I just may have to switch to cable, if for no other reason than to watch my old radio friends at Rogers make their TV debuts.
I guarantee several of them started crash diets the second they found out about the new all-news cable channel starting in October.
The new channel will be a collaboration of the 680 newsroom, Macleans and the CityTV newsroom. Hey, maybe this is how Conrad Black plans to get back into Canada; Since Barbara Amiel is a columnist with MacLeans, she'll no doubt be front and centre as a commentator, right? Yeah, I'll look forward to that.
In some circles, it was no secret the channel was coming, but on the day it was announced, you'd think there might be a logo, a lineup or a clue about what 'the wheel' will look like.
Happily, I can imagine no way my old friends could make worse TV than what Sun News channel has on offer. I spent an incredulous few hours watching it recently, and frankly, could not believe it was on the air. It appeared the announcers were trying desperately to be like FOX news with gratuitous snarky asides, but there was such a dearth of content, I was shocked. Surely the newspaper chain could at least grab RSS feeds from its outlets across the country to broadcast in the ticker, but apparently no one thought of leveraging the channel's greatest asset - you know, the Sun's, um, newspapers. Instead, the assets on display were conspicuously sleeveless, fluffy-coiffed women anchors trying hard to be aggressive but talking about not very much at all.
It won't be hard for my former colleagues to kick some TV butt.
If they can prevail upon Dick Smyth to come out of retirement for a daily, or at least weekly, commentary, it could be interesting. Or, as an equally viable alternative, how about a series of appearances by Mariane McLeod as a commentator?
ReplyDeleteSUN TV is far from FOX. I spent a few hours watching it about a month ago, and snore fest. All they seem to talk about is politics, which is okay, but where is the entertainment value? Where is the show business that FOX can pull off? Where is the passion, and emotional connection with the potential audience? Some columists can make a transition from print to TV, others, and the proof is on SUN, can't, and shouldn't. If they are going to focus solely on politics and government relations/stories, the viewership will remain niche, and extremely low.
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