CHCH TV

CHCH TV has cancelled tonight's newscast. "The fear is the station is shutting down or being dramatically reduced."

This is awful news for CHCH employees, which includes two-time Toronto Mike'd guest Mark Hebscher, but it's also sad news for those of us who grew up tuning in channel 11.

I have great memories of watching The Hilarious House of Frightenstein on CHCH. Billy Van was awesome on that show. Steve Smith alone gave us Me & Max, Smith & Smith and The Red Green Show.

Then, there was Maple Leaf Wrestling. I'll never forget Billy Red Lyons saying "don't cha dare miss it". I still use that line periodically.

CHCH is a Hamilton station, but in the days when I'd fiddle with a television antenna to bring in a very few stations, it was always there. Sadly, it's losing money, and the future is very uncertain.

@torontomike alas, it doesn't include all the owners who went broke along the way while running it ...— 12:36 (@1236) December 11, 2015

Update: The CEO of Channel Zero, Roman Podzyhun, just came on CHCH TV to announce the news will return Monday. He says they're "making significant change" to schedule with "less local programming".

The Globe and Mail is reporting that "roughly half the staff will be laid off". Channel 11 L.P. has filed for bankruptcy, so those being fired won't receive severance. That really sucks.

I'm going to start a list of people who were let go today. 80-100 people 129 full-time employees and close to 30 part-timers got a pink slip without severance.