Crossover 2002: From ckvu 13 to Citytv

Just as the dust at the other local stations was settling down, changes were only starting to descend upon CKVU. As discussed earlier, CKVU was sold by CanWest Global to CHUM Television in April 2001 for CDN$125 million. What CHUM wanted to do inevitably was obvious to TV observers: to reincarnate CKVU as Citytv, the unconventional TV format first established by CHUM in Toronto. But a gap of more than 10 months separated CKVU's Global era from its new identity as Citytv. Why, you may ask?

The official reason was that the sale of the station was still not formally approved by the CRTC. Claiming the territory before the Commission even approves the sale would come off as over-confident or even arrogant, and that is definitely not a smart move. So holding off the re-brand would appear as a respectful gesture on CHUM's part. Furthermore, we all know that a transformation to Citytv would be dramatic to say the least. Everything from the station's superficial appearance to its program lineup to its news format had to be changed in order to suit the typical Citytv "attitude." Especially the news department. For all the changes to take place before Crossover would have been too tight a time frame. So rather than rushing the renovation and risk making mistakes, the station took the time to do everything right. Citytv had to start off with a bang, instead of crashes and burns.

So on September 1, 2001, while the other stations in town were busy changing into their new networks, CKVU became "ckvu 13," an independent station. The station kept its "wire-frame globe" news graphics from the previous Global era, and even continued to use the 1997 Global News theme until a week or two later. (For the record, BCTV, which became the province's new Global station, started using the 2001 Global News theme, which is drastically different from the one CKVU's using.) Afterwards, the station began using a theme from library music. The wire-frame globe graphics even got a makeover in late January 2002, when it began to appear even on the lower-third name tags. However, the wire-frame globes disappeared altogether in late February, when they were replaced by a bright, bold colour scheme, and big lower-third graphics which were used all the way until the switch to Citytv. The library theme music, however, remained until the switch.

Outside of news, ckvu 13 took on an "Under Construction" theme in its branding. Construction workers are featured on idents, working on various things in front of a green background. They even show up on the community event calendar. Meanwhile, the green colour scheme extends into program trailers, program warnings, etc. And although the station wasn't Citytv just yet, the program lineup already looked similar, with shows like Fashion Television, SexTV, and movies on at primetime. By October 2001, CHUM's purchase of the station was finally approved.

Despite having signed a 2-year contract extension just before Crossover 2001, Jennifer Mather, the station's lead female anchor, decided to leave for rest and relaxation. Her last day was March 15, 2002. That left Russ Froese solo-anchoring the 6pm newscast most of the time, with single substitute anchor filling in for him when he's away.

In May, signs of construction began to show up in the station's newscasts. Although it might not have been obvious to most viewers, the newscasts were now done in front of the green chroma-key wall. This is obviously due to renovation that had now extended into the studio itself (whereas previously the renovation work seemed to have been limited to the exterior of the building). Still images of the standard shots of the studio before remodelling were now placed behind the anchor using chroma-key technology. Because of restrictions of simple chroma-key technology, the normal desk chat between the news and sports anchors now had to be done through a split screen. The copyright notice at the end of the newscasts, which had said "CKVU Sub Inc." since before Crossover 2001, had been changed to say "CHUM Television Vancouver Inc." (Although the exact date of this change is unknown.)

The Announcement

On June 6, the station officially announced that it would become Citytv on July 22. That night, a preview of the station's new format was shown on the 6pm newscast. Several things were confirmed: the station's news operation would indeed be renamed as "CityPulse," morning show "Breakfast Television" would occupy the 6-9am block weekdays, and Monika Deol, former anchor at CIVT, would join the station as the 11pm anchor.

After the official announcement was made, various elements of Citytv began to make gradual appearances on the station even before the official switch, as if to phase in the brand. Reporters started using microphones labelled "City" or "Citytv" (previously most microphones used were unbranded), a Speakers Corner machine was installed outside their building, and viewers were encouraged to leave messages on the machine (although the corner of Columbia and West 2nd is really quite out of the way from anything), new face Darrin Maharaj started filing regular (if not nightly) entertainment reports, and perhaps the most interesting bit: transitional idents. The regular "Under Construction" theme was retained, but on one of the transitional idents, more and more pieces of the construction theme slide away with each passing week, revealing a left hand with "Coming Soon: Citytv" placed in front of it. Another transitional ID, which started airing about 2 weeks before the relaunch, featured Moses Znaimer blowing up the entire construction theme with TNT, followed by "Coming July 22: Citytv" superimposed over various city shots.

Transitional Idents
"Under Construction: Countdown to Citytv" (big left hand and all...)	"Under Construction: Citytv Coming Soon!" (That's actually what the signs say.)
"Under Construction: Moses Blows Up ckvu13!"

July 21 arrived quickly. At 6pm, the station's last ever newscast as "ckvu13" went on, presented by Mark Docherty. The newscast was mostly normal (with comments of the station's upcoming new identity interspersed throughout the broadcast) and still done from the chroma-key wall. Joe Leary did the weather from the roof as usual, and Jeremy Dunn presented sports. At the end of the newscast, Joe Leary gave a quick mention about the station's new breakfast show starting the following day. After a final look at the 5 day forecast, we find the 3 presenters all crammed into a small space in front of the chroma-key wall (the chroma-key effect was switched off by now) as they closed the newscast...

(starting from left: Joe Leary, Jeremy Dunn, Mark Docherty)

A New Dawn

The next morning, the last ever news break as "ckvu News" went on at around 5:58am. It was presented by Mark Docherty and lasted for about a minute or so. Immediately afterwards, the "Moses Blows Up ckvu13" ident was played as ckvu13's last ever ident. At about 6am, the sign-off of ckvu13 was announced, followed by Moses Znaimer blowing up ckvu13 once again. Only this time, after ckvu13 was blown up, it cut to various fast-motion scenes of Vancouver. After about 10 seconds, an announcer proclaimed, "Vancouver, strap yourself in. Citytv is on the air.", as the sequence ended with the camera (still in fast motion) going into the Citytv building and taking one last shot at the Citytv logo on the floor of the reception area.

Afterwards, "Breakfast Television" debuted with Michael Eckford and Fiona Forbes as the main hosts. Simi Sara handled news, weather and traffic, and Jeremy Dunn was the "Live Eye Guy" for the inaugural broadcast (later on Dennis Simpson handled that duty, as Dunn officially moved to weekend sports). The guests on the first show included Moses Znaimer, who talked about his numerous attempts to bring Citytv to Vancouver, and the hosts of The Vancouver Show, which was one of the original productions from CKVU when the station first launched in 1976. The first edition of BT ended a few minutes before 9am.

The first ever CityPulse newscast went on at 6pm, with Russ Froese presenting. The station's switch was featured as one of the top stories. Sure enough, the newscast was typical CityPulse style: the anchor standing in the middle of the newsroom, reporters assigned to various beats as "specialists", right down to the theme music containing traces of the Rocky theme. Several minutes into the newscast, Russ talked to Monika Deol and Benita Ha about what to expect on the late and weekend newscasts respectively. Marke Driesschen did the weather on the roof as usual, and Dan O'Toole handled sports. Darrin Maharaj's interview with Pamela Anderson from LA was featured prominently as the entertainment piece on the inaugural CityPulse. The first CityPulse ended a couple of minutes before 7pm, with most of the station's on-air staff gathered around Russ. Russ then invited viewers to tune in every night to CityPulse and CityPulse Tonight, on behalf of station's on-air and behind-the-scenes staff. The first CityPulse Tonight went on at 11pm, with Monika Deol.

The station's new general slogan is "Everywhere!". That theme is emphasized on the station IDs, which are short clips shot from various locations in the Lower Mainland, with the Citytv logo superimposed on the screen. The voiceovers on the IDs usually consist of the announcer commenting on whatever is shown on screen, then ending with "From [wherever the ID was shot], this is Citytv: Everywhere." Citytv also does a bit of cross-promotion with its sister station CIVI "The New VI" in Victoria, sometimes showing CIVI's program lineup along with its own.

Several months onwards, Benita Ha and the weekend producer of CityPulse were let go, as the weekend newscasts seemed to have attracted considerable criticism. Mark Docherty took over as the weekend anchor. And in December, sports anchor Dan O'Toole left the station for TSN. Perhaps the most significant of all departures, Russ Froese left the station in June 2003 after 15 years at the station.

Personnel changes had been a bit frequent, but it seems that the most turbulent time for the station is finally over. There is no turning back for the station now; as Citytv, it has committed itself to the format. Its ratings from Summer and Fall 2002 lacked much luster (except for its 11pm news, which follows the primetime movies). Bearing in mind CIVT's lack of success in the 4 years that it used a similar format (albeit not entirely identical by any means), will the station eventually be able to have a bigger share of the local TV news market? Stay tuned.

Crossover: Concluded?

As you've read, the fallout from Crossover 2001 was still felt almost a year later. And while the attention in 2002 was primarily focused on CKVU (as this page was), the other stations were still changing in the wake of the Insanity, although of course nowhere near what they went through in 2001.

On Canada Day 2002, CIVT stopped calling itself "BC CTV". Some had speculated that the station would start calling itself "CTV9"; instead, the station dropped any local reference in its name, and started calling itself "CTV" only. The "CTV9" logo is actually occasionally seen, however mostly in print, or in the form of a banner hanging over the mobile set whenever the newscasts are broadcast outdoors (for example on Canada Day and at the PNE). Meanwhile, the station's GM, Robert Hurst, the man who was in charge of the station as it Crossed Over, left the station as he was promoted to President of CTV News, in charge of CTV's network news output. Jim Rusnak took over the GM post at CIVT in December 2002.

CIVT's new news open animation, without any local reference. Also used at CKCK Regina.

In September, a year after Crossover, CHAN got an updated set of graphics that deviated from the graphics used at other Global stations. The news theme and voiceovers remained the same, but the circular disk inscribed with "BCTV News" is no longer used. On the open animations and full-screen graphics, the disk was replaced with an arrangement of the "BCTV News on Global" text; while on lower-thirds, the disk was replaced simply with a Global arc. Is this a precursor of the station ditching the BCTV name altogether and simply calling itself "Global" even during newscasts? ("GlobalNational", produced out of CHAN's studio, also got a new set of graphics the same day CHAN did.)

New open animation to CHAN's newscasts.

And after years of waiting, Vancouver's ethnic community finally has its own broadcast TV station. CHNM-TV/42, Channel M (under the ownership of Multivan Broadcast Corp.), went on air on June 27, 2003. The station offers programming in 22 languages, including daily newscasts in Cantonese, Mandarin and Punjabi, and afternoon, early evening and late night lineups of English-language shows. A fair amount of shuffle on the cable dial resulted, as the station currently resides on cable 8 on Shaw systems in the Lower Mainland, and cable 10 in Victoria and Nanaimo.

Evidently, the biggest question now seems to be the direction CHAN is headed for with its brand. We still await the answer; and when it's revealed, we will tie all the loose ends together here. Despite that bit of uncertainty, the TV scene here in the South Coast may truly and finally settle down for the most part, and we here in Vancouver may likely not witness another Insanity in the local TV scene, at least not for a long time. We may truly be able to enjoy some calm and tranquility as we channel-surf. Or will we?

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