W-FIVE
Encyclopedia : W : WF : WFI : W-FIVE
- This article refers to the Canadian television series; For other uses, see the W5.
History
W-FIVE is one of the longest-running CTV programs, it was launched in 1966 just after the demise of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's This Hour Has Seven Days, at time when the CTV network was on the brink of bankruptcy. Its magazine format is considered an inspiration for a number of similar programs, including the American 60 Minutes which premiered two years later. Robert Hurst, now in charge of CTV National News supervised the program for much of its life.
The program's first regular host was Ken Cavanagh, with reports from CTV National News journalists such as Doug Johnson and Frank Drea, who later became a Progressive Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament in Ontario. During the 1970s, Henry Champ was a long-time host, along with Ken Lefolii and Tom Gould. Helen Hutchinson, was one of the first women to gain a prominent position television news in Canada.
Eric Malling joined W-FIVE in 1990 from CBC's rival news magazine, The Fifth Estate. Under his guidance, W-FIVE did an in-depth report on New Zealand that showed the results of a nation that had suffered the effects of a debt wall. Eric Malling left W-FIVE in 1996, and then tragically died from an accident at his home in 1998.
Today's hosts are Sandie Rinaldo and Lloyd Robertson. Victor Malarek and Alan Fryer do much of the reporting. They have produced such stories as exposing used car dealer trickery, rampant corruption in Canada's immigration system, and personal stories of burn recovery from the Bali Bombing.
Controversies
W5 came under controversy during the 1970s when it aired a feature called "Campus Giveaways" that used incorrect statistics to conclude that foreign students were eroding white Canadians' opportunities for a secondary education and benefitting from public universities funded by Canadian taxpayers, without exploring the statement's backgrounds. The host of the program stated:
- ... there are so many oriental foreign students that they rarely mix with their Canadian classmates. It's as if there are two campuses at Canadian universities—foreign and domestic. Certainly this Chinese theatre attracts a full house, but not one Canadian student attended.1
- ... our critics—particularly Chinese Canadians and the universities—criticized the program as racist; they were right.... We share the dismay of our critics that this occurred. We sincerely apologize for the fact that Chinese Canadians were depicted as foreigners and for whatever distress this stereotyping may have caused them in the context of our multicultural society.2
Hosts and producers
Hosts, reporters, and producers associated with the show have included:
- Ken Cavanagh
- Henry Champ
- Wei Chen
- Tom Clark
- Bill Cunningham
- Frank Drea
- Malcolm Fox
- Tom Gould
- Helen Hutchinson
- Doug Johnson
- Peter Kent
- Anton Koschany
- Ken Lefolii
- Michael Maclear (1977-78)
- Victor Malarek
- Eric Malling (1990-1996)
- Christine Nielsen
- Susan Ormiston
- Jim Reid
- Morley Safer
- Elliott Shiff
- Sylvia Sweeney
- Patrick Watson
- Carole Taylor
For several years in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the program used a portion of Supertramp's "Fool's Overture" as its theme music.
References
1 1979a "Campus Giveway." W5 Transcripts. September 30, 1979 (Released October 4, 1979).
2 "News release: Statement by President and Managing Director, CTV" April 16, 1980.
External links
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