CHEK News - Vancouver Island

Today, we are going to have an in-depth look at CHEK News, a station located on 780-Kings Road in Victoria, BC. It is broadcasted on Channel 6 and its coverage is mainly focused on Vancouver Island, most of the time its coverage area is in Southwestern BC.

Facts about CHEK News;

• Was British Columbia's first private television station, going to air on December, 1st, 1956
• Started out as a CBC affiliate, later a CTV affiliate till the big BC television news shakeup in 2001
• Simulcasted many shows on CHAN-TV (Global BC) in the 80s and 90s, but had its own local programming and newscasts
• Was the only television station on Vancouver Island until CIVI-TV ('A' Victoria) debut in 2001
• When BC television news shakeup occured, CHEK-TV became CH Vancouver Island, and ownership was transferred to Canwest Global.
• CHEK-TV turned CH-TV in 2001, losing its local moniker for the first time. CHEK News was renamed to CH News.
• Local newscasts at the time was a hourly noon news, one and a half hours of local news from 5:00pm-6:30pm followed by Go! Magazine (a local lifestyles show) from 6:30pm-7:00pm. When Go! Magazine was cancelled in 2005, the nightly news was expanded to two hours from 5:00pm-7:00pm. CH also aired a half hour of late-night news at 11:30pm after SportsPage at 11:00pm. When SportsPage was dropped in 2004, the late-night news was expanded to a full hour from 11:00pm-12:00am.
• One of the major faces of CHEK-TV since the 80s, Hudson Mack, left the station in 2004 to join competitor CIVI-TV, causing an unprecedented viewer move from CHEK to CIVI.
• CHEK celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2006.
• CHEK originally produced many shows, including a morning show, 'WakeUp!", lifestyles shows, political affairs shows, many talk shows, and sports shows.
• In 2007, CH Vancouver Island was renamed E! British Columbia, and its newscasts, CH News were renamed CHEK News.
• In August 2008, production for CHEK News was moved to Vancouver, and a virtual set was added. This eliminated quite a few jobs for CHEK.
• Canwest announced another round of major layoffs for E! stations, including CHEK in November 2008, causing CHEK to lose its Creative Services staff and a few reporters.
• At once in its heydays, CHEK had 140 employees, now in 2009, CHEK has only 40 employees left in its 780-Kings Road building.
• In 2009, CHEK simulcasted Global National, at 5:30pm, the first time it has simulcasted news programming from CHAN-TV since 2001, and reduced its daily newscast hours by half an hour. CHEK also debut a new program, Island 30, a lifestyles show on Island issues and life, a return of the Go! Magazine show, a popular Island show that was cancelled in 2005.
• In February 2009, Canwest Global announced they were exploring strategic options for its secondary network, the E! Canada network, before weeks later announcing they were putting up the stations for sale.
• Nanaimo reporter and weekend news anchor Skye Ryan left in March 2009 for maternity leave. Her position is currently temporarily filled by Tess van Straaten and previously was filled by Bob Kendrick (Terry Roberts) whom moved on to anchoring the news states-side.
• Following Julie Nolin's leave from CHEK due to inflexibility, Stacy Ross moved from the sports department to the news department and currently anchors the 10pm newscast.
• In August 2009, after numerous unsuccessful attempts to purchase the station from outside companies, CHEK station employees rallied and saved the station, hours before it was scheduled to shut down on August 31, 2009. They each took out a bit from their salaries to raise $2.5 million dollars to continue operating CHEK-TV independently for the next few months. On the same day, CHEK News at 10 was launched and the 11pm newscast was cancelled and replaced by a re-broadcast of the 10pm newscast.
• The station's schedule remains to be a nightly movie at 8pm, infomercials in the morning, a province-wide re-cap on the news during the afternoon called the BC News and Wather Update and local newscasts at 5:00pm, 6:00pm and 10:00pm.
• Station manager and employees have said that the station will build on top of its successful news programming with movies, ethnic programming and community shows. As of January 2010, none have been introduced.
• In December 2009, the CRTC approved the station's employees' purchase of the station from Canwest Global.
• Alicia Asquith from Global Regina joined CHEK-TV in late 2009 as weekend weather presenter and weekend BC News and Weather Update host. Tim Chung joined CHEK-TV in late 2009 as general assignment reporter and now works on CBC BC.
• CHEK will have its master control return around February 2010, allowing local production of shows to return and flexibility in its broadcast schedule. As CHEK's master control is being returned locally, rumors suggest that Global National at 5:30pm will be replaced by a full-hour of island news at 5:00pm.
• CHEK will also continue broadcasting in its 780 Kings Road location. Earlier rumors suggested that they would move out because Canwest Global wanted to sell the location to make a profit, but CHEK will continue to broadcast out of its current location for "many years to come".
• CHEK's virtual studio is set to be taken down and replaced by a modern studio with a Victoria backdrop. It is rumored that the virtual studio will be set up in Kelowna for Canwest's CHBC News.
• In December 2009, long-time veteran anchor and news producer Tony Parsons left Global BC after decades of anchoring the News Hour at 6:00 on Channel 8. Rumors suggest that he has purchased a condo in Victoria and he has confirmed that he will make debut on CHEK-TV in March 2010 as news anchor for its 6:00pm newscast.
• There are rumors that suggest CHEK-TV will be going provincial with Tony Parsons at the helm, against Global BC whom it was a sister station with, back during the Canwest ownership days. It is unknown what will happen to island programming if CHEK becomes a provincial television station.
• CHEK finished its news studio project in early 2010 with real elements and television projectors and a map of the Island on the wall. It is now featured prominently in their newscasts as a backdrop. They have reused the news desk from the green screen days. The wall portion of the old virtual studio green screen remains and is used for the weather.
• CHEK continues to have an incomplete website at http://www.cheknews.ca
• CHEK and CBC BC are now sharing a news agreement signed on March 2010 with CHEK sharing CBC BC stories and CBC BC utilizing CHEK for Island coverage. CHEK also broadcasts CBC's Vancouver at Six program with Tony Parsons and Gloria Macarenko on weekdays and Aarti Pole on the weekend. Following the news agreement, Global National at 5:30 was dropped and replaced by a full hour of CHEK News at 5:00pm and a full hour of CHEK News at 6:00pm. The 6:00pm broadcast was replaced by CBC's Vancouver at Six program when Tony moved to Vancouver in the summer.
• In summer 2010, CHEK's BC News and Weather Update Weekend program was cancelled and replaced by locally produced shows and Alicia Asquith subsequently left CHEK to CBC Edmonton and is their Late Night News host.
• CHEK scaled back its 10pm newscast in fall 2010 following Tony Parsons' move to Vancouver. He now broadcasts from a green screen in CBC BC's newsroom and is streamed onto CHEK's 10pm newscast. The 10pm news now airs for 35 minutes followed by an encore of Island 30 with a repeat of the 10pm news at 11pm.
• CHEK's Island 30 local program received a makeover with new graphics and a new soundtrack and a revised emphasis on the North and Central Island.
• CHEK Island 30's host and producer Dana Hutchings went on maternity leave in the fall and Stacy Ross has stepped into to replace her. Leading the BC News and Weather Update show weekdays is new hire Mike Walker.
• Skye Ryan returned from maternity leave in winter 2010 and she continues to hold her previous posts as anchor of the weekend 5:00pm news and weekday reporter from the Nanaimo bureau.
• CHEK's newsroom was revamped and moved in the past year into a different section of the building, removing the massive amount of room that the station previously occupied at 780 Kings Road.
• Over the past year or so, CHEK has been the breeding ground for new programming including Flavors of the West Coast which has become an immensely popular local cooking and eats show, Game On! a local sports show on Monday nights at 7:30pm hosted by Paul Haysom and Jeff King and numerous other shows.
• Currently, CHEK airs an hourly local newscast at 5pm, a half hour local newscast at 6:30pm with Scott Fee, Island 30 at 7:00pm with Stacy Ross, a half-hour late night newscast broadcast from Vancouver with Tony Parsons at 10pm. On weekends, CHEK airs a half hour of news at 5:00pm with Skye Ryan and a half hour newscast at 10pm with Tess van Straaten.
• CHEK currently has studios and operations in Victoria, a newsroom bureau in Nanaimo, offices in Campbell River and Port Alberni.
• Popular personalities include: Ed Bain, Gordie Tupper and Bruce Kirkpatrick.
• Popular alumni include: Kim Emerson, Jennifer Crosby, Keith Wells, Sophie Lui, Ed Watson, and Ida Clarkson.
• CHEK continues to be the Island's number one source for local news, despite Hudson Mack's move to 'A', 'A' stronger local news and community coverage and numerous CHEK layoffs in 2008 and 2009.

CHEK News - Vancouver Island

CHEK News opening, similar to it's sister stations, CHCH News, CHBC News and CHCA News. This opening features a backdrop of the Victoria Legislature on Vancouver Island. It continues to use this opening.

The intro into the studio, where the 5pm/6pm anchor Scott Fee stands beside a green screen. The graphics behind him are all non-existant in reality, Scott is standing in a virtual studio, with the backdrops and supposedly walls and whatnot all put in by cameras and technological equipment. The virtual studio on CHEK News debut in September 2008 and received a slight refresh in December 2008. The virtual studio is slated to be removed from CHEK's building in early 2010, and be replaced by a modern studio with a Victoria skyline backdrop.

CHEK News anchor Scott Fee sitting in the desk, with the backdrop of it's sister station Global BC's newsroom picture. But, in reality, everything behind Scott is just a big humongous green wall. The cameras have added in the backdrop.

An alternate intro to CHEK News, showing almost the first half of the virtual studio. The desk is real, Scott is sitting in it, doing his laptop business, but everything behind him is fake, added in by cameras and whatnot. In this pic, you can see the fake big screen surrounded by 3 fake small screens on both sides, and another fake screen beside that. So many fakes.

Now this was CHEK News' actual studio, which was replaced in September by that virtual one. Everything behind Julie Nolin is real.

A different angle at the virtual studio with Scott on the side.

CHEK News' 5pm/6pm/11pm sports anchor Stacy Ross is live at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre. CHEK often does live hits from the centre whenever there are Salmon Kings games. Behind Stacy is a poster of CHEK News, coincidentally, across from that, is a poster of 'A' News, CHEK's competing station. I remember once when they did a live hit, Keith Wells (previous CHEK anchor, left the station in October 2008) drew on the 'A' News poster as they were going to commercial break. The station no longer does live hits from the Save on Foods Memorial Centre.

The CHEK News split screen.

The CHEK News Coming Up screen.

Weather presented by Ed Bain, a very popular Island personality. In this shot, you can see the second half of the virtual studio, basically only shown when the weather is being done. This shot is now removed, as Scott now throws the weather to Ed through a split screen.

The "Triple-Seven" forecast presented by Ed Bain, showing a 7-day weather forecast picture for the North Island, Central Island and South Island, hence the Triple-Seven.

CHEK News desk shared by Stacy Ross, sports anchor and Scott Fee, news anchor. Stacy is now the station's 10pm news anchor.

Sports with Stacy Ross.

Ending of CHEK News, showing the first half of the virtual studio, occasionally the big screen will show a webcam picture of Victoria.