A-Channel, Rogers and Community Media

Stardate, May 14th, 10:24pm:

Captain's log. I've been involved in volunteer efforts with Rogers Television for the past week or so. It's a terrific program. Really, I can't say enough about how great this experience is. One week ago I'd never stepped behind a camera, now I can somewhat operate one. That's a good skill to have when you're trying to get in to television production.

I was published by the Barrie Examiner in a Letter to the Editor in response to a similar letter first published by Peggy Hebden, Station Manager of A-Channel. You can find the link to that here; http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1564892 ; but since this was an edited copy, I'd like to attach a copy of the full version I had e-mailed to editor Bob Burton, but was told it would only fit if it was half its size(that's what she said).

The economic crisis has taken its toll on many industries, media included. The most recent Letter to the Editor from A-Channel Station Chief, Peggy Hebden, although informed, reeks of bias from a network that has failed to meet the needs of its community.

Local media serves one of two purposes. It either acts as a companion to mainstream media, or as an alternative. The simple question in determining A-Channel's worth to the community comes in identifying which of these two services the network is providing to Barrie and its surrounding area.

As this is an editorial, I'm going to save myself a lot of words and jump straight to the conclusion that A-Channel is a companion to mainstream media. The stories A-Channel has been reporting on are nothing short of the same headlines reported on national and local broadcasts coming out of most major cities. The bulk of its non-news programming is imported from larger networks unable to accommodate them in their scheduling. Its efforts to reach out to the community are becoming substantially insignificant.

A-Channel stands alone in the Barrie area as one of the only media outlets which does not co-ordinate a volunteer program to educate local youth in media production. It stands alone as one of the hardest networks to reach for comment, as evidenced by several personal attempts to receive network feedback for a paper based on the value of local media. Throughout the years, its programming has become more and more distant from the community it serves.

So what alternative is A-Channel providing the residents of Simcoe County? Its news programming mirrors that of national networks. It's non-news programming mirrors that of national networks. Though A-Channel, formerly The NewVR has provided an alternative in the past, its growing reach into York Region and national headlines have left us with nothing more than an expensive sister-station to national networks.

Hebden pleads in her final paragraph for the support of its audience during these tough economic times. I have only one response; No Peggy, we need YOUR support. A shift to more community-based broadcasting and providing an alternative to the mainstream networks we can find anywhere else is what we both need - or A-Channel will simply become increasingly unnecessary, and obsolete.

There have been rebuttals by A-Channel high-ups, including evening news anchor Lance Chilton and while I'm going to avoid an all-out Barrie Examiner editorial war, I'd like to defend my position here.

When I first started watching A-Channel it was known as CKVR and provided local news to Barrie and the surrounding area. Somewhere between CKVR and A-Channel, we lost that same local station. For one, the news isn't about Barrie and surrounding area anymore. It's occasionally about Barrie, and more often about the '905 Belt' and the municipalities south of Simcoe. I can't remember the last time I saw a locally-produced program on their primetime lineup.

As the former employee of what I'll leave to be an unnamed public-service, I'll tell you personally that A-Channel is one of the most difficult media outlets to get in contact with regarding issues important to Barrie's citizens. Furthermore, as a communications student at Carleton this past year, the cutbacks to A-Channel earlier this year inspired me to write a paper about the importance of community media and the need for networks like the former New VR to exist. After several attempts to reach the network for comment, I received no word back. The conclusion I reached at the end of the paper is A-Channel no longer fit the criteria for community media. If A-Channel is unwilling to help itself, why should we pay the bill via bailout funds to assist it?

I opened this entry with a paragraph on my experiences with Rogers for a reason; that is that there is a difference between an intern and a volunteer. This is for you, Mr. Lance Chilton; A volunteer comes in whenever he or she wants to, and participates only as much or as little as they wish. They decide their own level of involvement, commitment and create their own schedule that works around them. An intern is the equivilant of an unpaid employment position, with set hours and menial duties.

I'm going to at least send a link to the Barrie Examiner, Bob Burton, to this blog, as I feel that in this digital age we don't need to continue this bickering through a newspaper. For those who've come here through the Examiner, thank you for taking an interest in community media, and I hope you realize how little A-Channel fits that profile. Thank you so much for reading and stay tuned for updates on
Soundtrack.