Getting comfy in The Chair

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This article was published 23/11/2001 (8963 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

JENNIFER RATTRAY will never forget the first time she sat in The Chair. The seat in question, as you’ve probably already surmised if you’re a regular viewer of television news, is the one behind the anchor desk in the Portage Avenue studio that houses the local portion of CBC-TV’s Canada Now newscast.

It’s a place the 35-year-old broadcaster had dreamed of finding herself since landing her first job in TV more than a dozen years ago.

Finally, after stints at four local stations — MTN, CBC (as host of the late-night series Open Wide), WTN and CKY — and a brief tour of duty south of the border, Rattray landed her coveted job at the public broadcaster. And on Oct. 1, when Canada Now’s second season began, that dream about The Chair came true.

“The first time I sat in that chair, I thought, ‘Wow, this is so great,'” Rattray recalled. “For most television journalists working in Winnipeg, the CBC is where you want to go.

“The journalism is unparallelled, and to work your way up to the position where you end up here — especially following an anchor like Diana Swain — causes you to have a little moment where you just go, ‘Wow!’ ”

Indeed, part of Rattray’s “Wow” moment had to do with the daunting knowledge that by assuming the Canada Now anchor’s job, she was suddenly and immediately expected to live up to the standard set by Swain — who last year won Canada’s best-news-anchor Gemini Award over the likes of Peter Mansbridge and Lloyd Robertson — while at the same time somehow making viewers forget all about her predecessor.

It’s a task not even Swain — who left Canada Now to become co-host of the new national investigative newsmagazine, CBC News: Disclosure — would relish.

“I don’t envy her, because I’ve had to do it myself,” Swain said. “When I started at CKND, Marjorie Stevens was still in the newsroom; when I started (at CBC), Sandra (Lewis) had been here for a long time and had won many awards.

“It’s a hard thing to go into a pre-existing job and try to make it your own. I felt sympathy for Jennifer because I was still here. I’ve tried to give her as much support as possible, and I’ve told her that this is her show now, and she needs to make it hers.”

The senior producer of Canada Now’s local half-hour said the biggest challenge facing Rattray is building relationships with viewers who have felt so comfortable, for so long, welcoming Swain into their living rooms each night.

“It’s a difficult situation to walk in and try to replace someone who’s so well-known and who also happens to be a Gemini winner,” said Kirk Williams, a veteran of a dozen-plus years in the local CBC newsroom. “These (news anchors) are so much a part of viewers’ daily lives; people really build a relationship over time and it’s a big change when someone new arrives.”

Still, Williams said the timing couldn’t be better for Canada Now to introduce a new anchor (as well as new weather forecaster Marilyn Maki and a handful of new reporters), since perennial ratings leader CKY has also added a new anchor (Janet Stewart) and Global TV has moved its local newscast to 5:30 p.m. to accommodate its new Kevin-Newman-led national newscast at 6 p.m..

“We’re hoping to take advantage of all the changes in that if people are looking around because they’re unhappy with some of the changes elsewhere, maybe they’ll come over and see what we’ve got to offer,” he said.

Without question, Rattray would like her arrival to have a positive impact on Canada Now’s audience numbers, particularly if it means gaining ground on her former employer, CKY, which has held a hefty ratings lead in the local market for more than a decade.

“It’s a challenge, absolutely, but I think that (audience decline) started with the CBC budget cuts about 10 years ago, which led people to perceive that perhaps CBC was less committed to them,” said Rattray, who was born in Massachusetts (her father was teaching at the University of Pennsylvania at the time) and raised in River Heights. “Now that things have settled down and new people are being hired, I think that’s going to change.

“Connection to community is something that I feel very strongly about . . . and if we show our viewers how connected we are and how much we care, it will go a long way toward rebuilding some of those bridges.”

Rattray added that she doesn’t see the year-old Canada Now format — which trimmed the local newscast to 30 minutes from 60 and added a half-hour of national and international news from Vancouver — as a handicap.

“If we were doing the whole hour out of Winnipeg, we’d probably still be dedicating half that time to national and international news,” she said. “So you’re really getting the same amount of information; it’s just that half of it comes from Winnipeg and half from Vancouver.”

Nearly two months into her new posting, Rattray no longer has a “Wow” moment every time she slides behind the anchor desk to deliver the nightly CBC news. But being the woman in The Chair remains a pretty good feeling, nonetheless.

“It’s still exciting, but it’s not new,” she said. “It feels surprisingly comfortable, and I think that’s a tribute to the team that works here.”