The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » On this date fifty years ago...

Forward Power · January 6, 2024 12:08 pm

The Global Television Network launched.

Glen Warren · January 6, 2024 1:39 pm

With a live broadcast special from the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.

RadioActive · January 7, 2024 11:14 am

They've been running some unfortunately very short tributes on air about this, but what I find both amazing and telling, is this bit of dialogue from their video about the original concept of Global.

"The idea was to fill the schedule with independently produced Canadian shows, and to lure respected journalists to build a newsroom that won praise for integrity and innovation...But within a few months, they ran out of money and collapse loomed."

I had no idea Global originally tried to get by with just an all Canadian line-up, and with such cheap budgets, it's not a surprise it was bleeding cash. It was only after it started buying U.S. imports to show in primetime that the place began making money. In retrospect, it was a nice idea but there was no way Canadian eyeballs were going to be lured by low budget Canuck series.

But we do have the network to thank for at least one thing - it was the place where the original SCTV began. And we owe it a debt of gratitude for that, if nothing else.

See the Global video here.

RadioActive · January 7, 2024 11:20 am

From the always great Retrontario:

SpinningWheel · January 7, 2024 11:37 am

Right around that time Global showed Toronto Toro's (WHA team owned by John Bassett) hockey games, mostly from Varsity Arena. The announcers were Mike Anscombe and Bill Bird.
Before leaving Toronto, the Toro's had former Leafs Frank Mahovlich, Paul Henderson and Carl Brewer in their lineup. I followed them as a kid and unlike the Leafs, games were easily accessible at decent prices and saw lots of games on Global.

paterson1 · January 7, 2024 12:07 pm

I have always found Global News Toronto to be slightly missing the mark for some reason. They are not really doing anything wrong apart from having a few weak on air people but something is off.

I have seen Global Calgary and Vancouver local news productions and they were superior to what was out of Toronto. On air people were better, more natural and had more personality. Also as I recall the actual production seemed slicker than Global Toronto even though quite similar. I have always heard that Global News locally rates higher than CTV News in many markets in Western Canada.

Global News Toronto I would guess is number two or three in Toronto television news and should be doing better. CTV Toronto seems a bit lost with the local production in decline for the past few years.

mic'em · January 7, 2024 1:44 pm

I have no issue with any of the Global anchors. I may have been one of the few who actually enjoyed Alan Carters noon hour radio show on AM640.

Last edited by mic'em (January 7, 2024 1:44 pm)

RadioActive · January 7, 2024 2:02 pm

paterson1 wrote:
I have always found Global News Toronto to be slightly missing the mark for some reason. They are not really doing anything wrong apart from having a few weak on air people but something is off.

I have seen Global Calgary and Vancouver local news productions and they were superior to what was out of Toronto. On air people were better, more natural and had more personality. Also as I recall the actual production seemed slicker than Global Toronto even though quite similar. I have always heard that Global News locally rates higher than CTV News in many markets in Western Canada.

Global News Toronto I would guess is number two or three in Toronto television news and should be doing better. CTV Toronto seems a bit lost with the local production in decline for the past few years.

As you know, we don't often agree about much. But in this case, I'm 100% in accord with your opinion about Global's Toronto news efforts. Sometimes when CFTO is showing an NFL game and the news doesn't air there (which seems increasingly to be the case every weekend) I tune to either City or Global for local headlines.

I have problems with both, but Global doesn't seem to have a game plan. I'm not sure who's producing it, but things often aren't in any logical order I can figure out. They'll go from a few local hot shots (accidents, fires, shootings etc.) to some overseas story, then come back for more local items.

And I find there are too many "feel good" stories. Not that there's anything wrong with doing that, it's just it feels like they air too many in the same show. It makes me feel like there's real news that's being ignored. And since I mainly see them on the weekend, it often appears they don't have many (or sometimes, any) reporters working that shift, so it's a lot of the news anchor reading copy, with maybe a clip to fill the time. Not what you'd expect from the major market in Toronto.

And I'm not even going to address their weekend weather anchor, who seems to have inordinate trouble ad libbing her way through a forecast, as well as seemingly being obsessed with Kingston, for some reason, since she always mentions that city at least two or three times in a two minute weather segment.

I have my issues with City, as well, but it's easier to watch than what Global puts out, at least on the weekend.

Plus, because it's only half an hour, their commercial breaks seem to be almost non-stop. I tune around a lot during the 6, and almost every time I find something on one of the other channels that doesn't interest me, I go to Global. 99.9% of the time, they're in a commercial break. You can almost set your watch by it.

Why this product is so disappointing I'm not sure, but I feel certain they could do a lot better.

Walter · January 7, 2024 2:38 pm

mic'em wrote:
I have no issue with any of the Global anchors. I may have been one of the few who actually enjoyed Alan Carters noon hour radio show on AM640.

I agree. Carter could be fairly irreverent, and I always liked his 'Doug Ford' sound bytes. He clearly thought Ford was a dope, and wasn't afraid to show it.

MJ Vancouver · January 7, 2024 4:10 pm

paterson1 wrote:
I have always found Global News Toronto to be slightly missing the mark for some reason. They are not really doing anything wrong apart from having a few weak on air people but something is off.

I have seen Global Calgary and Vancouver local news productions and they were superior to what was out of Toronto. On air people were better, more natural and had more personality. Also as I recall the actual production seemed slicker than Global Toronto even though quite similar. I have always heard that Global News locally rates higher than CTV News in many markets in Western Canada.

Global News Toronto I would guess is number two or three in Toronto television news and should be doing better. CTV Toronto seems a bit lost with the local production in decline for the past few years.

I suspect Corus puts the maximum resources into Global BC that they can, as that station has been a market powerhouse since the 1970s. Which from a strategic business standpoint makes sense - focus most on what you do well. But it does mean there is a difference in the on-air product from other stations including Toronto - I really noticed it when I was back in Ontario over the holidays. I’m not as familiar with the Alberta stations.

The two biggest differences I notice, aside from the lack of sports, is that Global Toronto tends to use more Global National stories that get repeated later on Global National, and also I notice they’ll give a teaser between 5:30 and 6:00 for a story coming up at 6:00; when that story airs after 6:00, some of the info given at 5:30 is repeated. Global BC has the same length of newscast but they almost never re-air Global National material and they don’t use up air time with teasers for stories later in the hour. BC also stays away from entertainment news, unless it’s something of local interest - though Toronto did tone that down awhile back.

Last edited by MJ Vancouver (January 7, 2024 4:11 pm)

RadioActive · January 7, 2024 4:20 pm

Over the years, they have had some very good news people. (Although I have to admit I have absolutely no memory at all of the Rae Corelli years.) And yes, I like Carter's sometimes acerbic delivery, but it's what comes between his throws that's the problem.

Listener · January 7, 2024 5:11 pm

I start out watching Citynews and then switch over to Global. One of my favourites was Kathryn Humphreys when she was on Citynews. She always made me laugh. Haven’t heard what she is doing now.

Hansa · January 7, 2024 6:11 pm

Global News was never my first choice but I always thought Bob McAdorey was great - he and Peter Gross were the only really humorous personalities on Toronto TV news in the 80s, that I recall and McAdory made the Noon News fun.

RadioActive · January 7, 2024 6:12 pm

Hansa wrote:
Global News was never my first choice but I always thought Bob McAdorey was great - he and Peter Gross were the only really humorous personalities on Toronto TV news in the 80s, that I recall and McAdory made the Noon News fun.

laffin · January 8, 2024 7:31 am

It was in 1960 recalling the back-and-forth Bob and I had when Bob was doing mornings at CJOY in Guelph and at the same time as I was on at CKCR Kitchener. Little did we know it was the beginning of bigger careers as we both landed in TO. Ah, the days of announce-op.

ED1 · January 8, 2024 12:18 pm

paterson1 wrote:
I have always found Global News Toronto to be slightly missing the mark for some reason. They are not really doing anything wrong apart from having a few weak on air people but something is off.

I have seen Global Calgary and Vancouver local news productions and they were superior to what was out of Toronto. On air people were better, more natural and had more personality. Also as I recall the actual production seemed slicker than Global Toronto even though quite similar. I have always heard that Global News locally rates higher than CTV News in many markets in Western Canada.

Global News Toronto I would guess is number two or three in Toronto television news and should be doing better. CTV Toronto seems a bit lost with the local production in decline for the past few years.

Global BC and Edmonton are #1 in their markets by a country mile, and Global Calgary is very competitive against CTV where they win some (but not all) timeslots. At one point in the 2000s IIRC Global Saskatoon was also #1.

DX · January 8, 2024 1:36 pm

Global BC has a strong audience because it originally was the CTV affiliate CHAN, equivalent to the CFTO of Vancouver, and used the BCTV branding for decades. Global took over the channel in 2000 when CTV moved to set up a network-owned station to replace the CHAN/BCTV affiliate.