Dusty Ayres
Commodore
Speaker's Corner given the gagBERNARD WEIL/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO
Then prime minister Jean Chretien poked a loonie in the slot and spoke his mind at Speakers Corner during the 2000 federal election campaign.
Rogers pulling the plug on the Citytv show that has let Toronto sing or vent for 20 years
June 12, 2008
Rob Salem
TV Columnist
Speakers Corner has been silenced.
Rogers Television, current owners of the local Citytv station and its cross-country cousins, has effectively pulled the plug on the venerable Toronto institution, a conduit for the community for the past 20 years.
The street-corner public-access video booth, established in the late 1980s, has provided a platform for anyone with a loonie and 120 seconds to spare, from former prime minister Jean Chrétien to the Barenaked Ladies, to vent or praise or promote their issues – or themselves.
The original Speakers Corner at Queen St. W. and John St. was shuttered within days of the CTV purchase of CHUM almost two years ago, before the Citytv franchise was split off by government decree and sold to the Rogers conglomerate last year.
Even last night, the City website was still touting the booth's temporary relocation to the Rogers Centre and, eventually, to the new Citytv storefront studio in Yonge-Dundas Square, now under construction.
That would appear to no longer be the case. "No, it isn't," confirmed Citytv vice-president and general manager Jamie Haggarty. "But our plans are evolving every day. The (Speakers Corner TV) program will stay on the air till August, so we're not pulling the plug right away. But the plans for Dundas Square were just that, plans. We have nothing committed, nothing announced."
Oh well, one reason to keep on Bit Torrenting, despite what's going to happen.
