LTV wants to buy MCTV building, with the CBC's money

Most of your favourite LTV News personalities were present at tonight's meeting of Sault Ste. Marie City Council.

Craig Huckerby and Angela Pezzotti and Darren Taylor were there.

Even the nice newscaster that Ward 6 Councillor Frank Manzo calls "Louise" was on hand.

LTV is trying to get permission to use CBC Channel 5 to transmit a daily 30-minute newcast that will either run five or seven days a week.

They're also seeking an estimated $400,000 in start-up money from the CBC.

$160,000 of the cash would be used to buy MCTV's building at 119 East Street and to connect the transmitter.

$40,000 would go toward renovations and moving costs, and the remaining $200,000 would pay for LTV's first-year operating costs.

"With some renovations, LTV News could deliver a live news program or programs from the same building that has delivered local news to Sault Ste. Marie for over 50 years," the company says in a report submitted to City Council.

LTV would be MCTV's landlord

"The plan would include LTV News and MCTV co-existing in the same building, with LTV News as the landlord and MCTV being the tenant.

"MCTV would need not move their equipment or office space, but rather, LTV News could operate out of the main studios and production rooms in the back of the building."

LTV cautions, however, that its plan is only a draft "with lowest costs" factored in, so actual costs will not be known until a feasibility study is done.

The MCTV building, where 80 people once toiled, went on the market in February, 2002.

It's currently listed at $160,000.

Plan B, Plan C

Other options might be to run co-ax cable from the current LTV site on Pilgrim Street to connect to the CBC transmitter site on 6th Line, or to simply drive a pre-recorded videotape to the transmitter building.

There, the newscast would be played on a VCR, the way LTV does currently with its 15-minute Shaw Cable casts.

The CBC recently announced an $80 million budget increase allowing it to invest in local and regional programming over the next three years.

However, none of that cash is slated for Sault Ste. Marie or Northern Ontario, which the CBC considers already adequately served, Huckerby, LTV's president, told councillors.

Council voted tonight to refer the proposal to the Economic Development Corp. for a recommendation on whether the City should support it.