Time was, when you'd walk into the CHUM building (as it then was,) you'd make your way up to the second floor, past the smoking patio and the edit bays, and you'd come to a junction. Straight ahead you'd go toward a boardroom and Moses' office, or take a stairway up to the third floor publicity area. And if you'd hang a left you'd hit the bathrooms.
Opposite those bathrooms was a very Moses touch: a wall with a bunch of stark quotes about the medium of television. Some writ large, some small, a cacophony of typography and thought about the medium we toil in.
It was a fitting monument to ponder as you made your way to...read a magazine, say.
Well, Moses' office is now the open area for Etalk, and there's barely an inch of the building and the vibe at 299 Queen Street that CTV hasn't changed. But one of the things that always puzzled me, and one of the things that I think is most emblematic of the takeover of those properties by CTV, is what happened to the wall.
Did they tear it down?
Nope.
They just painted over it. It's now...white. Totally white. Where once there was thought and an ongoing argument about the merits of the medium, there's now...a big white wall. I fear the quotes could have stimulated an idea of how to get broadcasting out of its doldrum state long before the white wall could. But maybe that's just me.
Anyway -- amidst the many quotes, here's the relevant one for the last week. You'll like this:
"I don't own a television"
- John Meisel, CRTC Chairman, 1979-1983.
Enjoy your Sunday.
2 comments:
Scared again.
Maybe I'm light-headed from shoveling snow -- but would it be possible to file a Freedom of Information request to find out what cable/satellite packages these guys have -- if any?
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