The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » Almost No OTA TV Coverage Of Toronto Mayor's Race

RadioActive · June 26, 2023 7:25 pm

After all the months-long hype surrounding the race for Toronto mayor, it's worth noting that there's almost no special coverage on the city's over-the-air TV stations of who actually wins.

Bell is going with CP24 for its results show, while CTV airs the obviously more important "American Ninja Warriors" and "Battle of the Generations."

Global is going with "Family Law" and NBC's "The Wall," with all of its coverage online and on AM640.

CBC is more interested in "Murdoch Mysteries" than in solving who will serve at City Hall.

And Rogers' City TV, which a long time ago was famous for its 'party politics' coverage of a big vote, appears to be showing an hour long special at 8 PM, followed by "The Bachelorette." But at least they're doing something.

Most of the stations are streaming coverage online, which is fine, but it's not quite the same to me as over-the-air free TV.

To be fair, this is not like a regular election, where there are multiple council races, as well as the one for mayor. So I get why they may not want to go all out and lose the revenue from their mostly U.S. simulcasts, especially since the results of the single contest should be out by 9 PM or earlier.

But my how times have changed. I remember a time when every station would have covered this live wall-to-wall on their main channels. Those days are gone, with Bell last week lobbying the CRTC to be able to cut its local news coverage to save money.

Speaking of Bell, CFRB is doing radio coverage in Toronto hosted by regular evening host Jim Richards, even as a rerun of a previous Richards' show is being carried by stations on the iHeart Network across the country. So Toronto gets the new stuff, while every other station in every other province and city hears a reroll.

Not completely a criticism, per se, but I just found it interesting.

RadioActive · June 26, 2023 8:16 pm

Had to laugh when I tuned into City's coverage. They went to Mark McAllister live at Olivia Chow's HQ right off the top. As he stood there outlining what was happening and the mood at the place, directly behind him was a large screen - showing CP24 live and its very distinct graphics at Olivia Chow's HQ!

ED1 · June 26, 2023 8:37 pm

All 4 networks are streaming their election coverage for free (even CP24), and if that’s where the audience is now then why not go all out on election coverage on a streaming platform while still making money on their legacy platforms? They don’t have to worry about interrupting their coverage with commercials, or any time constraints or hard hits.

paterson1 · June 26, 2023 8:52 pm

The streaming on all of the channels is as good as what would have been on OTA. Global and CBC streaming has been very good. Looks like CTV Toronto is running CP24 coverage.

Chrisphen · June 26, 2023 8:53 pm

The look on Oakley's face when Furey wins.

RadioActive · June 26, 2023 8:57 pm

I think they've been doing a good job on the streamers and have been switching between all of them. My point wasn't that it was wrong not going OTA, just that this is the first time I can ever remember an election this important was not covered by all of the big four on their main free TV stations.

Radiowiz · June 26, 2023 9:36 pm

Rogers was good enough to do 1 hour on City TV, then move viewers to Ignite tv channel 100.

Tomas Barlow · June 26, 2023 11:00 pm

RadioActive wrote:
Speaking of Bell, CFRB is doing radio coverage in Toronto hosted by regular evening host Jim Richards, even as a rerun of a previous Richards' show is being carried by stations on the iHeart Network across the country. So Toronto gets the new stuff, while every other station in every other province and city hears a reroll.

Someone made the correct decision. It would reduce your audience to zero if you ran election coverage for another city on a local station.

ED1 · June 26, 2023 11:09 pm

RadioActive wrote:
I think they've been doing a good job on the streamers and have been switching between all of them. My point wasn't that it was wrong not going OTA, just that this is the first time I can ever remember an election this important was not covered by all of the big four on their main free TV stations.

Understood. Although, there’s usually a small handful of people who whine about local elections results not being on TV nowadays and say that local media “failed”, when in fact they’ve been doing hours of rolling coverage on their respective streaming platforms (this was the case with the municipal elections in Alberta).

RadioActive · June 27, 2023 8:24 am

John Moore dropped an interesting factoid on the post-election review Tuesday morning. He mentioned Anthony Furey did much better than many expected as an outsider, and revealed one of the key people who served as an adviser to him during the campaign was none other than Mike Bendixen, the former program director of CFRB. Small world.

mace · June 27, 2023 10:51 am

I thought Anthony Furey did amazingly well considering he was only permitted to appear in the final debate.. He finished fourth ahead of loudmouth Josh Matlow and whiny Mitzie Hunter both of whom had abundantly more screen time during the campaign.

June 27, 2023 11:27 am

RadioActive wrote:
John Moore dropped an interesting factoid on the post-election review Tuesday morning. He mentioned Anthony Furey did much better than many expected as an outsider, and revealed one of the key people who served as an adviser to him during the campaign was none other than Mike Bendixen, the former program director of CFRB

A. Furey's candidacy was endorsed by a prominent member of Great Britain's House of Lords in Lord Black of Crossharbour's weekly column in the June 3 issue of the National Post

Chrisphen · June 27, 2023 11:41 am

RadioActive wrote:
John Moore dropped an interesting factoid on the post-election review Tuesday morning. He mentioned Anthony Furey did much better than many expected as an outsider, and revealed one of the key people who served as an adviser to him during the campaign was none other than Mike Bendixen, the former program director of CFRB. Small world.

Disappointing to hear that the Boy Wonder was so actively involved. I suppose it tracks - he was instrumental in the Ford Bros' radio show after their disastrous TV platform.

And Lord Tubby of Fleet? The less said the better.

paterson1 · June 27, 2023 12:08 pm

mace wrote:
I thought Anthony Furey did amazingly well considering he was only permitted to appear in the final debate.. He finished fourth ahead of loudmouth Josh Matlow and whiny Mitzie Hunter both of whom had abundantly more screen time during the campaign.

Furey should have done better in the early going of the campaign. He had some name recognition and should have been higher in the polls to allow him in the earlier debates. I am glad he ran though. Putting your name on a ballot and running for office is more work and harder than most people think. I am sure that many of the 102 that put their name in for mayor wouldn't do it again. However Toronto needs to set the bar to a higher level to enter the race. Too many of the 102 running were not serious candidates. When a dog gets 600 votes, maybe the criteria is a bit too low.

RadioActive · June 27, 2023 12:28 pm

I would have loved to know what the dog's platform was. Maybe cut down on crime by making more "collars?"

mic'em · June 27, 2023 5:14 pm

At 39% voter turn out, and of that percent, alot were at the advance pools, I am not surprised the TV execs choose to not interrupt regular scheduled programming. Furey got alot of after vote day attention from Alex Pearson during her show to the point it sounded almost gush like.

ckg927 · June 28, 2023 5:35 am

Chrisphen wrote:
RadioActive wrote:
John Moore dropped an interesting factoid on the post-election review Tuesday morning. He mentioned Anthony Furey did much better than many expected as an outsider, and revealed one of the key people who served as an adviser to him during the campaign was none other than Mike Bendixen, the former program director of CFRB. Small world.
Disappointing to hear that the Boy Wonder was so actively involved. I suppose it tracks - he was instrumental in the Ford Bros' radio show after their disastrous TV platform.

And Lord Tubby of Fleet? The less said the better.

AH, someone ELSE who reads Frank Magazine! (As an American, I've read the magazine when I've gotten the chance....sadly, few and far between in recent years. And BTW, what....no National Putz blasts? )

Chrisphen · June 28, 2023 10:58 am

ckg927 wrote:
... And BTW, what....no National Putz blasts? )

The Asper family is no longer in the picture...besides, 'Toastmedia' is a bit catchier!

ckg927 · June 28, 2023 4:05 pm

Chrisphen wrote:
ckg927 wrote:
... And BTW, what....no National Putz blasts? )
The Asper family is no longer in the picture...besides, 'Toastmedia' is a bit catchier!

Just goes to show you how often I read Frank these days....hell, I'm trying to find a newsstand or a bookstore that SELLS Frank!

paterson1 · June 28, 2023 4:35 pm

ckg927 wrote:
Chrisphen wrote:
ckg927 wrote:
... And BTW, what....no National Putz blasts? )
The Asper family is no longer in the picture...besides, 'Toastmedia' is a bit catchier!

Just goes to show you how often I read Frank these days....hell, I'm trying to find a newsstand or a bookstore that SELLS Frank!

Here is their website, still a few goodies on this...https://frankmag.ca/