By Joe Warmington, Toronto Sun reporter Dec.7 2019
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In bad times or good, the comforting constant in a changing world is that Ken Shaw has always been there on your TV delivering the news.
But all things come to an end.
The venerable, highly respected news anchor surprised viewers Friday night with the news that he has decided to step down from the CTV desk and start heading into retirement.
However, Shaw is not saying goodbye just yet.
The Canadian News Hall of Fame member will be on the air until Jan. 6, 2020, which will mean he has been on Toronto’s television airwaves in parts of six decades.
And the Order of Ontario recipient will stick around to do some special projects.
But the day-to-day of Shaw always being there will come to an end.
“He is fair, even-handed and has a wonderful bedside manner with his viewers every day,” PostMedia Executive Chair Paul Godfrey said. “I will miss him dearly as he was always my go-to guy at 6 p.m.”
Purging “expensive” legacy anchors seems to be Bellmedia’s policy. I wonder what’s really up their sleeve? Local “news” has already been reduced to 11 minutes, repeated over and over every hour – starting with the morning shows, repeated at noon, then at five, then at six, and finally 1130. The rest is network stories, a lot of US stories, paid advertisements masquerading as news stories, fillers, weather reports, and happy talk. I may be dating myself, but I remember when CFCF, now simply known as CTV Montreal, had a solid 35 minutes of local and regional news before they went into weather and national/international news. Sports was in the last 10 minutes. Now, they have the same 11 minute format as the rest of the stations – in a city where there is non stop news thanks to organized crime and government corruption. Hardly a mention. When I watch the “news” on CTV Edmonton, I make sure to record it first so I can skip through the nonsense, that now includes SPORTS as part of the 11 minutes of news. A full weather report is at 27 minutes after the hour. I, quite frankly, don’t know why they bother anymore. The network should just revive Mad Dash, Celebrity Dominoes and Pay Cards for their Canadian content. This “news” is a complete and utter waste of a valuable resource.
Have to agree with above. I tuned out all local tv news in Vancouver. Silly banter, cute dog stories, chasing fires…all dated. With instant news apps, why watch these local buffoons. The days of the local media celebrity are long gone. I don’t need these talking heads/faux celebrities to tell me anything. We’ve got it all at the touch of a finger without having to hear about their boring lives.