Sunday night marked the final locally anchored news cast for Global Okanagan, following the announcement of several layoffs in the region.
Mohini Singh, a four-term city councillor who worked for CHBC news (now Global Okanagan) for over 20 years, was invited to final anchored news cast from the studio at the Global studio on Leon Avenue.
“It was a very sad evening,” she told KelownaNow on Monday.
Singh has been vocal about keeping “local voices heard” and even made an effort to save the local TV station alongside her council colleague Rick Webber.
Singh continues to sit on her “soapbox” about the importance of local media.
Global BC’s news director, Bhupinder Hundal, told KelownaNow that “turbulent times” at his company led to nearly 28 layoffs.
However, Hundal explained that a new 30-minute show will continue but will be broadcast and directed out of Vancouver.
Singh thinks more could have been done to keep the TV station in Kelowna.
“What I'm having a difficult time wrapping my head around is they are going to have a few news teams here running around covering news, and then be packaged in Vancouver by somebody who does not have a finger on the pulse of this community who may not know exactly the implications of the story they're about to introduce,” Singh told KelownaNow.
“There's no feeling for it. The stories are going to be assigned to the teams here from Vancouver, where somebody does not know what this region is all about.”
Singh acknowledged that Global is not the only news outlet struggling in the Okanagan or BC.
“But it doesn't help when a larger company doesn't put the operation here and it's just taken out,” she said.
“I just think it's so sad to see the demise a once robust and thriving institution.”
Singh acknowledged that Global BC is doing what is allowed within its licence, but thinks the rules that govern local programming are “archaic” and need to be “upgraded” and “modernized.”
She also thought Global or its parent company Corus Entertainment could have done more to inform or engage with the community to find another solution.
“It is meeting the requirements of the license, but is it meeting the spirit of that license? The spirit of the license is to serve this community. How is it doing that?” she said.
Singh suggested that Global Okanagan's local role will be badly "eroded" and reporters were already feeling “demoralized” as a result of the change.
"I honestly believe this could have been handled so much better. The community was not informed," she told KelownaNow.
“The community needed to know. They needed to meet with people in different sectors and explain what they were doing, how it would benefit the community and how best can they serve this community.”
KelownaNow asked Singh what she thought needed to happen moving forward.
She said the community needs to step up to support local media.
“We are such a thriving community. We're expanding so rapidly and change is difficult for a lot of people,” she said.
“This is a conversation our community needs to have on a larger scale.”
