Channel Zero aims to revive CHCH-TV's glory days
September 05, 2009
Brent Lawson
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/629386
Cal Millar grew up watching CHCH-TV as an unabashed fan.
Now, he runs the show.
He's president of Channel Zero, the company that has purchased Hamilton's venerable TV station and saved the money-losing operation from an uncertain fate.
So popular was the station at his home, Millar's parents wanted him to appear on Bill Lawrence's Tiny Talent Time.
"I was tiny, but I didn't have the talent," Millar jokes today. He's juggling phone calls and meetings at CHCH as it launches its first week under new ownership.
There have been some lurches along the way in this inaugural week -- so many that news anchor Nick Dixon has made apologies to viewers for several out-of-sync segments and the signal accidentally fading to black.
Dixon jokingly asked viewers to stop sending him e-mails about the gaffes.
Viewers have also noticed a lack of paid advertising, with public service announcements and station promos in heavy rotation.
So far it's been hard to get an accurate assessment of how CHCH-TV will perform in its daytime all-news format when all hands are on deck. ("All news. All day. And double feature movies at night," viewers are constantly reminded.)
But growing pains and the occasional glitch, while embarrassing, are to be expected from a rapid six-week turnaround that Millar says would take most stations six months to accomplish.
"The awareness is good. We got the first overnight ratings for the first few days we have been on the new format, and they're good. They're right on target, all the numbers are strong." (Specific details of ratings and other metrics gathered for media outlets are typically kept private.)
And Millar has ambitious plans for the ambitious city's TV station as the wrinkles get ironed out.
In the short term, the station will unveil an additional news anchor next week as News Now PM is launched. It's the afternoon version (1-4:30 p.m.) of News Now AM, which follows the popular morning show. Millar says a key element for the news desk will be its ability to "evolve" or develop the top stories through the day.
In the long term, Millar hopes to rebuild CHCH into a true superstation. He says it has a head start thanks to its distribution across Canada and brand recognition.
He said U.S. superstations like TBS and KTLA have a strong local focus during the day, then in prime time offer programming to appeal to a national audience. "Usually movies, sometimes syndicated comedy shows -- which we're not interested in -- and sports.
"Sports is something we'll investigate as the years go by."
Millar said Channel Zero is "honoured" to be involved with CH.
"It's very cool and, in some ways, a little bit humbling actually, to be charged with helping it regain its former glory."
Many viewers are thankful the station has been saved. But another key to survival will be attracting advertising revenue to pay the bills. Millar said advertisers are excited about the new format.
"The local advertisers will get more opportunity to talk to a local audience. And national advertisers were very receptive."
So where are they?
"They're coming on every week. Next week you'll see more, the week after you'll see more again."
Millar said the station lost valuable selling time due to the change in ownership. Normally, ads for this week would have been sold in June. But the new ownership deal wasn't announced until June 30.
"We just booked a big order with GM, and they're all starting to roll in now."
On the programming side the "comfortable favourites" -- well-known movies CHCH-TV will broadcast in the evening -- have a proven track record.
It's no coincidence that Rocky's inspiring series is on this week.
"It's nice we could do a week of Rocky, and play with the idea that we're the upstarts and come out swinging...
"Our programming folks were picking movies that had significant ratings, and they said we could run a week of Rocky. And everyone started humming the theme song. It started as a joke, but that actually is a good idea