FTVLive was the FIRST to report that Nexstar is going to shut down Chicago’s CLTV at the end of the year.

The cable news station signed on January 1st, 1993 and it will go dark on December 31st, 2019.

In a memo to the staff from GM Paul Rennie, he admits that there will be a “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.”

CLTV was launched as a local cable news channel before Fox News and MSNBC had even started.

When the station first went on the air with an often young and inexperienced staff, Chicago Journalists used to joke and say that CLTV stood for “Children Learning Television.”

But, as the channel grew with viewers more shows were added and it gave the chance for some stories that were just touched on by the other newscasts to breathe a bit.

Political talk shows were often a good place to watch a debate on the issues.

One Chicago viewer tells FTVLive, “If Nexstar was trying to endear themselves to Chicago, they just fucked it up.”

To Chicago viewers, the closing of CLTV will look like the big out of town corporate media company, coming in and pulling the only local cable news channel off the air and putting people out of work.

Not exactly the best way to get the viewers to like you.

Just saying….

Here’s the internal memo that went out to the staff and was obtained by FTVLive:

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