By David Helwig
SooToday.com
Monday, November 24, 2003

Frank Manzo came out swinging tonight against MCTV, boldly demanding that the Sudbury-based television station be forced to sell off either its CBC or CTV operation in the Sault.

Unfortunately, the Ward 6 councillor was a little behind the times.

It's been more than a year since the CBC bought the CJIC transmitter and tower, and MCTV has had nothing to do with local CBC operations since then.

The tirade from Council's patriarch was prompted by MCTV's lack of timely results during the November 10 municipal elections.

When results finally did appear, Manzo said, they scrolled past so quickly on the screen that he wasn't able to read them.

Here's the full text of a resolution placed on the agenda of tonight's City Council meeting by Manzo and Ward 4 Councillor Neil DelBianco:

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Whereas on Election night November 10, 2003, MCTV provided very poor televised results of election of all candidates; and

Whereas there were many people who were dissatisfied with the poor reception; and

Whereas MCTV have two TV netowrks, CTV on channel 2 and CBC on channel 5 and whereas on both these networks there is limited news of this city since MCTV operates from Sudbury;

Therefore be it resolved that City Council of Sault Ste. Marie contract the CRTC to have MCTV relinquish one of its networks either CBC or CTV in order that some other people may purchase one of the TV stations and provide the city of Sault Ste. Marie patrons who watch TV immediate local news, and further that this resolution be forwarded to MPP's David Orazietti and Michael Brown and MPs Carmen Provenzano and Brent St. Denis.

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Councillor Manzo, who was cut off by Mayor John Rowswell when he started to trace CJIC's history back to its beginnings as a radio station in 1934, had to be told by Ward 4 Councillor (and radio confabulator) Lou Turco that MCTV no longer has anything to do with CJIC.

As SooToday.com reported on July 11, 2002, the CBC announced it was buying the CJIC transmission assets from CTV as part of a package involving similar assets at five other CBC affiliates in Northern Ontario and Saskatchewan.

The sale was approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in October of last year, and the deal was consummated shortly thereafter, MCTV sources tell SooToday.com.

After Mayor Rowswell hinted that Manzo might stand a better chance of succeeeding if he got his facts straight, the veteran councillor agreed to withdraw his motion with a promise to raise the issue at a future council meeting.