CityPlaceN1
Senior Member
Speakers Corner given the gag
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/441790
Then prime minister Jean Chretien poked a loonie in the slot and spoke his mind at Speakers Corner during the 2000 federal election campaign.
HOT BOX, TV TO TALK ABOUT
Rogers pulling the plug on the Citytv show that has let Toronto sing or vent for 20 years
Jun 12, 2008 04:30 AM
ROB SALEM
TV COLUMNIST
Speakers Corner has been silenced.
Rogers Television, current owners of the local Citytv station and its cross-country cousins, has effectively pulled the plug on the venerable Toronto institution, a conduit for the community for the past 20 years.
The street-corner public-access video booth, established in the late 1980s, has provided a platform for anyone with a loonie and 120 seconds to spare, from former prime minister Jean Chrétien to the Barenaked Ladies, to vent or praise or promote their issues – or themselves.
The original Speakers Corner at Queen St. W. and John St. was shuttered within days of the CTV purchase of CHUM almost two years ago, before the Citytv franchise was split off by government decree and sold to the Rogers conglomerate last year.
Even last night, the City website was still touting the booth's temporary relocation to the Rogers Centre and, eventually, to the new Citytv storefront studio in Yonge-Dundas Square, now under construction.
That would appear to no longer be the case. "No, it isn't," confirmed Citytv vice-president and general manager Jamie Haggarty. "But our plans are evolving every day. The (Speakers Corner TV) program will stay on the air till August, so we're not pulling the plug right away. But the plans for Dundas Square were just that, plans. We have nothing committed, nothing announced."
Back on Queen W., the Barenaked Ladies got their earliest exposure by cramming themselves into the tiny booth to sing "Be My Yoko Ono" (the 1990 clip can still be seen online, at tinyurl.com/56p772).
A decade later, then-prime minister Jean Chrétien made an election-year appearance to promote the vote, which he subsequently won by a considerable margin.
A young Mike Myers travelled frequently from Scarborough to the Corner to refine his act.
An unknown Scott Speedman, with no prior performance footage, drove down from Thornhill to use the booth to audition for TV's Felicity, the role that kick-started his career.
Madonna, Harrison Ford, Timothy Leary, Irving Layton, Stephen Baldwin, Kim Campbell, Pinball Clemens, Maury Povich ... all have stopped in at some point to speak their piece.
Even the elusive Prince, when he was living in Toronto, became an avowed enthusiast: "I love Speakers Corner," he told The Canadian Press in 2004. "I just love the idea of it. I am so tempted when I go by to stop the car and go into the booth and say what I have to say."
He never did. And now it's likely he'll never get the chance.
An internal announcement yesterday informed Citytv staff that the weekly Speakers Corner compilation show would not be renewed for fall. Should the concept be revived, it will likely be as an online entity.
"We like the brand," insisted Haggarty. "It's a great brand. It's just that viewership isn't coming through on TV. Our wireless guys and our digital team are looking at how we can evolve it to the digital media. We may still have the booth, but it'll be more of a Web presence than a television presence."
The Speakers Corner controversy is the second in as many weeks for the Rogers-run Citytv news operation, which just as abruptly announced the immediate cancellation of Silverman Helps, the station's 19-year viewer advocacy unit, fronted by veteran broadcaster Peter Silverman.
"I told them, time and time again, that I wanted to do one more year," protested Silverman, calling in from the cottage. "Twenty years of Silverman Helps had a nice ring to it. That would have been August of 2009, which would at least have given us the chance to tell the audience, `Look, he's retiring. He's an old crow now. He's done his bit. Don't write in any more, because the program is ending.'
"That would have been the decent thing for the people who relied on us to help them, and we had about 20,000 requests a year. That would have been the dignified way to go. Instead, we were called downstairs into the boardroom and told that, as of that moment, we were closed down.
"When we asked what the rationale was, we were told, `We don't have to give you a rationale.'"
A cloud of helpless resignation now hovers over what's left of the Citytv news team. Many despair over what they see as the abandonment of everything that originally defined the station and its two-way connection to its audience.
"We have more user-generated content than ever," argued Haggarty. "We're not any less committed to defending the consumer. We're reviewing and relooking at everything. This is all just a part of the process."
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/441790
Then prime minister Jean Chretien poked a loonie in the slot and spoke his mind at Speakers Corner during the 2000 federal election campaign.
HOT BOX, TV TO TALK ABOUT
Rogers pulling the plug on the Citytv show that has let Toronto sing or vent for 20 years
Jun 12, 2008 04:30 AM
ROB SALEM
TV COLUMNIST
Speakers Corner has been silenced.
Rogers Television, current owners of the local Citytv station and its cross-country cousins, has effectively pulled the plug on the venerable Toronto institution, a conduit for the community for the past 20 years.
The street-corner public-access video booth, established in the late 1980s, has provided a platform for anyone with a loonie and 120 seconds to spare, from former prime minister Jean Chrétien to the Barenaked Ladies, to vent or praise or promote their issues – or themselves.
The original Speakers Corner at Queen St. W. and John St. was shuttered within days of the CTV purchase of CHUM almost two years ago, before the Citytv franchise was split off by government decree and sold to the Rogers conglomerate last year.
Even last night, the City website was still touting the booth's temporary relocation to the Rogers Centre and, eventually, to the new Citytv storefront studio in Yonge-Dundas Square, now under construction.
That would appear to no longer be the case. "No, it isn't," confirmed Citytv vice-president and general manager Jamie Haggarty. "But our plans are evolving every day. The (Speakers Corner TV) program will stay on the air till August, so we're not pulling the plug right away. But the plans for Dundas Square were just that, plans. We have nothing committed, nothing announced."
Back on Queen W., the Barenaked Ladies got their earliest exposure by cramming themselves into the tiny booth to sing "Be My Yoko Ono" (the 1990 clip can still be seen online, at tinyurl.com/56p772).
A decade later, then-prime minister Jean Chrétien made an election-year appearance to promote the vote, which he subsequently won by a considerable margin.
A young Mike Myers travelled frequently from Scarborough to the Corner to refine his act.
An unknown Scott Speedman, with no prior performance footage, drove down from Thornhill to use the booth to audition for TV's Felicity, the role that kick-started his career.
Madonna, Harrison Ford, Timothy Leary, Irving Layton, Stephen Baldwin, Kim Campbell, Pinball Clemens, Maury Povich ... all have stopped in at some point to speak their piece.
Even the elusive Prince, when he was living in Toronto, became an avowed enthusiast: "I love Speakers Corner," he told The Canadian Press in 2004. "I just love the idea of it. I am so tempted when I go by to stop the car and go into the booth and say what I have to say."
He never did. And now it's likely he'll never get the chance.
An internal announcement yesterday informed Citytv staff that the weekly Speakers Corner compilation show would not be renewed for fall. Should the concept be revived, it will likely be as an online entity.
"We like the brand," insisted Haggarty. "It's a great brand. It's just that viewership isn't coming through on TV. Our wireless guys and our digital team are looking at how we can evolve it to the digital media. We may still have the booth, but it'll be more of a Web presence than a television presence."
The Speakers Corner controversy is the second in as many weeks for the Rogers-run Citytv news operation, which just as abruptly announced the immediate cancellation of Silverman Helps, the station's 19-year viewer advocacy unit, fronted by veteran broadcaster Peter Silverman.
"I told them, time and time again, that I wanted to do one more year," protested Silverman, calling in from the cottage. "Twenty years of Silverman Helps had a nice ring to it. That would have been August of 2009, which would at least have given us the chance to tell the audience, `Look, he's retiring. He's an old crow now. He's done his bit. Don't write in any more, because the program is ending.'
"That would have been the decent thing for the people who relied on us to help them, and we had about 20,000 requests a year. That would have been the dignified way to go. Instead, we were called downstairs into the boardroom and told that, as of that moment, we were closed down.
"When we asked what the rationale was, we were told, `We don't have to give you a rationale.'"
A cloud of helpless resignation now hovers over what's left of the Citytv news team. Many despair over what they see as the abandonment of everything that originally defined the station and its two-way connection to its audience.
"We have more user-generated content than ever," argued Haggarty. "We're not any less committed to defending the consumer. We're reviewing and relooking at everything. This is all just a part of the process."
