3/7/2002: Jennifer Mather Leaves CKVU

Jennifer Mather, the current co-anchor alongside Russ Froese on CKVU's 6pm news, will be leaving the station. The reason given was for her to spend more time with her family. Her last day at the station will be March 15. No official replacement has been named yet.

More information will appear on this site as it becomes available.

CKVU had announced that its late news would move from 11:30pm to 11pm next Monday. The station has already started running promos highlighting the schedule change. This move will place the station's late news in direct competition once again with News Hour Final on CHAN-TV Global BC, as well as "Sports Page," the program that had been shown on CKVU for years leading up to Crossover, and that had moved to CHEK-TV "CH" since then. Currently the 11pm slot is occupied by re-runs of "Spin City," which are simulcast with KSTW/11.

Last night saw another graphic update at CKVU. This time, however, the changes were drastic. Gone are the wire-frame globes left over from the Global News era, and in came a brighter, more colourful set of graphics, from the news open to the lower-third name graphics. Of particular note, the new lower-thirds had increased significantly in size. However, the theme music used since mid-September of last year had been retained, and there are no noticeable changes on the set.

UPDATE (3/3/2002): Screenshots and video of the new look are now available on the site. Also, click here for screenshots of the short-lived set of graphics that preceded the latest one.

Multivan Gets Ethnic TV License

The CRTC has finally announced its decision on an over-the-air ethnic TV station for the Lower Mainland. The license went to Multivan Broadcast Corp., which is led by several local businessmen, including the chair of Mainstream Broadcasting Corp., which owns CHMB-AM 1320. Its bid was chosen over the one submitted by CFMT-TV/ Rogers Communications, which already owns one such station in Toronto. The new station will be located on UHF channel 42.

CRTC's Decision

(Thanks to David E. Nelson/ Northwest Broadcasters)

Slight Graphic Update at BC CTV

Last week, BC CTV made a slight adjustment to its news graphics. During live reports, the "live" graphic now appears on the upper-left corner of the screen, while the locator graphic (displaying the location of the live shot) not appears at the lower-left. The reverse was the case before the update. The locator graphics still appear at the upper-left on taped reports though.

Further Cable Lineup Changes in Southwestern BC

Shaw Cable had standardized the channel lineup for North Vancouver Island customers February 5. The lineups in Nanaimo/ Parksville/ Qualicum, Port Alberni, and Comox Valley/ Powell River were merged into one, following the existing channel allocations in Nanaimo.

(Thanks to David E. Nelson)

* Apologies for the delayed appearance of some of the articles.

BC CTV, CIVT-TV/32 (CTV), had announced that its weekend 6pm newscast would be extended from 30 minutes to a full hour. The first hour-long 6pm weekend newscast will go on this evening. Bridgitte Anderson will continue to anchor the show, and there is no mention of a co-anchor joining her at the desk.

And In Other NW News...

Talent Changes Hit All Seattle Stations: A Recap

Over the last few months, Seattle TV viewers may have noticed some familiar faces disappearing from the local airwaves, and new ones making their debut. Here's a recap of the changes at the 4 news operations:

KOMO/4: Weekend co-anchor Eric Slocum was let go. Molly Shen now solo-anchors the weekend evening newscasts on the station. Long time "People Helper" Brooke Stanford also retired.

KING/5: Weekday morning co-anchor Mark Mullen left the station for KRON/4 in the San Francisco Bay Area, a former NBC affiliate that had gone independent 1/1/2002. He co-anchors KRON4's extended morning news with Susan Blake.

KIRO/7: Weekend co-anchor Brian Wood was let go from the station. He now co-anchors the evening newscasts on WMAR/2 (ABC) in Baltimore with Mary Beth Marsden. Wayne Havrelly now co-anchors the weekend news with Margot Kim. Weekday morning co-anchor Joyce Taylor had also left the station. She should move to KING/5 soon, but may still be bound by a non-compete clause in her contract with KIRO, delaying her debut at KING. Penny LeGate now co-anchors KIRO's AM newscasts with Brad Goode. 

Meanwhile, KIRO gets a new anchor from Boston. Kristy Kim came from Boston's WHDH/7 (NBC). She started at KIRO this week, co-anchoring the 6:30pm news and the first half of the 5pm news with Steve Raible. Susan Hutchison still co-anchors the second half of the 5pm news and the entire 11pm newscast with Raible. The station also got a new weatherman. Rob Mayeda came from KCRA/3 (NBC) in Sacramento.

KCPQ/13: Weeknight co-anchor Scott Engler, who had been at the station since the inception of its news operation in 1998, had left for New York. He's now an anchor at WABC/7. While the search for a replacement is under way, Sam Shane for the time being co-anchors the 10pm news with Leslie Miller, and Peter Alexander takes Shane's place in the morning with Christine Chen. 

Updated Graphics (Again) at KCPQ

KCPQ/13 has partially updated its news graphics again. A new open animation, based on the one used since last November, was introduced for its morning and 10pm newscasts, and now there are new full-screen and split screen graphics, as well as a new backdrop for the news ticker on the morning show. However, the lower-thirds, OTS and the weather graphics stay the same, and the station still use Non-Stop Music's "Reactor" as its news theme. This is the second time in 3 months that the station has introduced new open animations.