660 replies to this topic

[RFS]

Where is Ben O'hara Byrne going?

[Nparker]

Is he leaving CHEK? I assumed he was just on vacation.

[Victoria Watcher]

he's got at least some work for the star.

 

https://www.thestar....n-the-dark.html

[AllseeingEye]

BO-HB is done, let go by CHEK as Scott Fee presumably puts his stamp on the station.

 

Somewhat surprising as he was a very experienced news biz guy having previously been a foreign correspondent for both Global and CTV News. OTOH maybe the move is just continuing the trend over the last decade+ of firing on-air personalities making beyond "x" dollars....

[vortoozo]

Both television stations have recently begun broadcasting their local studio news in full HD. Chek did it about a month ago and CTV VI about a week ago.

The improvement in both is very noticeable.

 

Wow - watching CTV's newscast now and the picture sure has improved.

I was kind of expecting Bell never to invest in the improvements, eventually shutting down the station. I guess it's got another few years of life in it.

[Victoria Watcher]

joe perkins starts today.

[vortoozo]

Wow, he's changed. He looked exactly like Tess van Straaten on tonight's newscast

[pikabu]

Calvin To is leaving; just did his last broadcast. Sad to see him go; does anyone know where he is going?

[magmazing]

Calvin To is leaving; just did his last broadcast. Sad to see him go; does anyone know where he is going?

Law school

[Kapten Kapsell]

Is it just me, or is CHEK news getting a little more 'sensational' these days?  They seem to be playing up crime stories compared to the recent past, possibly at the expense of 'human interest' stories...

[AllseeingEye]

Was going through a trove of family papers which my sister and I are finally tackling, and found this interesting image of an illustration of the original CHEK TV building on Epsom Drive in Saanich. It is an early concept drawing dating from about 1955-6. This depiction is close to what the final structure looked like although the front landscaping didn't wind up exactly as shown.

 

It does however provide a good idea of the general size and form of the three-floor building which holds special childhood memories for me. It was on the site now long since occupied by a large townhome development adjacent to Cedar Hill Golf Course. There are several actual B&W photos of the building in the collection, a couple of which I'll post later after we get an opportunity to scan them - 

 

 

 

 

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[Victoria Watcher]

was there a reason the studio was built on epsom?  ie. geography to place a transmitting antenna etc. (on doncaster hill)?   it seems an odd place.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 August 2019 - 03:22 AM.

[AllseeingEye]

was there a reason the studio was built on epsom?  ie. geography to place a transmitting antenna etc. (on doncaster hill)?   it seems an odd place.

Had that conversation with Charlie White, Andy Stephen and my dad many years ago; as I recall it was the combination of available cheap land and the siting of the transmitter that primarily dictated location.

 

Saanich was pretty rural that far from the city core, land was plentiful and I would think quite cheap back in the day,

 

We moved into that area in 1964 when dad was still on air at the station, but we lived 5 minutes further out on Cedar Hill Rd close to what later became McKenzie Road - which was practically all rural farmland then: I can only imagine what Epsom Drive was like in 1956 a decade earlier. It was probably literally pennies an acre back then, lol.....

Edited by AllseeingEye, 24 August 2019 - 12:10 PM.

[UDeMan]

land was cheap in Saanich in the late 50s, a friend told me you could buy a lot in the Swan Lake area for $600 in 1960.   I can imagine it was similar prices in the Epsom Rd area.

[AllseeingEye]

Yup my parents first house on Vista Drive was $5000; the second house on Cedar Hill Rd - with a 15,000K s/f + lot - was $8K.

 

We moved into the big time in 1972 when they bought a 2200 s/f split level 2 bathroom, 3 bedroom house on a 10,000 s/f lot near Gordon Head Rd and Cedar Hill X rd adjacent to Mt Tolmie - for the princely sum of $29,500. I remember my grandmother being stunned and having quite the argument with my parent's "Good God you'll never get out from under_that mortgage!"

 

....All prices in "Saanich" dollars, lol. In 1956 they must've picked up the CHEK site for peanuts......

[Victoria Watcher]

We moved into the big time in 1972 when they bought a 2200 s/f split level 2 bathroom, 3 bedroom house on a 10,000 s/f lot near Gordon Head Rd and Cedar Hill X rd adjacent to Mt Tolmie - for the princely sum of $29,500. 

 

that's a real nice little area.  and unchanged really since that time.

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 August 2019 - 01:19 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

land was cheap in Saanich in the late 50s, a friend told me you could buy a lot in the Swan Lake area for $600 in 1960.   I can imagine it was similar prices in the Epsom Rd area.

 

[UDeMan]

My friend said his wage was $2 an hour in 1960, and was able to buy the $600 lot with his overtime money one year.  

[Rob Randall]

Yup my parents first house on Vista Drive was $5000; the second house on Cedar Hill Rd - with a 15,000K s/f + lot - was $8K.

 

We moved into the big time in 1972 when they bought a 2200 s/f split level 2 bathroom, 3 bedroom house on a 10,000 s/f lot near Gordon Head Rd and Cedar Hill X rd adjacent to Mt Tolmie - for the princely sum of $29,500. I remember my grandmother being stunned and having quite the argument with my parent's "Good God you'll never get out from under_that mortgage!"

 

....All prices in "Saanich" dollars, lol. In 1956 they must've picked up the CHEK site for peanuts......

 

Your grandmother was likely born around the turn of the century so was familiar with houses about ten times less, ie: $2,950. When you were younger it was ten times more, ie: $295,000. How long till it hits $2,950,000?

[AllseeingEye]

that's a real nice little area.  and unchanged really since that time.

 

screenshot-www.google.com-2019.08.24-17_18_52.png

 

that's a real nice little area.  and unchanged really since that time.

 

screenshot-www.google.com-2019.08.24-17_18_52.png

Their old house would be in behind the oak trees on the extreme right end of that picture.

 

Only problem with the neighborhood as any homeowner there will attest, is the trees themselves. The root systems on Garry Oaks are very robust and spread out far beyond the tree canopy, playing havoc with house foundations, driveways, front sidewalks and stairs, and ground level concrete patios. My parent's old property had seven oaks on it, which as far as my dad was concerned was seven too many. It was a happy day indeed when one of them died in the 80's and we took a chain saw to it and used it for firewood.....

 

Keeping the thread on track his old show distributed Club 6 Membership Cards to Victoria teens, which as I recall gave them opportunities to win all sorts of door and concert-related prizes.

 

Among the many bands, some local and some from as far away as the mainland and Washington State, which played on the show from the CHEK studio, was one in which VV's own Sparky was a member. That teen club had over 20,000 members which was quite the achievement for a Victoria-based teen dance TV show in the early 1960's. We have most of the surviving cards which looked like this - 

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