DOWNTOWN WINDSOR NEWS

UPCOMING EVENTS

April 9, 2009 - Pulling the Plug on A-Channel

By: Karen Ashford, Communications Intern           

The recent CTV announcement to close A-Channel hit all too close to home for residents and business owners in downtown Windsor.

A-Channel is crucial to ensuring that there is local content and advertising in Windsor's mainstream media. As business owners, employees, and residents of downtown Windsor, we rely on this local coverage, in part, to bring awareness of the downtown and its businesses, galleries, museums, gaming facilities, parks and festivals to large local and national audiences.

"Our 6 o'clock news has roughly three and a half [times] the number of adult viewers as CBC and just over double the CBC's numbers if you factor in the...teens as well," said Adrian Bateman, managing editor of the A-Channel in Windsor.

A-Channel, located on the corner of Ouellette Avenue and University Avenue, airs its live news broadcasts from the heart of downtown Windsor, promoting the downtown core to a large audience. Furthermore, A-Channel is a landmark in Windsor's downtown and occupies a substantial block of real estate. Another vacancy will certainly make an impact on the appearance of Ouellette Avenue and University Avenue and its appeal to consumers and residents.

Aside from a strong need to have local news and advertising and the negative impact of another vacancy on Ouellette Avenue, Windsor also needs to maintain its own unique identity, which separates us from the dominance of media conglomerates in the United States.

According to Bateman, without A-Channel a large number of Windsorites will tune into Detroit stations, putting Windsor residents at risk of being drowned in American culture.

Unless the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) allows CTV, along with Global and CBC, to receive a fee-for-carriage from cable companies for the right to carry their signal, A-Channel has little hope of survival, Bateman argues.  

There are two possible alternatives: A-Channel's license could expire in August and someone could purchase the station, operating it at a loss, or an American company could purchase it and air Windsor's local news from a station across the river, Bateman said.  Either way, the news coverage in Windsor would inevitably change.

"The only real hope for local Canadian broadcasting is for the CRTC to allow conventional broadcasters to use fee-for-carriage," said Bateman.

A license renewal hearing is scheduled for April, which will provide private broadcasters with the opportunity to discuss the fee-for-carriage proposal with the CRTC once again.

In the meantime however, downtown residents and business owners can apply pressure to both the CRTC and CTV by signing an online petition and contacting the CRTC by email, fax, mail, and telephone (followed by a letter), voicing our desire to maintain our local broadcast news.

"Windsor is an awesome city," Bateman said.  "It has one of the most beautiful waterfronts, there are symphonies and jazz, live theatre, an art gallery, plus for a journalist, you couldn't find a better place for news."