CityTV will soon be vacating the 299 Queen Street West address that was for years the iconic home of CityTV, Much Music and other cable television stations. With Rogers taking over CityTV in order to meet a regulatory approval for complicated deal in which CTVGlobeMedia (CTV, TSN, The Globe and Mail) purchased CHUM (CHUM Radio, CityTV, MuchMusic, Bravo!). While the cable channels stay, CityTV must go, meaning that the CityTV truck mounted on the building’s east wall, as well as Speaker’s Corner, will go too.
Earlier today (Tuesday) the Toronto Star reported that the truck would be taken down immediately and while I expected this, the news was sudden. I went to grab a few pictures, but there was no sign of crews preparing to take it down, and the wheels were still spinning and the strobe lights flashing. But it is almost guaranteed that the truck will be down soon, the first step of separating CityTV from CTV-CHUM.
Meanwhile, the Sam the Record Man’s signs were saved by a city preservation designation, and a two Facebook groups, “Save the Sam’s Sign”, with over 17,000 members, and a second “Save Sam Record Man Sign” group has over 8600 members. A group to save the CityTV truck has only one-tenth the members currently has less than 1,000.
So why the difference in the reaction to the potential loss of these two vulnerable first-party ads? My guess is that Sam’s being around longer than CityTV, invoked more nostalgia than a truck. Sam’s was defined by the signs, and many have fond memories of visiting the store in its golden years. As a Ryerson grad, it was a joke amongst us students that Ryerson was the only university that you gave directions to based on a record store. CityTV, on the other hand, used the old Methodist Church building itself as its brand, providing an anchor to an up-and-coming Queen West. The truck, while interesting, is ancillary to the rest of the architecture. Meanwhile Sam’s signs overwhelmed the architecture and itself was an icon of Yonge Street.
Ironically, in another Star article, Ryerson is pushing to take over the Sam’s store, which would use the site for its long-awaited Yonge Street presence. Ryerson would develop the site with institutional uses as well as storefront commercial, and would likely keep the famous signs in place.
Update: BlogTO reports today that the CityTV sign on the east side of the CHUM-City building, above the truck was taken down today. If you go to the link, you’ll see in the picture that the first-party ad, usually promoting CityTV programs is now being used as a third-party ad for a credit card issuer.
8 comments
Citytv also spent its first 15 years at 99 Queen East… MuchMusic was the national franchise from day one at 299.
Could it be that the Sam’s group has more members because the “Save the City TV Truck!!” one has only been around since Sunday?
Your first paragraph should end with ‘too.’
At the end of the third paragraph you should use ‘fewer’ rather than ‘less.’ If you can count it, use fewer. Yes, all of the ‘one less car’ stickers have incorrect grammar.
Enough of that though! Since when did facebook become people’s primary form of protest?
Ben,
I was interested in the reasons why there was such a difference in the local reaction between the potential loss of one ad icon versus another ad icon, which is now much more likely to go.
As for Facebook,since Toronto has such a large network on that site, it has become an interesting gauge of support for causes like these, and in a way, similar to the online petitions that can be easily set up. Though I’d certainly not see it as the one and only form of protest out there, not by a long shot.
I was joking around a bit about the facebook. It is definitely armchair protest.
Maybe they will put the truck in the new building wherever they locate CityTV. Hopefully it will still be somewhere downtown and not in the suburbs…
The Citytv signs have already been removed from the front of the ChumCity building, along with the CHUM logo. (They haven’t been so quick to remove the hard-to-get-at Citytv and CHUM logos from the side of the building. The ancient Channel 79 sign was up there forever, too.)
I imagine the nice old CityIntergalactic mural will be painted over soon.
I wonder what CTVgm will put in their places. They’d hate to leave prime signage spots like that vacant for long… I have a feeling that MTV Canada will be shoehorned in alongside Much in the ChumCity building, pulling it from that not so youthful area around Yonge/Bloor.
Actually, the credit card is for the MUCHMUSIC prepaid mastercard; I guess that could be technically be considered first party.