VICTORIA – It could be a very long weekend for the employees of CHEK-TV, as they wait to hear whether current owner Canwest Global will accept their offer to purchase the station.
CHEK-TV GM John Pollard told Cartt.ca late Friday that they submitted an asset purchase agreement to Canwest on Thursday, and are currently “in negotiations”.
“We are working back and forth through it now”, Pollard said. “It’s business as usual here until 10 PM on Monday, or, until we’re told any differently”.
Pollard confirmed that the station has pre-packaged a three hour show called The Best of CHEK News, which will air after its supper hour newscast on Monday. CHEK-TV has until 10 pm PT on August 31 to finalize an agreement with Canwest.
The news at CHCA-TV Red Deer was not as hopeful. The newsroom confirmed to Cartt.ca that the station will be going to black on Monday at 6 AM local time. Fellow Canwest-owned station CHBC-TV Kelowna is scheduled to sign on as a member of the Global TV network Monday at 5 AM PT.
Canwest anounced in July that it would be closing CHEK-TV and CHCA-TV Red Deer by August 31, 2009 after failing to find a buyer for the two local stations which it claimed were not profitable.
