employee-owned. Also, what happens if one of those many co-owners decides to leave? Do they get their investment back? And if there's a dispute, who's considered the "boss" if everybody owns it?)

The video that tells their remarkable story runs :23 minutes and I found it pretty amazing. Your mileage may differ but the mini-documentary of how all this came to be is quite a TV show in itself. See it here.