Bell Media axes voices of Whitecaps, Lions

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Bell Media axes voices of Whitecaps, Lions

Postby radiofan » Mon Jan 30, 2017 6:15 pm

Bell Media axes voices of Whitecaps, Lions

The sports media landscape in Vancouver is taking another hit, as Bell Media is again making cuts at its TSN Vancouver operation.

Out the door are Whitecaps play by play voice Peter Schaad and Lions caller Scott Rintoul.

Schaad had been behind the Whitecaps mic for more than a decade, and had done both radio and TV for TSN.

Rintoul was a long-time host on TSN 1040 before moving to the Lions play by play role in 2014.

http://theprovince.com/sports/soccer/ml ... caps-lions

As Kal mentioned in another thread, a couple of high profile CTV Vancouver personalities were also let go today.

It appears Bell has done cutbacks across the country today.
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
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Re: Bell Media axes voices of Whitecaps, Lions

Postby Doug » Thu Feb 02, 2017 2:59 pm

You guys are far more knowledgeable of industry news than me so might already know this but Castanet Media's Castanet.net digital news operation is reporting that CTV has shut down its Kelowna/Okanagan TV news bureau including reporter Kent Molgat (source: http://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/18 ... s-hit-hard), someone named Gord Leighton in Vernon (was he in radio or was he Molgat's camera operator/producer?), long-time group program director Mark Burley, Burley's wife Janet (who probably worked in advertising/promotions, I'm guessing - anyone know?) as well as CTV Vancouver anchor Coleen Christie. :(

The shuttering of the CTV Okanagan/Kelowna TV news bureau isn't completely surprising, though local coverage on CTV Vancouver and CTV Vancouver Island will be severely diminished and only available during large, multi-day "breaking news" stories where they send a crew out to the Okanagan.

Losing Coleen Christie is a shame - she was "top notch," and in my view, since Bill Good and Pamela Martin left CTV, was their top news anchor...it'd be nice to see Global BC snap her up for the 5 o'clock news broadcast but that's probably "wishful thinking" on my part! I don't watch B.C. TV news broadcasts anymore but, when I do, that essentially leaves me with nothing as I can't stand Taggart/Killeen on CTV Vancouver, don't care for Gailus/Lui on Global BC and the Global Okanagan news operation is, to put it mildly, a mess. CBC Vancouver has been gutted to the point of being unwatchable, the broadcast no longer has very many news reports and instead focuses on bringing in "talking heads" for live studio interviews (which are incredibly boring) and banter between Andrew Chang and Joanna Wagstaffe. It's too bad, too, because Andrew Chang is a talented news anchor. Moreover, I can't stand that Megan Batchelor after she made a big "hullabaloo" when some dude gave her a friendly kiss on the cheek when she was live in the field and her reports are incredibly biased, feminist-issue laden. :(

If I do watch local TV news, I guess I'm forced to pivot further afield to somewhat less relevant news from one of the last remaining, fairly unbiased, polished and professional news broadcasts with top talent in KCPQ-TV's Q13 News or, failing that, KOMO-TV's KOMO 4 News.

Cheers,
Doug

P.S. Anyone know if anymore BNN personalities were affected?
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Re: Bell Media axes voices of Whitecaps, Lions

Postby RadioGuy89b » Fri Feb 03, 2017 9:44 pm

I see on the Okanagan Broadcasters page, some major cuts also visavis Bell, in staff such as GM in Vernon? This business has had weak job security over the last 20 years and this proves it
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