BREAKING! Nexstar Shutting Down CLTV in Chicago

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It will be an end of an era in Chicago television thanks to Nexstar Broadcasting.

Word is the staff at CLTV the cable arm of WGN and one time Tribune broadcasting is going to be shut down after almost 3 decades of delivering the news to Chicagoland.

Sources tell FTVLive that an email went out to the staff from GM Paul Rennie.

CLTV signed on January 1, 1993 and now it is coming to an end.

Here is the internal email that was sent to the staff.

From: Rennie, Paul
Sent: Monday, December 16, 2019 11:38 AM
To: zz WGNTV.All.Users
Subject: CLTV - WGN-TV Expansion

All,

I want to let you know that today we made the difficult business decision to stop production of CLTV effective at the end of the year. I met with the CLTV staff this morning to let them know.

CLTV has had a great run since it first signed on 26 years ago, in January 1993, but the media landscape has changed dramatically since that time. Back then, there were only four networks, cable news was still in its infancy, and the Internet was just beginning.

MSNBC, FOX News, and CNBC didn’t exist and the idea of getting news through a mobile device was unimaginable. There were no local morning news shows, and WGN-TV produced just two newscasts, the Midday News and the WGN News at 9. WGN-TV now produces more than 70 hours of local news per week—more than any other TV station in Chicago.

Unfortunately, with news now available 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week across a variety of multi-media platforms, it has become increasingly difficult for CLTV to hold on to its audience and remain competitive, despite the high-quality of the local journalism it produces.

Ending production of CLTV will give us a chance to continue expanding local programming and local news here at WGN-TV.

In the first quarter of 2020, we plan to expand weekend news further and add some new local programming focused on sports and politics. I’ll have more info on this expansion early next year.

While there will be a small reduction of staff as a result of today’s decision, most CLTV employees will have the opportunity to apply for open jobs at WGN-TV.

For now, please join me in thanking everyone at CLTV for their constant effort and dedication to producing quality local journalism through the years. I am proud to have been a small part of CLTV’s history.

Paul
Paul Rennie