CJOH Building Destroyed by Fire

[hintomedia]

A fire broke out at the building of Ottawa's CJOH early Sunday morning (Feb 7). No injuries, but damage is estimated at $2.5 million. News production will be shifted in the meantime to CHRO's building.

CJOH: http://ottawa.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100207/OTT_Fire_CTV_100207/20100207/?hub=OttawaHome
CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/02/07/ctv-fire.html

 

[Yeziknoradio]

I beg of everyone to forgive my ignorance here,
but I must say, with television being a business before it can be anything else,
and with no news on A channel, along with the fact that there was plenty of room for CJOH to use the A channel studios for news coverage, why not just forget the burnt building and forever use the A channel studios for news from now on?

Why waste any money restoring the old burnt building?
Sure. It's a landmark, but it's also extra space that might no longer be needed.

 

[mjlarochelle]

I beg of everyone to forgive my ignorance here,
but I must say, with television being a business before it can be anything else,
and with no news on A channel, along with the fact that there was plenty of room for CJOH to use the A channel studios for news coverage, why not just forget the burnt building and forever use the A channel studios for news from now on?

Why waste any money restoring the old burnt building?
Sure. It's a landmark, but it's also extra space that might no longer be needed.

Mr. Fybush mentions in this week's NERW that a permanent move to the Byward Market is a possibility that has been brought up.

With the old CJOH building being almost 50 years old, there may be no point in salvaging it. There is still the attached office building and CKQB (Virgin) 106.9, which were not affected by the fire so they can stay put. I'm not highly familiar with Nepean but I believe it is a commercial area, I'm sure there's other uses for the property.

An idea - whatever goes on the property, should be named in honour of Ernie Bushnell, founder of CJOH.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

Welcome to the Ernie Bushnell grocery store. Thanks for shopping with us. 8)

 

[mjlarochelle]

Welcome to the Ernie Bushnell grocery store. Thanks for shopping with us. 8)

I was thinking more along the lines of Bushnell Plaza or Bushnell Medical Centre. But the grocery store idea is a good one too. ;D

In any event, a plaque would be nice to have on the property, since Bushnell was not only the founder of CJOH but also was a senior executive with the CBC prior to that.

 

[pqgeorge]

Is this the same CJOH-TV building where "You Can't Do That On Television" was originally produced (1979-1991)? If so, were those tape masters and the props and "whatnot" destroyed as well?

 

[Yeziknoradio]

Is this the same CJOH-TV building where "You Can't Do That On Television" was originally produced (1979-1991)? If so, were those tape masters and the props and "whatnot" destroyed as well?

Unfortunantly, that may very well be the case. Unless some went to storage in another market. (Toronto/Scarborough)

With Max Keeping about to retire, it's already sad enough to learn of much of his history with the station vanishing in the fire.

 

[Ultimajock]

Is this the same CJOH-TV building where "You Can't Do That On Television" was originally produced (1979-1991)? If so, were those tape masters and the props and "whatnot" destroyed as well?

Unfortunantly, that may very well be the case. Unless some went to storage in another market. (Toronto/Scarborough)

...would the masters for Graham Kerr's The Galloping Gourmet also have been stored there, or would those have been too ancient (40 years old or so)?...

 

[e-dawg]

They can give it to CITY-TV or Global, since they don't have a local Global or Citytv feed for ottawa.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

They can give it to CITY-TV or Global, since they don't have a local Global or Citytv feed for ottawa.

Why give a property to the competition?
Plus, if rogers wanted to have anything (local) to do with Ottawa at all, they would have fought harder to try and buy A channel Ottawa in the first place.

Global is now in new hands.
I'd love to tell you that that's the company to do the launching, but I doubt it.
Mr. Shaw will most likely do the opposite and cut news content on Global Toronto to keep costs down.
(I hope I'm wrong!)

 

[Yeziknoradio]

...would the masters for Graham Kerr's The Galloping Gourmet also have been stored there, or would those have been too ancient (40 years old or so)?...

You know what? That is an excellent question! It could very well be that Food network Canada (alliant atlantis at the time) may have bought the rights to air that show in reruns, or have storage over there, but then the station fell into the hands of Global, and now Shaw, so who really knows what's being stored where in that respect!

Perhaps the best bet is to ask him directly, and see what response you get:

http://www.grahamkerr.com/email/email.php

 

[azumanga]

...would the masters for Graham Kerr's The Galloping Gourmet also have been stored there, or would those have been too ancient (40 years old or so)?...

It could very well be that Food network Canada (alliant atlantis at the time) may have bought the rights to air that show in reruns, or have storage over there, but then the station fell into the hands of Global, and now Shaw, so who really knows what's being stored where in that respect!

I would think that Food Network US also has copies, as they used to show the program themselves. It's unknown if FremantleMedia, which presumably owns the series, owns any copies themselves (its predecessor, Fremantle International, syndicated it when it was in production).

 

[Tincap]

With the old CJOH building being almost 50 years old, there may be no point in salvaging it. There is still the attached office building and CKQB (Virgin) 106.9, which were not affected by the fire so they can stay put.

Virgin is in a separate building on the property, but the attached office building is still a no go zone, smoke damage and asbestos being the culprits.

A number of business based in the office building are still in a state of flux since the fire...which doesn't seem to bother those nice folks, having left comments on the CBC site, happy to see the near demise of the local 'conservative mouthpiece'.

A large chunk of land, within the triangle of land including the old CJOH property, is heading towards a major redevelopment.

~BG