CKVR: The rise and fall of a "Classic TV" legend

[Sal]

Every once in a while I will read about how some people on here will lament the fact that either Nick At Nite or TV Land or both just don't offer the same great quality of programming that they had 5, 10, or 15 years ago. Not having these channels around to watch for myself, I'll have to take your word for it but I have to also mention that I know exactly how you must feel since I've been through a similar experience with what used to be my favorite channel and the pain of it all would still be with me today if it were not for the existence of CTS and, to a lesser extent, PRIME.

Those of you who live in the Southern Ontario/Buffalo, NY area will be familiar with CKVR Channel 3 in Barrie, Ont. (a short distance north of Toronto), which now calls itself The New VR, and therein lies much of the problem, since the "Old" VR was pretty darned great and should never have been trifled with. CKVR began operating in the early 1950s as an affiliate of the CBC network. For the first 30 years or so, it offered mainly CBC programming and a few local shows which were nothing special. During this time, the only way to get it was through an antenna and its audience outside Barrie was a small one. In the early 80s, as the growth of cable allowed its signal to be reached all over Southern Ontario, the station looked to create its own identity. It wisely did so by starting to air more and more "Classic TV" shows until by the 90s they would promote these great old shows every chance they could get, even launching their station breaks with: "You're watching Classic Television CKVR". For a brief time, they broke away from this successful format and began airing mainly documentaries and travel shows but mercifully it didn't last long and they were soon back to the Classic TV format. The backbone of their lineup was their early morning block which featured "I Love Lucy" at 11:00 am, followed by "The Andy Griffith Show" at 11:30 and "Leave It To Beaver" at noon. It wasn't long before the early afternoon and latenight hours would yield their share of goodies too, including "The Beverly Hillbillies", "Green Acres", "Gilligan's Island", "Mork and Mindy", "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", "All In The Family", "MASH", "The Munsters", and even "Car 54, Where Are You?", which I miss dearly! It was while watching some of these shows that I first grew to appreciate TV's older, vintage classics (the older, the better, I thought) and I wanted to see as many as I possibly could. Before the advent of specialty channels in Canada, CKVR was clearly the place to go to see these shows, and depending on where you lived, the only place. But as they say, all good things must end, and to this day I'm still puzzled and saddened as to why it did. In the mid-90s CKVR severed its ties with CBC and became an independent station, where it was quickly taken over by the rapidly growing CHUM group, which also owns popular stations like CITY-TV, MuchMusic, and Bravo. These stations were known for their in-your-face badass hip attitude and CKVR soon followed in their footsteps. Soon it was apparent that the station would undergo several changes in tune with the new ownership. First was the name change to The New VR and then the programming shift started. Gone were the old standards and in came a fresher, newer set of shows more in tune with today's PlayStation generation: shows like "Buffy", "VIP", "Angel", and "Star Trek Voyager" which now dominate---and in my opinion desecrate---the current lineup. The cruelest cut of all came in 1999 when "Leave It To Beaver" was hastily removed from its noon hour slot, where it had been a fixture for over 30 years, and replaced with "Seinfeld"---and nothing was done about it!!! The last of the "Classic TV" mainstays was gone for good, or so I thought until CTS mercifully rescued it last fall! Since then, I have maintained a silent protest by out and out boycotting not only VR but I have also steadfastly refused to watch any of the CHUM-owned stations no matter how good their programming might be. The one thing that might send me back would be if VR would return to its past ways but since that's not likely to happen the next best thing would be for the CHUM management to apply for their own Classic TV station and see if they can turn it into another TV Land or CTS. With the on-air talent they have at their disposal, this would not be difficult to achieve. Until then I'll stick with PRIME and CTS!!!



Next week: News from CTS! Don't miss it!