The journalist Diane Dakers discusses her new book, CHEK Republic: A Revolution in Local Television (Heritage House, 2014), the Victoria television station CHEK, its past and its future, with Joseph Planta.

CHEK Republic: A Revolution in Local Television by Diane Dakers (Heritage House, 2014). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: CHEK Republic

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

Earlier this fall, CHEK TV in Victoria celebrated its fifth anniversary as the first employee-owned television station in North America. It’s not been an uneventful five years, and a new book from the journalist Diane Dakers chronicles the salvaging of a British Columbia institution to its survival five years later. In 2009, as the media company Canwest Global was going to close the 53-year old Vancouver Island broadcaster, employees at CHEK rallied, pooled their resources, lobbied the CRTC, and took over the beloved television station. It’s a compelling story, that also looks at the past, what CHEK’s origins are, and how they became for a lot of people, like me on the Mainland, a view onto Victoria and Island life. It’s also endlessly fascinating to read about the goings-on behind the scenes to rescue this station that might have been shuttered to broadcast history. Diane Dakers does a fine job in this book, CHEK Republic: A Revolution in Local Television. She also looks to the future, not only the future of channel six, but the future of television. Will this be the model in which local television survives in the face of Big Media? Diane Dakers, in her nearly 25-year career, has written for most of the major newspapers in the country, and worked in radio at national and local levels, and worked in television, including at CHEK. Her masters degree in journalism is from Carleton, where I understand her thesis dealt with the very subject of CHEK TV. The website for more is at www.dianedakers.com. The book is published by Heritage House. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Diane Dakers; Ms. Dakers, good morning.

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