24Hours - History

History

It began on October 5, 1970 (on the same day that James Cross was kidnapped by the FLQ in Quebec) and first aired between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. The original on-air hosts were Garth Dawley (news), Murray Parker (weather), Don Wittman & Bob Picken (sports), John Harvard & Gerry Haslam (interviewer). On occasion, others contributed to the program, namely Heather Hildebrandt (CBC Winnipeg public affairs dep't) and freelancers Alice Poyser and Per Holting. Bill Morgan was the Producer in the first year, and Executive Producer in the second.

Although the reason why the newscast was called 24Hours is uncertain, advertising in the 1970s contained the slogan NEWS...Something to think about every 24Hours, something that would become less relevant since the 1980s with today's media choices.

The hour would begin with 10 to 13 minutes of news presented by Garth Dawley, the program's first newsreader till 1983, followed by a 2-minute weather update, followed by a 10-minute documentary or interview. After a commercial break, national and international news would be presented, followed by a 5-minute sportscast. A full weather forecast of 5-minute duration would take place about 30-minutes into the program. Another documentary or interview segment would fill in the rest of the time. Closer to the hour's end would be a feature such as a review of an arts event, or a news-comedy skit. Each hour would end with a short summary of the day's news.

During the summer months in earlier years, 24Hours would switch to a 30-minute format with basic news, weather, and sports to give the documentary team time to cool down and then prepare for next season's documentaries.

Before The National was moved to 10 p.m. and The Journal created in 1982, occasionally a full-hour 24Hours documentary would air at this time, in addition to the regular 60 minutes of news at 6 p.m.

Starting in the 1977-78 season it moved from the 6:30-7:30 p.m. time to a more standard supper-hour of 6:00-7:00 p.m., where John Robertson replaced John Harvard as host.

John Harvard, who was the program's first interviewer between 1970 and 1977, returned the day after the November 1981 Provincial election, and remained till 1986. He interviewed the former interviewer from the 1977-1981 period, John Robertson.

In September 1982 the chalkboard easel used for the 24Hours weather forecast regularly done by Murray Parker, was replaced with an electronic Telidon system. This was used for about 2 years when a regular CG system was put in place.

Also in 1982, CBWT was a pioneer within CBC television stations to use Betacam ENG cameras. Prior to this time, reports were filed on 16 mm film.

In 1983, electronic slides replaced the film-type that accompanied the news anchor of the various local news programs. For example, a slide machine with a red rounded trim was used in 1982-83, while the rest of the news set is a cream colour.

In May 1984, Marv Terhoch was appointed Director of CBWT of 24Hours.

Also between these years, Kevin Evans was the interviewer for 24Hours, until the local Videon cable system replaced KTHI Fargo with WDIV Detroit, the latter featured Mort Crim and his style of news and interviewing. To compete with that station, it hired former ABC correspondent Mike McCourt who co-hosted the program between September 1986 and 1991.

John Bertrand, who was formerly the Winnipeg Sun's Editor was hired on as host of the new 5.30–6 p.m. segment 24Hours Talkback in November 1992. This program aired until 1994 when it was canceled and John had moved on to CBC Radio One as on air host of Questionnaire.

On October 2, 2000, as part of nationwide budget cuts and a shift of focus towards reporting of geopolitical events (war in Iraq and Afghanistan), 24Hours was replaced by a 30-minute program, Canada Now.