What happened to CHBC/GLOBAL news at 11?

[XT225]

Since CHBC news hired TWO weather people to replace Mike Roberts (an Okanagan Icon), you would think that they would split up there work week to cover the entire week and weekends. The news might be from Toronto at night and on weekends but at least the weather COULD be local people doing it if they scheduled things right. Wouldn't cost anymore. Oh, they wouldn't be having every weekend off together.

[pentona]

If they replaced Mike with two people, it wouldn't surprise me if they were both hired as part timers. Few companies these days are hiring more employees than in past when someone quits or retires.

[Anonymous123]

They don't do the bears anymore. Last year was the last year.

That's because Mike R. is gone now. Nobody else willing to take it on I guess. Hmmm...no Toronto weather people could do it? ETA: I see that Kent Molgat has moved on to CTV news now; good reporter; ex-CHBC.

Kent has been with CTV since 2008.

[XT225]

Kent has been with CTV since 2008.

I wasn't aware of that; thank you. I also note that Mike McCardell is on CTV doing his great good news stories. Retired (or so he said) from Global a while back. So did Tony Parsons...or did he just move to CHEK. Some of these folks move around much like Car salesmen.

[GordonH]

Kent has been with CTV since 2008.

I wasn't aware of that; thank you. I also note that Mike McCardell is on CTV doing his great good news stories. Retired (or so he said) from Global a while back. So did Tony Parsons...or did he just move to CHEK. Some of these folks move around much like Car salesmen.

Tony moved from Global (unexpectedly) to CHEK News then onto CBC Vancouver, were he retired from.

Tony came from Ontario back in 70's worked for BCTV (CTV network) stayed on when it switch to a Global network.

[Catri]

That's because Mike R. is gone now. Nobody else willing to take it on I guess. Hmmm...no Toronto weather people could do it? ETA: I see that Kent Molgat has moved on to CTV news now; good reporter; ex-CHBC.

Yeah, he was already gone last year but they brought him back briefly for the bears, I believe. Wasn't the same though, now with the virtual set (impossible to have the bears actually accumulate in the studio) and the absence of Mike's personality really driving it, it just didn't have the same presence. So it's probably just as well.

[Wesla]

Since CHBC news hired TWO weather people to replace Mike Roberts (an Okanagan Icon), you would think that they would split up there work week to cover the entire week and weekends. The news might be from Toronto at night and on weekends but at least the weather COULD be local people doing it if they scheduled things right. Wouldn't cost anymore. Oh, they wouldn't be having every weekend off together.

Hi everyone, after reading some of the posts, I felt the need to reply.

First of all, THANK YOU to all of our dedicated viewers. You are the reason why Duane and I have a job. :)

Now I will respond to the above post about how our station hired two meteorologists to replace Mike. Yes CHBC hired both Duane and I, but we job-share this position, so we are both part-time and share the 40 hour work week. The station didn't create an extra position. There is only one weather/meteorologist position here at CHBC, we just happen to be lucky enough to share it and make it work.

As a result, we can't cover all of the shifts, including the ones on the weekend. We also run our own private forecasting business on the side, so we focus on that when we are not in the office at Global Okanagan.

My response to Catri who wrote this:

"My husband and I laugh at how often Duane and Wesla are off, which seems to be more than they're on. I get that they're a couple, but what's the point of having two weather people if they're always away at the same time? I do miss the days of having our own truly local newscast, even though it was a bit cheesy at times. The thing that bugs me most is that the quality of the actual show has suffered, it's pretty clear all the timing and switching is controlled from a different location (presumably GlobalBC at the coast) and it shows. Half the time they have the wrong chyron, or video, or they cut away late leaving the anchor sitting there looking stupid. At least the remote, fill-in weather people seem to have finally learned that they're the Arrow Lakes, not Arrow's Lake (reading is hard, ya know). I would bet the majority of bodies who work on the newscast as it is now have never been east of Hope."

Hi Catri, if we didn't job-share this position, there would only be one person working and that person would have to take time off as well. We only get three weeks of vacation a year. However, please remember that while most people get Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day, Canada Day, etc. off to spend time with their friends and families, we work almost every statutory holiday. This in turn gives us we get time off in lieu. When we host charity events on weekends, we can also trade that for time off in lieu as well. Perhaps that is why it seems like we have more time off than we actually do.

And... you're right, our control room is now out of Toronto and I've never met my producer or my director in person. It is very weird to produce a show with people that you have never met, and ever weirder to have someone in another city tell me in my earpiece how much time I have remaining in my segment. This new way of television is very different from when I first started, but this is the way our news has restructured. I understand how the technology fails can frustrate you as a viewer... and trust me, it frustrates me too - especially whenever it hangs me out to dry on air - that's never fun :p

Thanks again to those of you who took the time to chime in because you care about local news programming. We don't have the power to make decisions on the structure of our newscasts, but Duane and I will always try our best to provide you with the most accurate customized forecast for the BC Southern Interior.

I don't check out the forums often, but you can always tweet me. My twitter handle is @weslawong.

Wesla

[damama55]

Wesla and Duane--You know we love you both. It is nice to see you on our local station. Thank you, too, for your great response. Changes are always difficult and hard to swallow, sometimes. I, for one, don't watch Global Okanagan for the late news or for the weekend news. I watch the channels out of Van or the national news channels. I really think Gl.Ok has lost a lot of viewers and it is not the fault of the local personalities--it is because we don't like the ones they have on there for those segments. Castanet has darn good coverage of the news from around the area.
Again, thank you for your great response and for keeping it all very civil and on point.
May you and Duane continue your great work for us and continued success in all your endeavors.

[EvaG]

I think that most people here in the Okanagan truly appreciate the local talent, especially Duane and Wesla. We moved here last summer from Edmonton where we originally had the opportunity to watch Duane and were so pleasantly surprised to see him working at Global here. I was also very impressed by his bride Wesla, they are an important part of our community, wonderful meteorologists and we appreciate seeing them and their forecasts during the local newscasts. I will continue to support our supper hour newscasts as I really enjoy our local news people, but I'm sorry, I won't watch the "local" news out of Toronto at 11.

[Robster]

My wife and I have become great fans of both Wesla and Duane's since their arrival in the Okanagan, two highly talented people not to mention very snappy dresser's ;)

Wesla's post above just confirms in my mind they're a class act, a total credit to our community, great job you two :).

[Bubalouie]

I agree with all the positive on Duane and Wesla.......at least they are local. We too don't watch the late or the weekend anymore as it is NOT local. Did you catch her "dig" last night at the end of the newscast ?

[mae]

I very much enjoy Wesla and Duane and think they are doing a bang up job. Both have made the effort to become involved in the community as a whole and I hope to see them around for some time to come. And of course they should not feel the need to defend their holidays together! Anyone could see by watching the news that they were job sharing.

[Catri]

Wesla, I hope you do check back here occasionally, it's great to have someone so close to a topic come in and comment. I did not realise you and Duane job-share, that explains much and is a pretty cool arrangement to boot! I hope you didn't take my comments here to say that I don't respect and enjoy your work, because I do.

[born2run]

I totally agree! I am watching 11pm news right now thinking "who are these people?!" They are slick and a bit slimy and have Toronto written all over them. They are unfamiliar with the locations and are trying so hard to pretend they are actually here.

[pssts]

You are a class act Wesla. Thank you so much for your very informative response. I am so thankful that you and your husband have decided to make the Okanagan your home and appreciate all the events that the both of you attend and support. We are lucky to have you both.