24Hours

24Hours is a one-hour news and current affairs program that was broadcast by CBWT, the CBC television station in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

History

It began on October 5, 1970, (on the same day that James Cross was kidnapped by the FLQ in Quebec) and was first broadcast between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m.. The original on-air hosts were Garth Dawley (news), Murray Parker (weather), Don Wittman and Bob Picken (sports), John Harvard and Gerry Haslam (interviewer). On occasions, others contributed to the program, namely Heather Hildebrandt (CBC Winnipeg public affairs department) and freelancers Alice Poyser and Per Holting. Bill Morgan was the producer in the first year,^[1] and executive producer in the second.^[2]

Although the reason for the newscast being called 24Hours is uncertain, advertising in the 1970s contained the slogan NEWS...Something to think about every 24Hours, something that became less relevant from the 1980s with today's media choices.

The hour began with 10 to 13 minutes of news presented by Dawley, the program's first newsreader until 1983, followed by a 2-minute weather update and a 10-minute documentary or interview. After a commercial break, national and international news would be presented, followed by a 5-minute sportscast. A full weather forecast of 5-minutes duration took place about 30 minutes into the program. Another documentary or interview segment filled in the rest of the time. Towards the end of the program there would be a feature such as a review of an arts event, or a news-comedy skit. Each hour would end with a short summary of the day's news.

In earlier years, during the summer months, 24Hours switched to a 30-minute format with basic news, weather and sports to give the documentary team time to rest and prepare for next season's documentaries.

Before The National was moved to 10 p.m. and The Journal was created in 1982, occasionally a full-hour 24Hours documentary was broadcast at this time, in addition to the regular 60 minutes of news at 6 p.m.

Starting in the 1977-78 season, 24Hours was moved to a more standard time of 6:00-7:00 p.m., with John Robertson replacing John Harvard as host.^[3]

John Harvard, who was the program's first interviewer and held the post between 1970 and 1977. He returned the day after the November 1981 Provincial election, and remained until 1986. He interviewed the former interviewer from the 1977-1981 period, John Robertson.^[4]

In September 1982, the chalkboard easel used for the 24Hours weather forecast, regularly dprovided by Murray Parker, was replaced with an electronic Telidon system. This was used for about two years when a regular CG system was put in place.

Also in 1982, CBWT was a pioneer within CBC television stations to use Betacam ENG cameras. Before this, reports were filed on 16 mm film.^[5]

In 1983, electronic slides replaced the film-type that accompanied the news anchor of the various local news programs. For example, a slide machine with a red rounded trim was used in 1982-83, while the rest of the news set was a cream colour.

In May 1984, Marv Terhoch was appointed director of CBWT of 24Hours.^[6]

Also between these years, Kevin Evans was the interviewer for 24Hours, until the local Videon cable system replaced KTHI Fargo with WDIV Detroit; the latter featured Mort Crim and his style of news and interviewing. To compete with that station, it hired the former ABC correspondent Mike McCourt who co-hosted the program between September 1986 and 1991.

John Bertrand, who was formerly the editor of the Winnipeg Sun, was hired as host of the new 5.30–6 p.m. segment, 24Hours Talkback, in November 1992. This program was broadcast until 1994 when it was canceled and Bertrand had moved on to CBC Radio One as on-air host of Questionnaire.

On October 2, 2000, as part of nationwide budget cuts and a shift of focus towards reporting of geopolitical events (war in Iraq and Afghanistan), 24Hours was replaced by a 30-minute program, Canada Now.

Theme music

The theme music used during the late 1970s and early 1980s was "Gathering Crowds", which itself was released in 1974.

24Hours LateNight

When Midday took 30-minutes of television time from the regions, CBWT had 30 minutes extra to spare in its budget. 24Hours LateNight was launched in late October, 1985, with anchor Anne Petrie and alternate anchor Arvel Gray. Ernie Nairn was the sports anchor. Before October 1985, the late evening newscast was called News Final, and before that had no title, but was referred to generically as the late local news.

LateNight featured more entertainment items, including live theatre and movie reviews, leaving political coverage to the main supper hour program.

In the budget cuts of December 1990 and the nationwide introduction of a 90-minute local newscast at 5:30pm, which on CBWT included a ½ hour local supper hour program, 24Hours Talkback, the program was canceled in November 1992. 24Hours LateNight was broadcast again in 1994 following a move back to a 60-minute evening newscast and the cancellation of Talkback, continuing until nationwide budget cuts reduced local evening news coverage and cancelled local late night news in 2000.

News history after 24Hours

On November 10, 2006, CBWT announced that the CKY-TV news presenter Janet Stewart would become the 6 p.m. news presenter at the station.^[7]

On November 30, 2006, CBC announced that it would revert to the pre-2000 early evening news model from February 2007. Canada Now was cancelled, while local newscasts nationwide once again used an hour-long format.^[8]

CBWT announced on February 2, 2007, that the full hour of local news would return on Monday, February 19, 2007, and that Murray Parker would return as weather person.^[9] CBWT's newscast became known as CBC News: Winnipeg at Six. In September 2009, the station's news operations were expanded again with the launch of a 90-minute newscast from 5pm to 6:30pm and, a month later, a late night update following The National each weeknight.

References