Preview Citytv's New Home
Friday January 11, 2008
CityNews.ca Staff
If there's one thing Citytv has always been associated with, it's Queen St. The little station that could began its life way back in 1972 in cramped quarters at 99 Queen St. E., with studios so open, people off the street often walked into the control room in the middle of a show and started looking around.
Times changed and the station did too, moving to its new digs down the road at 299 Queen St. West in 1987.
Now, we've outgrown that space, too, and found another new home. And it couldn't be a more appropriate venue for a place that has the word 'City' in its name - the very heart of Toronto.
On Thursday, employees got their first look at the new venue, the soon to be former Olympic Spirit building located at 35 Dundas St. E., with a panoramic view of Yonge-Dundas Square. The place was built to commemorate Canada's Olympic squads.
But there's a new team coming in and this one promises to be winners at all the typical TV Olympic events: the last minute CityNews dash, getting a report to air in record time and sometimes at the last minute; the CityLine slalom, making sure that show never goes downhill; and the BT Pentathlon, which requires getting up early every weekday morning, being wide awake at 6am and sprinting to the finish line three hours later, all the while swimming against the conflicting tides of Frank Ferragine and Kevin Frankish.
The big bash was designed to show the staff what the place looks like now. But it won't stay that way for long. Construction and a
total makeover are underway to turn the building into a state-of-art high definition broadcast centre that will also house OMNI 1 and 2.
How will it look when it's all done? We'll be the first to show you when we move in by March 2009.
See the video that goes with this story (including a sneak peek inside) here:
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_18503.aspx
Ps. I hope that total makeover extends to the exterior too!
