CHEK-TV lures Tony Parsons to Island

musimax · #1 01-21-2010, 09:37 AM

After what was probably the worst-kept secret in B.C.'s broadcasting community, long-time Global news anchorman Tony Parsons announced Wednesday that he will join CHEK News in Victoria in March.

Parsons, who anchored Global's popular evening news program News Hour for 34 years, visited CHEK's studio in Victoria on Wednesday afternoon to talk to his future co-workers.

He said the fact that CHEK is now worker-owned played a "big part" in his decision to jump broadcasting ships.

Levi Sampson, the president of Nanaimo's Harmac pulp mill and a major investor on CHEK, said the company and its worker-owners are "very enthusiastic" about Parsons's intention to join their team.

"I thought it was too bad when Canwest decided to shut down the station, which has served Victoria and B.C. for so long, so I was really excited to learn that the employees decided to put up their own money to keep CHEK going," Parsons told the Daily News on Wednesday.

"I figured it was a great place to be so, with my contract with Global running out, I decided to talk to CHEK about my future."

CHEK, established in 1956 as western Canada's oldest private broadcaster, was slated for closure last summer after Canwest Global said the station had been losing money for years.

But its 45 employees and 10 private investors rallied to salvage the station and keep it on the air with a successful bid valued at $2.5 million, including $500,000 raised by the workers.

Parsons will be expected to contribute to CHEK and be a part-owner as well, but the amount he is to invest has yet to be determined. He said the role he will play with CHEK has also not been "defined" yet but he expects it will be as a news anchor.

"It's what I do best," he said. "I also expect I'll be visiting the Nanaimo area in my new role and I'm really looking forward to it."

Source: Nanaimo Daily News

Emarsee · #2 01-21-2010, 05:45 PM

Not suprised. He already confirmed it back in December on Virgin 953.

Emarsee · #3 03-11-2010, 06:50 PM

Here's a promo made by CHEK promoting Tony Parsons arrival on CHEK. According to the ad, he starts working on Monday and is anchoring the 5 and 10 PM newscasts with Scott Fee.

http://www.twitvid.com/3B928

TVViewer · #4 03-11-2010, 07:25 PM

Actually, Tony Parsons will only anchor the 10:00PM newscast, which will become a full hour.

Scott Fee will anchor the 5:00PM newscast, which will become 90 minutes and run to 6:30PM (Global National is gone)

Island 30 will continue to air at 6:30PM.

Emarsee · #5 03-11-2010, 07:30 PM

Ah. So does CHEK still have news sharing agreement with Global or is that gone now with the arrival of Tony Parsons?

Are they going to rerun the 10 PM newscast at 11 to compete with A's newscast or will Island 30 air in that timeslot?

Emarsee · #6 03-12-2010, 06:01 PM

From the looks of it, CHEK's website is now down.

musimax · #7 03-12-2010, 07:23 PM

I'd guess that www.chektv.ca (I'm assuming this will probably be their new domain name; it's already taken and it's an obvious choice) is probably set to launch at some point soon, now that the canada.com CHEK website is now down. Might be a good time to launch it for the debut of Tony.

VicViewer · #8 03-13-2010, 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by musimax

I'd guess that www.chektv.ca (I'm assuming this will probably be their new domain name; it's already taken and it's an obvious choice) is probably set to launch at some point soon, now that the canada.com CHEK website is now down. Might be a good time to launch it for the debut of Tony.

www.cheknews.ca is registered under chek's address in Victoria. Chek just needs to make the address point to their own site.

Emarsee · #9 03-13-2010, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Legendary broadcaster Tony Parsons makes his debut as an Island anchor Monday

By Jim Gibson, Times Colonist March 13, 2010 7:34 AM

Tony Parsons had no special requests, such as his own office, when he took the 10 p.m. newscast job at employee-owned CHEK. He just wants to work with people "with a little fire in their bellies."
Photograph by: Bruce Stotesbury, Times Colonist

Tony Parsons steps out of his silver Mercedes SL looking more as if he's headed for a game of golf than inside CHEK News to prepare for his Monday night debut as its 10 p.m. anchor.

Parsons was the most watched local news anchor in Canada when he was at Global Vancouver. He brings star power to the 10 p.m. news at the employee-owned station, which has been independent since last September.

In person, Parsons seems shorter than on camera and his face a tad more lived in. His casual clothing -- golf jacket over dark V-neck sweater and shirt, dark slacks and loafers -- seems out of place on a man who spent 35 years in B.C. living rooms in restrained ties, crisp shirts and smart suits.

The suit and tie will be there Monday night. Viewers don't like change, said Parsons, a member of the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame.

His Vancouver viewers howled when he wore a bow tie or let his barber dye his greying hair.

"I tried it once and got laughed off the screen," he said about the dye job. "I'm happy to go grey. It speaks to your experience."

Still, he looks great for 71. The English-born Parsons puts this down to his mother's Italian genes, a good diet overseen by wife Tammy and the twice-weekly workouts he used to do with a Vancouver personal trainer.

Last weekend, the couple and Parsons's "step-dog," Jack, a Maltese cross, moved into a Fairfield rental. They're not buying for a year, in part to know the region better and to decide whether to sell their home in Kelowna or Arizona.

"This morning we woke up and there was a deer in the backyard. How amazing is that? In Vancouver, you only see seagulls," Parsons said, referring to the view from the couple's old Yaletown rental.

Bucolic Fairfield doesn't seem reason enough to give up a job that made him a legend in Canadian broadcasting circles. He made more money working two days a week in Vancouver than he will be paid for five days a week here.

Parsons hadn't been happy with the two-day-a-week arrangement Global B.C. management decided upon as a way to ease Chris Gailus into Parsons's chair.

They assumed that Parsons would soon want to retire. He wasn't ready then to give up full-time broadcasting, leaving the impression he might still be hosting the News Hour if he had been allowed to work five days.

"There's no question he would be in demand no matter where he went," said CHEK news director Rob Germain.

There were offers, Parsons said. But what drew him to CHEK was the concept of employees putting up their own money to revive the station that faced going black last fall.

"There's something going on over there, and I want to be a part of it," Parsons thought at the time. "Obviously, the people here have a little fire in their bellies," he said.

This week, he signed his contract, which also allows him to buy shares in the employee-owned CHEK.

"Two to three per cent would make me happy," he said.

Parsons's years of experience plus his humility have allowed him to ease nicely into the CHEK newsroom, Germain said. There were no special requests -- such as an office.

"I just want a regular newsroom desk," he told Germain.

Parsons didn't suddenly appear in Germain's office one day. Whenever the two ran into each other in recent years, Parsons always said how much he would like to work in Victoria.

"Well, the door's always open," Germain would reply, not believing it would ever happen.

"I have to pinch myself," Germain said.

http://www.timescolonist.com/health/...#ixzz0i4mFFjPD

TVViewer · #10 03-13-2010, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emarsee

Ah. So does CHEK still have news sharing agreement with Global or is that gone now with the arrival of Tony Parsons?

Are they going to rerun the 10 PM newscast at 11 to compete with A's newscast or will Island 30 air in that timeslot?

No they will not be re-airing the 10:00PM newscast at 11:00PM, Island 30 will encore at 11:00PM.

News sharing agreement with Global will continue.

Notice how Tony Parsons doesn't directly compete with any Global BC newscast?

IMissBCTV · #11 03-13-2010, 02:49 PM

Near to 600,000 viewers at 6pm at previous employer compared to how many at 10pm. More or less?

Emarsee · #12 03-13-2010, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IMissBCTV

Near to 600,000 viewers at 6pm at previous employer compared to how many at 10pm. More or less?

I would say a lot less, mostly because CHEK is known to dominate in the Island and the 10PM newscast is up against primetime programming. The first day might have great ratings because people are curious to see Tony on TV again. It it great to see a 10 PM newscast out in the West though.

alex11 · #13 03-15-2010, 08:43 PM

Tonight's 90-minute newscast was pretty much what I expected. 11-12 minutes of local news, followed by a few Vancouver stories and weather, local news update at 5:28 followed by provincial, national, international and health stories then sports with Jeff before the top of the hour. The 6pm version is similar to the 5:00-5:30pm except there's no sports. CHEK did use a few Global stories and footage and Global did use one CHEK story and one CHEK footage during the News Hour tonight.

I don't anticipate seeing anything different in terms of content on tonight's CHEK News at 10 with Tony, except for sports highlights.

blacks · #14 03-16-2010, 12:52 AM

Looks like the same old local Chek TV newscast..... 8 minutes of local island news, 35 minutes of Vancouver Feeds/News, then into abit of sports. Weather and station promos to fill out the hour. Tony looks great but it's going to take alot more then one man to get me the change the channel from /A\. They just have far more local content then the competition.

IMissBCTV · #15 03-16-2010, 02:23 AM

Well, you can still watch /A\ News

Tony's on at 10:00pm.

IMissBCTV · #16 03-16-2010, 02:35 AM

A lot of viewers are expected the next few days. Just like you said. The long term I am not so certain. There's no lead-in programming, etc. CHEK surely doesn't have the funding that other stations have. They just have a legendary news anchor that everybody in BC trusts for the last 35 something years.

I am still not sure of Tony's position with CHEK. Yes, he is the 10pm anchor. I remember he had another title (or role) while at Global BC's newsroom. Himself, Ian Haysom and Steve Wyatt, etc. Well, anyway that's non-important.

He chose to move to the Island and I am sure he will be fine there. Even if the 10pm newscast tanks, he can go back into "retirement".

I didn't catch "News Hour", but do you think they mentioned him tonight?

I can't believe his non-compete clause is much more complicated than say the Pam/Bill one.

IMissBCTV · #17 03-16-2010, 02:39 AM

I wonder if he will ever write a cookbook again. Those were good. They even had recipes from Squire, Deb and others. Seen a few on e-bay.

VicViewer · #18 03-16-2010, 06:20 AM

I don't get how CHEK continues to get higher ratings than /A\. CHEK's production values have dipped over the years. CHEK definitely has less island based content considering they always seem to be done with the island after the first 15 minutes while /A\'s still showing island stuff 30 minutes in. Even CHEK's facebook page has nearly double the fans /A\'s page has even though CHEK's page was started and is run by a 15 year old kid obsessed with the station who looks like might be failing in English considering the crappy job he does writing updates on the page.