Beginning Monday, CKWS will become a Global station.
The news department at CKWS has already been part of Global News since early 2016, but starting Monday, all programming on CKWS television stations will be coming from Global.
CKWS Television will now be known as CKWS News on Global Kingston.
“This is the first time that we’re going to see an actual network move into the city and say Kingston is the place we want to live,” said manager of news and television operations Jay Westman, noting that the switch is an exciting time for the city.
The station’s history has seen a lot of partnerships, one with CBC and most recently with the CTV Network. Now, once this partnership ends on August 27th, our station will officially become part of the Global family. Westman says with the station being part of a national television network, it will allow them to connect Kingston residents with not only our local coverage but stories from Global reporters across the country.
“We now have all of the resources of a huge network that are at CKWS’s disposal to serve Kingstonstonians and the issues and the events that matter to residents,” Westman said.
All local stations will stay the same, but programming will be different.
“It’s important for people to understand that the faces they’ve come to rely on isn’t going to change,” said Troy Reeb, the head of Global News and Corus Radio. “What is going to change is it’s now going to be under the Global network.”
The news and the local and national anchors who report the news will stay the same, and will run at the same hours, with the only exception being the CKWS Daily. That will be replaced by The Young and the Restless, which will run from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Although it is a loss, Westman says, the station still has a lot of coverage in store for the region.
“What we’re hoping to do is bring back news breaks,” said Westman. “We are still going to probably have more news on the air than any other television station our size or market our size.”
Other new programs the station gains will include Survivor, Big Brother Canada and new Global programming such as the drama F.B.I.
Stay tuned to the station for all the upcoming changes, kicking in on Monday at 5 a.m.