CityNews
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
CityNews are local newscasts on the Citytv system in Canada. Previously seen on all five Citytv stations, it is currently only seen on Citytv Toronto and CP24.
Contents |
[edit] History
The newscast originated in 1977 in Toronto under its original title CityPulse until August 2, 2005 when it was renamed CityNews. While the station promotes the myth that it was the "first" news show to abandon the traditional anchor desk, this is in fact, not true as CBS News in the United States had done this as early as the 1950s under Edward R. Murrow. Its main contribution and innovation in television news was to inject its reporters into their stories in a more participatory role that is still considered highly controversial by more traditional journalists.
By the mid-1980s, the newscast's style, pioneered by Moses Znaimer, was promoted as a "format" for local news shows to copy around North America. The show has also been duplicated by other television stations owned by CHUM Limited as well, and its format has been licensed to several television stations around the world such as Citytv Barcelona and Citytv Bogotá.
Until 1987, the anchors on CityPulse sat behind an anchor desk in a dark studio, accompanied only by the two familiar orange-red-black striped beams and a television set between the two anchors. CityPulse at Six was anchored by Gord Martineau and Dini Petty for much of the years 1980-1987. Weather presenters in that era included CHUM Radio veteran Jay Nelson, Brian Hill, Greg Rist, and David Onley. Sports anchors included Jim McKenny, Russ Salzberg, John Saunders, Debbie Van Kiekebelt, and Ann Rohmer.
CityPulse Tonight, originally known as CityPulse at 10 prior to 1981, was anchored by Bill Cameron, later by Gord Martineau, and then Anne Mroczkowski. In 1987, Anne moved to the supper-hour show to co-anchor with Martineau, and J.D. (John) Roberts began his news anchoring career as anchor of CityPulse Tonight after several years as an entertainment reporter and MuchMusic VJ.
On May 4, 1987, CityPulse moved into its current newsroom set at 299 Queen Street West in Toronto, following the move of the station's operations from 99 Queen Street East. The set was heavily grey with red accents until late 1990, when it began to darken towards the current look.
CityPulse launched in Vancouver in 2002 when CKVU-TV was re-branded as Citytv Vancouver. With the expansion of Citytv from two to five stations in August 2005, the newscasts on all five Citytv stations were renamed CityNews.
On July 12, 2006, coincident with the announcement of CTVglobemedia's plans to take over CHUM Limited, all primetime CityNews programs, with the exception of those on CITY-TV in Toronto, were immediately cancelled with 281 CHUM employees across the country being laid off. On CKAL-TV and CKEM-TV, CityNews was replaced with a new half-hour newsmagazine called Your City. CHMI-TV will launch its version in January according to a news release[1], however, CHMI-TV has not produced a version of Your City as of March 27, 2007. CKVU-TV's newscast has not been replaced. Edmonton still runs a CityNews at Noon program.
When the show made the transition to CityNews, it lost multiple features, such as the CityPulse Webtest, which had existed since the 1980s as a phone-in contest. The new format on CHMI, which previously was called A-Channel News, had lost nearly half of its audience for the 6 p.m. newscast before its cancellation.
Ratings for Toronto's CityNews have taken a dramatic nosedive over the past year. The flagship newscast for CityTV is now ranked a distant #4 in the Toronto market, outpaced by CTV, Global and even CH News (which actually focuses its local news coverage on the Hamilton/Halton/Niagara region). In addition, since Global's relaunch of its news package in February 2006, CityNews' numbers are down 15% among 18- to 49-year-olds.[2]
[edit] Personalities
- Hugh Burrill, sports anchor
- JoJo Chintoh, features and documentary specialist
- Mark Dailey, co-anchor, CityNews Tonight, The Voice of Citytv
- Laura DiBattista, co-anchor, CityNews at Noon; health specialist, CityNews
- Marianne Dimain, news reporter, Anchor, CP24
- Dwight Drummond, co-anchor, "CityNews at Noon; crime specialist, CityNews; host, The Chief
- Francis D'Souza, anchor, CityNews Weekend, reporter, CityNews
- Merella Fernandez, weekend anchor, CityNews Weekend, reporter, CityNews
- Frank Ferragine, weather specialist, BT-BreakfastTelevision; gardening specialist, CityNews
- Kevin Frankish, host, BT-BreakfastTelevision
- Melissa Grelo, anchor, CP24
- Larysa Harapyn, entertainment reporter
- Lorne Honickman, legal specialist; host, Legal Briefs
- Kathryn Humphreys, sports anchor
- Dr. Karl Kabasele, medical specialist
- Michael Kuss, meteorologist-CMOS certified
- Jee-Yun Lee, consumer specialist
- Muhammad Lila, news reporter, anchor, CP24
- Amber MacArthur, new media specialist, host of Webnation, appears on HomePage
- Richard Madan, money specialist, CityNews
- Gord Martineau, anchor/reporter, CityNews at Six; anchor, CityNews International
- Jim McKenny, sports anchor
- Tracy Moore, reporter, BT-Breakfast Television and CityNews
- Anne Mroczkowski, anchor/reporter, CityNews at Six, host of The Mayor
- Cynthia Mulligan, education specialist
- Farah Nasser, GTA reporter, CityNews and anchor CP24
- David Onley, science and technology specialist, CityNews; anchor, CP24; host, "Homepage"
- Beatrice Politi, political specialist in Ottawa, Ontario
- Dina Pugliese, host, BT-Breakfast Television
- Kris Reyes, news reporter, anchor, CP24
- Ann Rohmer, Host, Hot Property, Animal Housecalls, co-anchor, CityNews Tonight
- Tonya Rouse, fitness specialist
- Omar Sachedina, anchor, CP24
- Pam Seatle, news reporter
- Nalini Sharma, weather specialist
- Peter Silverman, ombudsman, CityNews and host of Silverman Helps
- Jennifer Valentyne, LiveEye host, BT-BreakfastTelevision
- Liz West, entertainment specialist
[edit] Notable contributors
Notable contributors to the Toronto show included:
- Thalia Assuras, who later moved to ABC and then CBS
- Bill Cameron, who later moved to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
- Denise Donlon, later CEO of Sony Canada
- Mary Garofalo, who later moved to WNYW-TV in New York
- Avi Lewis, who later moved to CBC.
- Stephen Lewis who provided a commentary for the program until his appointment as Canadian ambassador to the United Nations
- Dini Petty, later a talk show host (The Dini Petty Show)
- John Roberts (credited as J.D. Roberts), an entertainment reporter and weekend anchor now with CNN
- John Saunders, a sportscaster who later moved to ESPN
- Russ Salzberg, a sportscaster who later moved to WWOR-TV in New York
[edit] CablePulse24
In 1998, Citytv created CablePulse 24 (commonly CP24), a Toronto cable TV station that is Canada's only 24-hour local news channel. It shares the same staff as the Citytv Toronto newscasts.
[edit] CityNews Webcast
On February 14 2007, CityTV and CP24 created CityNews Webcast, an online news source. Before February 14. 2007, Citytv and CP24 had CityNews Podcast, a news source that could only be viewed on an ipod device. CityNews Webcast was known as CityNews @ Work. The new CityNews Webcast can be downloaded on to an iPod via iTunes or viewed on citynews.ca
[edit] CityNews Webcast logos
 Current CityNews Webcast logo |
 Previous logo of the CityNews Webcast. |
[edit] CityNews International
Soon after the cancellation of the local CityNews broadcasts in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg, because of the CTVglobemedia takeover, a new half-hour program called CityNews International was launched. The program is produced in the Citytv Toronto, CP24 studios and features many of the same on-air personalities as the local CityNews broadcasts. CityNews International airs at 6:00 p.m. in Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg, and at 6:30 p.m. in Vancouver It does not currently air on Citytv Toronto, however it only airs on CP24 at 8:00 p.m. Monday - Friday and a rebroadcast at 10:30 p.m.
Gord Martineau is the primary host of the program, while Amber MacArthur files a technology/pop-culture report regularly and Beatrice Politi files a daily report on what's going on in Canada's Parliament.
