The none profit network of a Canadian religious show (100 Huntley Street) aired an hour long game show with former Alberta premier Ralph Klien.
Crossroads Television System (CTS) has purchased two episodes of the game show called On the Clock featuring the former premier sitting on a throne handing out “Ralph Bucks”.
It featured three Calgarians — Rob Breakenridge, host of a Calgary radio show; Licia Corbella, editorial page editor for the Calgary Herald and Ric McIver, a Calgary alderman who wants to run for mayor.
The topics ranged from the benefits of global warming — panellists got 10 seconds for that, to 30 seconds to discuss whether Europe is losing its soul. Klein then awarded the panellists “Ralph bucks†for their answers.
The hour-long show lumbered along, with Josh Groberman, the show’s producer and co-host, throwing in a few curves in an attempt to spice things up.
The show is produced by Josh Groberman. According to Groberman’s marketing analysis:
The show is set to capture the market share of over 300,000 viewers (.95% of Canadians) who are seeking non-partisan right-wing programming. It is an opinion/interview style talk show that has
not yet hit the Canadian television market. Works in the US where conservative oriented programming such as The O’Reilly Factor gets 4 million viewers a day and Hannity gets 3 million.…Based on a potential share of 0.95% of the Canadian Television Market and being that On the Clock is similar to American conservative shows, we project potential audience of 315,000 viewers.
You can see the first episode here. Production values are bad, and it’s an uncomfortable watch, the guests and Klein look strained and Groberman is trying waaay too hard. The show took 2/1/2 years to develop. Crossroads (CTS) needs 18 hours of Canadian content according to it’s CRTC licence for Alberta.
The station was in looking for made-in-Alberta programming when Mr. Groberman approached, said Richard Landau, CTS executive director for Alberta.
It was a perfect fit.
“We are interested in anything that is Alberta, whether it is Jann Arden or k.d. lang; it can be anybody from Alberta,†Mr. Landau said.
“You can’t talk about Alberta’s unique profile without talking about Ralph Klein.â€
The Edmonton Journal has a bit more.
Josh Groberman is 21 years old, and while I applaud the guests for giving him a break, he is not ready for prime time. Ralph Klein is past his. But it makes sense in context, Groberman hasn’t gotten over his teenage hero worship. He met the former premier when he was 14. This show is YouTube content, not network.
http://tinyurl.com/yauyny5
“Groberman certainly had his ducks in a row in 2008, when he descended on the Banff Television Festival to pitch On the Clock to various networks. He had Klein under contract and a list of sponsors vowing their support.
“I pitched every single network and CTS was the only one who wanted to carry the show. They think that this show will make huge waves out here in Alberta.”
Um no. TV is a business, CTS isn’t doing itself any favours giving this young man a break.
Crossroads has recently announced they have changed their board (the charity and none profit) and will focus on producing content in six areas. March 17, 2010
http://crossroads.ca/news
“Crossroads Christian Communications Inc. (CCCI) and Crossroads Television System Inc. (CTS TV) have each announced a comprehensive reorganization to position their resources behind a combined new vision. The vision is supported by three measurable objectives: to expand faith and values content; increase viewership; and extend care to their audiences while inspiring acts of service.
The reorganization has created six content categories each led by an experienced Executive Producer. They include News and Current Affairs; Opinion and Talk Shows; Youth and Young Adults; Children; Family Entertainment and Specials; and 100 Huntley Street, the flagship daily program that will remain in a category of its own. The functional departments will be structured to support increased content creation with optimized resource usage.”
If this is part of the content/programming plan, time to go back to the drawing board.
To quote Groberman:
The show is set to capture the market share of over 300,000 viewers (.95% of Canadians) who are seeking non-partisan right-wing programming.
——
Josh Groberman is not an English major or else he wouldn’t have
written the phrase about non-partisan and followed it up with
right-wing. Non-partisan cannot be left-or right-wing.
Groberman is not a history major or else he wouldn’t have
used props like cheques that bring to mind the infamy of
the Aberhart government and its issuance of
prosperity certificates and the shallow effort of “King” Ralph
to buy an election in $400 amounts mailed to Albertans.
It’s a panel show that gives away money for successful
answers (at least the ones that suit King Ralph) being
broadcast on a station that has a history of financial
difficulties and serious lapses in management.
The whole thing has the whiff of high-school cable TV
community channel programming. Gavin Crawford does
a better job of it on This Hour Hass 22 Minutes.
There are only two episodes and hopefully that’s the
last of it.
CTS’ principal problem is that its programming focus
is so narrow (just like the views expressed on most
of their programs) that there is little else to appeal
to its target viewership. That explains the Coren
show and the Christine Williams Viewpoints to name
just two.
CTS would be wise to seek a satellite-only licence
and give up terrestrial based broadcasting.
That way it would be able to broadcast more of
what it wants and less of what the CRTC wants
regarding Canadian content.
The benefit of that would be that it would free up
5 land based transmitters and 5 spectrum positions
(channels) for programming more worthy of
viewing by the general Canadian population at large.
The benefit for CTS is that their plant costs would
go down and less money would be distracted to
quotas or programming.
—–
I notice Groberman has a service where he sells aerial
photos to businesses and other interested parties.
He’s a helicopter traffic reporter and therefore must
be taking along his camera to work to take these photos.
I wonder if he contributes anything to the costs of
fuel or operations of the helicopter while he’s profiting
on the side from another venture.
After all, he’s realising moneyfrom the free helicopter ride
while at the same time supposedly doing his due
diligence as a traffic reporter.
—–
The whole effort, in other words, has the hallmarks
of CTS programming generally; amateurish, clumsily
handled and lacking in imagination.
I wonder how many viewers wonder if
their money to sustain the stations went into this
effort and, if that’s the case, I wonder how many of
them will stop giving seeing what their contributions
amounted to.
CTS is in need of a total reorganisation or re-think
or should shut down its operations as a land-based
broadcaster. Anything else prolongs the misery
for them and the viewing public.
Groberman has his fingers in a couple of pies – a business news wire and I think what is a talent agency out of his production company.
http://joshgroberman.com/corporateprofiles.html
CTS gave the show a break at their own peril and aren’t endearing themselves to the viewing public. The majority of comments online about On the Clock have understandably not been kind.
I found myself wondering if and how much his parents have contributed to Crossroads.
I also would find it difficult to believe airing the trial of On the Clock was merely a CTS programming decision without back room deals.
Well said Torontonian.
It’s just a pilot guys. How do you know Josh Groberman didn’t buy the airtime?
And a satellite licence wouldn’t work. CTS’s power is that they’re a basic cable channel – accessible to everyone. In order to force cable companies to carry it, CTS has to put up transmitters in the area.
A correction:
In the comment #2 above the name of Christine Williams’
broadcast shoudl be On the Line.
There is a broadcast Viewpoints and it is NOT on CTSTV.
I’m sorry for the error and anything that follows from it.
I haven’t written and asked Mr. Groberman Chris. Given (as you point out) it is just a really bad pilot I don’t see the point.
CTS is in a deficit position, if he paid for the air time, economically it’s a win for them.
Public perception, not so much.
Okay Chris: I’ve written Mr. Groberman and asked him if he purchased his air time on CTS.
How do you know CTS is in a “deficit position”?
Chris:
In November 2009 CTS appeared before public policy hearings and did a presentation.
The transcript is here.
A more correct term from me would be losing revenue, Thanks for catching that.
This is Glen Stewart, Director of Sales and Marketing CTS, November 26/09:
Also, quick change of topic, I got a prompt response back from the producer of On the Clock.
It would be very interesting to know if Mr Groberman’s employer, Global Television (now part of Corus Entertainment), is aware of and has authorized him to use their resources (the traffic helicopter) if he is indeed shooting pictures for his side-business while on the job. But who knows, perhaps he owns a helicopter himself and flies it during his off-hours, at least when he’s not spending time developing, ahem, television shows.