A local pillar of the Lloydminster community has been taken off the air after 65 years in the business.
A May 13 news release announced CITL-TV and CKSA-TV are going off air.
“It was an agonizing decision, to be honest,” said Steve Jones, president of Stingray Radio, via email.
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“It was not what we wanted to do but we had exhausted all options. The TV stations had been losing money for years, and the losses kept mounting up with no end in sight. In fact, the future of small-market TV only looks more perilous. We are not in the business of closing things down. Or giving up. This was one of the hardest decisions I’ve been part of my in my career.”
Jones explained the process had been underway for weeks and many potential buyers had been spoken with before the decision was made.
“We also spent several months prior trying to find a buyer or company to take over the stations,” he said. “We spoke to national and regional broadcasters. We spoke to specialty and Indigenous broadcasters. We really wanted to make this work. But even at essentially free, no TV operator felt it was a viable business to inherit.”
CKSA-TV started offering television to the Lloydminster area back in 1960 after CKSA radio expanded. Colour programming was added in 1968 after the station spent a considerable amount of money to upgrade.
Eventually, the second station, CITL-TV, a CTV affiliate, was added. The Lloydminster TV station has been providing local news content and keeping people informed since its inception, with many popular faces gracing its set.
Today, in a landscape of media uncertainty, it is even more difficult to fathom losing such a pillar in the community.
“We’re (Stingray), not a TV specialist, but the team in Lloydminster was an excellent team who knew what they were doing,” said Jones.
“Other experienced TV operators did not see value in owning the stations. This wasn’t a question of lack of value for us. It was simply a matter of harsh economic realities for small-market conventional TV.”
We at the Meridian Source couldn’t imagine Lloydminster without local TV.
Local media is more important now than ever and it’s important to support those who give back and help keep the public informed.
We offer our best wishes to the talented individuals who were impacted by this sudden decision.
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