Television Miniseries Over the Years Part 1

Each decade has been marked by different strengths and weaknesses in content from the beginning of televisions' early beginnings till now. The Golden Age of Television began in 1947 for most Americans but it was very limited beyond the very biggest of cities there. In Canada, TV broadcasts began in 1952. Expansion of stations into Manitoba took till 1954 when CBC Winnipeg came on the air. It was no easy task to get signals out beyond the cities and reliable videotape didn't come along till 1957. This meant that almost everything was live or had been filmed earlier on actual cinema film. Nevertheless, the experience of radio played an important role in television development of movies and limited series.

 

From 1947 to 1957, anthologies were the nascent beginnings of the miniseries. That is to say, they were put together as content with a beginning, middle and end rather than serialized material. High culture was the focus and major sponsors came aboard so that shows like For Whom The Bell Tolls and Lincoln could be produced. Different casts, sets and the like would be put together for each production. It was expensive and technically difficult. However, it showed that there was interest by people in literary and biographical material in a limited series. It was also live material because video recorders were not in use till late 1950s.

The earliest material for TV originated in New York so there was very much a theatrical and literary bent to what was presented. Twelve Angry Men and Marty originated on TV before becoming Hollywood movies. Great writers from the literary and theatre world as well as directors came to TV for the new art form. It was a highly experimental time in the post war period that brought not just audio but video into the home of people around the world. 

Not surprisingly, the early development of TV attracted a fair amount of Canadians from theatre and later from the early development of TV in Canada. Actors like Lorne Greene and Christopher Plummer began the move from Stratford to the U.S. for Broadway and television and film. That migration to the States has been a decades long thing. Experience, training and opportunities come in Canada but the sheer volume of content created for the large population is a siren call. The fame, the money and all that goes with it helped create a whole new industry.

Television was an existential threat in Canada. Many Canadians bought TVs in the east and aimed the antennas south from 1947 on to receive signals. The government tasked CBC (already a national presence in national radio) to create both an English and French broadcaster so in 1952 they hired hundreds of technicians, directors and talent to learn the medium for a launch that year. One of those young directors was Norman Jewison who went on to become the Oscar winning filmmaker.

The private network cooperative CTV didn't even get started till 1960-61. All the heavy lifting in Canada was done by the CBC and the National Film Board. The squabbling network seemed to grudgingly create programming for Canada aside from news and live children's programming. Most of their content was U.S. produced. However, this allowed many Canadians to see mini-series from the U.S. when they were broadcast. By 1976, the CRTC began to assist broadcasters in getting monetary gains in exchange for Canadian content. It has resulted in regular serialized series but only lately in more limited series when paired with Bell Media properties like Crave.

As the CBC rolled out stations and programming across Canada, they tried anthology series of high art. Ballet, plays and the like were performed live. They were categorized as anthology series because they were between 30 and 90 minutes of individual productions with different casts and across different theme. So much of the CBC was investing in infrastructure, staffing and programming. The technology changes were coming fast too. Video recorders and colour TV being phased in the 1950s and 60s made keeping up a challenge. Budgets were always an issue.

Based on the year I was born, I don't recall much of anything miniseries-wise from 1965 to 1970. Our family didn't get cable until 1971. In fact, cable didn't arrive in the city until 1967. Some people had antennas to receive KCND in Pembina, North Dakota but most of the shows were syndicated from 1940s and the 1960s shows. It was only in the 1970s that I began to take note of material that would meet broadly the characterization of being a miniseries or limited series.

Some say a William Holden series shown over four nights called Blue Knight was the first miniseries in the U.S. on NBC. The four hour cop show in LA was from a Joseph Wambaugh book. Holden was a big film star so getting him for a TV was coup. The following year he'd be one the cast on Towering Inferno in theatres. Funnily enough, I didn't see Blue Knight but I did see how Towering Inferno. My dad took me to it while serving with Big Brothers. Even I was too young for the movie, he didn't want me to feel left out. My dad often let me stay up late on a Friday to watch some of the movies that played such as World War II movies. I had nightmares about the disaster movie for sure.

As a rule with standards and practices, more adult drama would be reserved for last hours of primetime. More family material would be in early hours so we'd see a lot of music and variety shows. And Disney of course would be the kick off every Sunday evening. I don't know when Blue Knight aired but likely over four nights at 9 PM Central time. East and West coasts it would have aired 10 PM. Often too late for kids under 10 who would be asleep by then. Central time prime time ended at 10 PM so it was much easier for many to watch drama and get to bed early enough.

While I don't remember Blue Knight, the miniseries of 1973, I do remember the Blue Knight TV series starring George Kennedy. Alas, I didn't catch the two season show. Given then time and a very active sports and after school activity as well getting to bed earlier, there was a number of shows I was aware of but couldn't or chose not to watch. In 1974 and 1975, Winnipeg saw the addition of PBS and CKND/Global to the dial so there was a flood of older movies and the introduction of limited series, mostly from the British. The miniseries of Forsyte from the UK kicked off what we could expect to see from across the pond. I can't say my tastes were as refined back then. The British started the Forsyte back in 1967 so had the jump on everyone. The British influence was enormous and many titles were copied.

Canada didn't have the population or budget that the British and Americans did. We did, however, create one of the most expensive docudramas filled at that point in the world called The National Dream based on the book by Pierre Burton. The 8 episodes miniseries was the highest watched drama at the time. Oddly, the CBC has never made this show available to video or streaming. Our family watched it and it added to the lore of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Canada was also doing influential work in teleplays. Not as long as miniseries but at half hour to two hours were entertaining. One such movie was Flight into Danger starring future Star Trek actor James Doohan and written by Arthur Hailey, both World War II vets. Doohan, born Canadian and Hailey naturalized Canadian. Hailey found success as an author, famously for Airport. The 1956 live production on CBC became the inspiration for drama and comedy in film and television for decades to come.

The National Dream Miniseries in Canada and QB VII in 1974 had huge influence in historical dramas based on historical events. With star writers like Pierre Burton, Timothy Findley, William Whitehead and Leon Uris, it kept to the tradition of using top notch literary writers for complicated shows. I did not see QB VII when it came out. It wasn't until about 1975 when the explosion of cable channels created the demand for pull out TV and a daily listings of what was on. In 1977, TV Guide created a Canadian version of U.S. TV guide. This became super important to planning your week and for networks to promote appointment TV.

In Winnipeg in the 1970s, the Winnipeg Free Press and the Winnipeg Tribune had pull out TV listings and reviewed TV shows. I delivered the Winnipeg Tribune and it was the plucky competitor to the Free Press. It used to be that you were a Trib subscriber or a Freep subscriber. There were no Sunday editions of either paper. The TV listings for the week came out Saturday. Because Sunday was a day when literally everything was closed, we got both papers on Saturday so that there would colour comics, TV listings and classified ads. There were no video recording machines so if you missed a show, you missed it. If there were 22 episodes of a season on average, they would likely repeat again in the summer and you could catch them then. But did it really matter if you missed one Starsky and Hutch? No. Because a year long storyline was not what they were about.

The miniseries, as mentioned, were different as they were special programming all at once over consecutive nights (or serialized over a short time) with a beginning, middle and end. They were long form storytelling. As listed above, Blue Knight starring film actor William Holden was aired in 1973 and earned Emmys for the acting. The story was largely filmed on location in Los Angeles following a beat cop. It holds up well today as a snapshot of the 1970s in LA. As opposed to Dragnet which relied on stock footage of LA and rarely referred to the personal lives on the officers. Just the facts.

The critical acclaim, ratings and overall publicity for networks in the 1970s was focused on big events that would draw sponsors and eyeballs. The dominance of CBS, NBC and ABC was growing in entertainment, sports and news. Cable was just beginning but for many years was just trying to bring network TV to areas that could not pick up signals from affiliates far away. Such was how things developed in much of Canada bringing U.S. signals into homes. Before 1967, it was near impossible to get reliable signals in Winnipeg even with giant broadcast towers in Fargo. Even after, as Videon cable customers will attest, it was possible to lose your cable signal with terrible weather as we have had in the last weeks. I remember losing the last few minutes of Where Eagles Dare fuzzing out in a storm when Richard Burton was going to reveal the traitor spilling to the Nazis. It would be a few years before I would see the movie again and learn the secret.

On network TV, they would show Hollywood movies such as James Bond movies from the 1960s in prime time. By the mid 1970s, stations such as CKND and PBS Grand Forks would show movies from the 1940s through the 1960s. Syndication meant series like Star Trek had new life. Everyone was making money. It was good for newspapers and magazines, good for studios creating movies, good for networks, cable operators and advertisers reaching new audiences. There were still missteps studios could make on budgets and film. There never seemed to be the end of someone who thought they could make a big budget blockbuster. A lot of times they were wrong. However, the libraries of many studios such as MGM proved to exactly what independent stations wanted for content and it came to fit with cable and the need for content.

There was still some regulation and corporate separation that kept TV, music and film in their own silos. Antitrust prevailed and broke up the studio system that tied up all aspects of distribution, exhibition and production. The studios had to compete and be more innovative. It took a Supreme Court ruling to get them to break up and ten years to do it. However, without it, it is unlikely we would have had the production companies in the 1960s and 1970s creating in the same way as the vertically integrated media was back then.

There were a number of reasons why TV networks started creating their own movies and miniseries. One main reason is that they didn't want to rely completely on the movie studios for content. Certainly, showing James Bond on ABC could draw ratings but it often took a while for a new Bond to come out. The networks needed material on a more regular basis. It is why in the 1950s and 1960s, it was not uncommon for series like Gunsmoke to have nearly double the episodes that were the standard in the 1970s and 1980s. The development of a season of episodes and repeats usually meant the network still had days to fill  up with programming.

The networks had to satisfy their advertising sponsors and their affiliates. Getting enough sponsors meant it paid for your content which kept affiliates from seeking other affiliation or filling their space with syndicated content. This was indeed a real issue as affiliates could change their affiliation. Even networks themselves might look to switch to a different local station if that station had been reception or local composition of news. Such is the case when NBC WDAY/WDAZ became the new ABC affiliate over ABC KTHI in Fargo in 1983.

To attract the people with the money and the means to broadcast it, the networks began to begin bring people to Hollywood to see what they would be showing to kick off their fall seasons. By the 1970s, this was an elaborate star-studded affair that was attended by media, advertisers and affiliates.  Aside from the regular programming of series, sports, variety shows and news, network exec wanted to buy literary material that was popular and turn it into movies and miniseries. This was a time of epic storytelling though.

Hollywood studios, as well as some overseas studios, often dramatized historical events and great works of literature. However, the maximum length many could stay in a theatre seemed to cap off at about 4 hours and only for the biggest blockbusters such Cleopatra on the Greatest Story Ever Told in the 1960s. TV broadcasts of those movies were broken up in two parts over consecutive nights to boffo ratings. This certainly clued in the networks that there was an appetite for movies over two or more nights.

The antitrust breakup created many production companies that TV and movie studios contracted with to create productions. It is of note that this is how Stephen Spielberg rose up. He directed a made for TV movie Duel from an original story in Playboy magazine in 1971. Dennis Weaver starred. At the time, he had become a star of his own TV limited series of McLeod. This was two different examples of what networks were doing to start the 1970s. Made for TV movies and a revolving wheel of mystery movies such as McLeod and Columbo.

This innovation and insatiable need for content led to miniseries. Trying to get Hollywood talent to sign up required a limited number of episodes and a hot script. It was this type of time, budget and script that drew Richard Holden and Lee Remick to Blue Knight in 1973. Four hours over for four nights of compelling TV that landed both actors awards. While there had been some miniseries before then, this triggered a flurry of activity from all three American networks and from other across the world to create miniseries.

I was just too young for some the earlier miniseries like Rich Man, Poor Man in 1976 and with it being 12 episodes long, I was likely missing a few of them because of sports since it aired in February of that year. I would have turned 11 in the middle of it. I did see it much later though. It would be 1977 before I'd be watching a miniseries from beginning to end and that was Roots. Although from an American experience, it was as much watched in Canada as the U.S. and contributed to discussion. Roots, unlike Rich Man which broadcast every Tuesday, broadcast each night for a week. The story of slavery over generation ran every night in January that year. It was the first time we'd see the introduction of LeVar Burton. He'd go onto long time success on Star Trek: Next Generation a decade later.

The same year of 1977 I would see The Godfather series composed of the two theatrical films and edited and arranged for network TV. There were quite a few miniseries back then that I watched. Some so long ago that the memory has faded. Between 1977 and 1979, there were so many. The minsieries sequel to Roots and Salem's Lot in 1979 left lasting memories. It was the first time we saw a miniseries of a Stephen King book. Salem's Lot was pretty scary for network TV!

The local pullout TV listings was how you planned the week. In the 1970s, there really wasn't the time wasting on scrolling through the phone or Internet since it didn't exist. No home computers and no video games either. Some TV shows like Stranger Things tend to mythologize those times as suburban Narnia. It wasn't but it certainly didn't have the type of varied distractions of today. Having being born in 1965, I can say the very limited TV of two channels before cable was not as compelling as going outside. I came to think of the TV as something you watched the U.S. space program on and this strange war being fought in a place called Vietnam. All of this on black and white TV.

Truly network TV had its greatest moments in the 1970 when there was literally no other competition in drama, comedy, variety, news and sports. It was only the 1980s that cable channels themselves began to compete. HBO was the movie channel most sought out when people just wanted movies. It used to be on the marquees outside hotels. HBO included.

Miniseries have always been great for historical events or sweeping literary stories. In the 1970s, Little Women was a miniseries, Harriet Taubman was miniseries and The Holocaust was a miniseries. Those type of series attracted top talent and many Canadians watched although some were more specific to the U.S. experience.

By the 1980s, it seemed the miniseries had tripled in numbers. Lonesome Dove, The Thornbirds, V, Amerika and the Winds of War were massive series that demanded attention. Big stars were cast and big stories were old from the best of the book world, historical events and speculative fiction. There were far too many to see, some might later turn up on cable or around 1982, many families starting getting VCRs. Ultimately, this helped people not miss episodes of something hugely long like Winds of War.

It should be mentioned that in the rise in tandem of networks and cable, newspapers began to struggle. In Winnipeg, the Winnipeg Tribune went under in 1980 along with the Montreal Star. The free classified ads and media ownership that preferred a monopoly. However, more ads were going to radio and TV. he Winnipeg Sun started shortly after and made sure that they competed on days the Free Press passed over such as Sundays. It was an indication of how market conditions were changing. USA Today began to publish in 1982 and their newstands looked like TV boxes and their format was to remind people of TV programming. No long form stories for them.

There was probably a 30 year period where the media of print, radio, movies and television all elevated themselves through cross promotion and ad revenue. Even the beginnings of the Internet helped promote other media for many year. It was only when giants such as social media began to hoover up other companies and ad money while manipulating things with algorithms that some of the pillars started to collapse. 

It was roughly halfway through 1990s that the Internet started to be used for newsgroups, mail lists and ways of engaging with fans. The Internet Movie Database and Wikipedia were ways for TV and film audiences to really engage. Had the Internet been more like that always, it might have been a less permissive thing now. 

From the 1980s to the 1990s saw cable start to take on more miniseries. Big name directors who were once attracted to networks looked to cable and premium cable to tell stories. The networks were still very powerful but HBO and USA Network started doing miniseries with big names and bigtime directors. It was still networks though that were able to really muster audience side and promotion. Stephen King had a number of network miniseries such as The Stand (ABC) in 1994, The Langoliers (ABC) in 1995 and The Tommyknockers (ABC) in 1993. 

By the 2000s, there was a shift to ever greater number of miniseries from cable networks. This was not a terrible problem because cable subscriptions had risen to levels not seen before. The problem was that the packages were rising every year. And still do now. To get the premium channels like HBO required a very high price. I will write more in the next part. However, miniseries became some of the highest rated shared programming we had as a culture. The fracture was to come and is still happening now.

Donald Trump to Attend Opening of Teddy Roosevelt Library in Medora, North Dakota July 1, 2026

It will be a busy July 1st for President Trump. He will be visiting North Dakota to be there for the opening of the Teddy Roosevelt Library in Medora, North Dakota. It will be a quick trip because he is supposed to be back in Washington, D.C. for the trilateral meeting of Canada, Mexico and the United States for trade talks and possibly a deal or does Trump announce U.S. is pulling out? Carney will be meeting him that day. No word on that itinerary. 

The Teddy Roosevelt Library is a non-profit creation since the official libraries program for presidents only started in 1955. The 96,000 square foot building is on a 92,000 square foot campus carved into a butte in Medora, North Dakota beside the Teddy Roosevelt National Park in the far west part of the state by the Badlands.

Roosevelt is intimately identified with North Dakota from his journeys in the state from 1883 to 1887. His wife and mother died a short time after one another in the state where he was a cattle rancher. He was popular writer and historian and became a war hero. As a progressive Republican, he established a conservation program that is the basis of the national park system that exists today. He was first non-European to win a Nobel Prize. In many presidential rankings, he consistently is one of the highest in approval in U.S. history.

The name Teddy Bear is coined for the man and his connection to the death of a black bear. How it ended up being a cute kids stuffie is apart of American. It certainly is not the story of Winnie, the bear named after Winnipeg that became Winnie the Pooh. Roosevelt visited Winnipeg a number of times on his way to Delta Marsh where they hired Metis guides for hunting trips.

There is probably just too little space to go over the expansive life of Teddy Roosevelt. He makes the last several years of presidents look like croppers. It is of little wonder that Trump wants to visit the Teddy Roosevelt Library. Built be the same designer of the gorgeous central library in Calgary, the building and the campus is stunning.

The design allows the visitor to feel part of the incredible vista. The curation of the collection appears to be a worthy homage to the 26th President of the United States. Trump's visit should help garner some publicity to the area. Many people from Manitoba are very fond of North Dakota and not just the eastern cities of Grand Forks or Fargo. The $150 million facility is architecturally noteworthy.

Medora has honoured Teddy Roosevelt since 1965 with the Medora Musical. It is an old timey Old West musical review and it is as charming as it is fun. It is very nearby the new library. Perhaps in the near future people in Manitoba will want to visit their old friend. Some of that enthusiasm could be tempered by Trump's later appointment on that same day with Carney. Here's hoping the visit July 1 is positive in so many ways.

Uniqlo Opens in Polo Park

When I lived in Japan, Uniqlo was just a few years open and only really known by Japanese or foreigners who lived in the country. While a lot of people were focused on international stores opening in the country such as Virgin Records, not as much attention was paid to a number stores opening in Japan that would take the world by storm. In 1984, the first store in Hiroshima was called Unique Clothing Warehouse. By 1988, because of an error in registration for brand name in Hong Kong, someone slipped a Q in and by 1989 Uniqlo was the official name. This is when I arrived in Japan.

People said the company was fast fashion but the reputation even then was for durable and enjoyable clothing. Affordable, which Japanese had not seen much of, during a steady luxury brands and stores entering the market. Living there as long as I did, I appreciated goods that fit and were not insanely priced. As Japan's economy went through a prolonged stagnation in the 1990s, Uniqlo grew in popularity as a staple of men and women's closets.

The first store in Canada was Eaton Centre in Toronto in 2016. Last years there was a flurry of stores in places in places like Vancouver and Calgary. Now Polo Park and later this year, St. Vital Centre get their Uniqlos.

How important is Uniqlo to the malls of Winnipeg? Very important. Generation Z is very much into a return to the mall. Unlike some Millennials who only order online, only text and don't like social settings, Generation Z is into experiences and socializing. It has been this generation that lined up for the store opening and showed a general enthusiasm for the event. Other generations also went but Uniqlo and Zara are among a few stores that have helped malls in Winnipeg find their mojo.

We are not nearly as over-malled as the U.S. nor have some of the long contracts that crippled some malls such as Mall of America. Sears, which has been closed for a very long time, has a 99 year lease at the mall so the space remains unoccupied. Columbia Mall is nearly abandoned in Grand Forks, North Dakota. At one time, the mall in Grand Forks led the way of what people in Winnipeg hoped to see in their malls. Overall, most cities seems to be absorbing the lost space left by retailers like Sears and The Bay.

Uniqlo had some of the best marketing we have seen in some time. They hired local as many times as they could in entertainment and food and product. The brought in influencers, They bought ads, And they invited media. It was a masterclass of how to make a grand entrance. And their target audience came even though it was a school day. I don't think this is the last retailer we see that draws a crowd but it might be harder to find leasable space since Polo Park and St. Vital seem to have a plan to attract stores people want.

Fargo Forum Fires Three Columnists

I have commented on the Fargo Forum which is the largest newspaper in North Dakota and paper of of record in Fargo-Moorhead. It is a Pulitzer Prize winning paper with a sister prize winner in the Grand Fork Herald. WDAY in Fargo is part of the same company. Together, they are part of the Marcil family's media group in the state. The private company is its fifth generation. How much money does the family have? Hard to say but it would be within the realm that they are among the richest in the state. It is a Conservative newspaper but back in 2016, they did not endorse Trump. Like a lot of newspapers across North America, they began a withdrawal from endorsing in general. The Winnipeg Free Press also stopped political endorsements a few decades ago.

The Marcil family are associated with old school Republicans. At the moment the MAGA movement is trying to strip other Republicans of party status. It is as ugly as it comes. There are national and state level reverberations. The Forum columnists didn't shrink from them. They called out the cowardice of the North Dakota representatives on issues like trade that deeply hurt agriculture in the state. Senators, cabinet and the lone House of Representative were called out on this. The response in March was to tell columnists to stay away from national issues and politics and only comment on state stuff, There was even a call to do more people related stories that had less politics.

The columnists largely continued as they have and this week was the response: Three of them were fired and the paper is limiting opinion page material to two days a week instead of every day of publication. They will also limit national editorials. The reason that is given is that it will help curate a better balance. The changes will affect the whole of the operation of print publication for the Forum news including the Grand Forks Herald. 

The reaction in Fargo has been one of surprise, mostly negative. Some Republicans are happy that a thorn in the side of the party is gone. However, as mentioned, there is a battle going on among MAGA and the party. The most recent convention was poorly attended because MAGA is trying to kick out non Trump loyalists. Even the Republican governor is incredulous. These battles are happening among Republicans in every state. However, the reaction in the editorial offices is to back into the bushes like Home Simpson. Has this been an owner dictate or something the editorial department has decided after countless letters and digital feedback fighting tooth and claw over left and right, but mostly left?

Now, don't get me wrong. I have credited Forum Communications with having amazing local news and sports coverage. Together, with their ABC affiliate WDAY in Fargo, they have fabulous coverage of local news, weather and top tier sports coverage. The WDAY station has six meteorologists! We don't have any based on TV or radio networks in Winnipeg. Both Fargo Forum and WDAY have healthy sized newsrooms. Their sports reporting on local school and university sports is better than the entire province of Manitoba. Hockey, football, basketball in both girls and boys sports is off the charts. In Winnipeg, we are an utter failure at it. I have noticed more school and junior sports coverage from Shaw/Rogers on their public access. It doesn't come close to North Dakota.

The Free Press in Winnipeg has been excellent in photo journalists working. The pro sports coverage for Jets and Bombers is well done. Business has dedicated writers. As far as arts coverage goes, the Free Press is superior and perhaps on CBC radio competes in that area. However, the Free Press is by far the most extensive for opinion coverage locally. The Sun, by contrast, has relied to heavily on Postmedia opinion although they have invested locally in recent years.

The Fargo Forum has had continuous and diverse opinion till now. They are limited it now to a few days a week. Their reasoning is not known. The result is though that Jim Shaw, Joan Bricker and Jack Zaleski all wrote their final opinion columns on Sunday. Some columnist remain but their platform has been shortened and their ability to write about national politicians even in their own state clipped. This shocking result has led to about 60 people of Fargo protesting outside the doors. I'd be surprised if that has ever happened in the paper's history.

The letters have been mostly negative with some saying that conservative columnists kept their jobs. Since there is only one newspaper in Fargo, the opinion pages tried, in the past, to have a variety of coverage. The amount of protests shows that not everyone will go gently into the night. The High Plains Reader is a monthly progressive publication but a publication that size can't possibly make up for the loss of weekly columns.

I hope we never see this happen in Winnipeg. Still, it is AI and search engines that is not paying for content that is the biggest issue that all content providers worry about more. Fargo is at a turning point for their new and opinion content. Winnipeg, by contrast, as two local owned news papers with s much opinin to chse from.

 

The Most Overrated Holiday of the Year

Truly the most overrated day of the year is New Year's Eve. It isn't a religious holiday. It doesn't make a special time in Canadian history. It isn't a personal day of importance like a birthday. There are no meals associated with it. Drinking is usually connected the day. 

Those that have to work the day get paid time and a half. Most, if not all, stores are closed. The day can fall anytime of the week so it is not an automatic long weekend. This year Christmas and New Year's Day fell on a Thursday. In 2026, both fall on a Friday creating a long weekend each time.

In general though, New Year's Day has been quiet in Canada. The change in the retail act in 2020 means many stores are open in the day including malls such as Outlet Collection and St. Vital. It used to be that everything was closed on New Year's day and there was nothing in the way of public activities. This began to change in the 1980s and 90s with activities at city parks including fireworks as well as family-friendly activities. 

Today, there is an anti-fireworks movement in Winnipeg. It appeared that there was only one listing for fireworks on New Years Eve. The fireworks in Naples, Italy and in Los Angeles are purely citizen driven. The risk in curbing public fireworks events is that citizens will do it without permission and dare you do to something about it. Diwali fireworks are a good example. Citizen complaints on Reddit, notwithstanding, it is unlikely any police will go arresting Indian Canadians.

In the post pandemic, I'd say we are in a bit of a lull for what to do New Year's Eve and day. Drinking is way down and so are the restaurants and clubs that provide those services. It is a long way back in years when casinos and convention centre had regular events. The Winnipeg Convention Centre used to have major events.

I expect the only way things change is with time. Canada is such a young country. Even now we add new holidays or create names for old ones. Christmas and Thanksgiving evolved and keep changing even now from what they were as Canada developed. Who is to say what New Year's Day will be like in the next 5 to 10 years?

One thing is clear that probably all retail will be open holiday hours. It still not everyone but that is the direction it is going. I can't say that Christmas will be like that but I'd be not surprised if retail is available year round even if it is holiday hours. It will be important to distinguish it from any other if this is the case. And if the government doesn't do anything about that, the public will.

AI and Cryptocurrency Data Sites North Dakota

Full credit to the Fargo Forum newspaper for their reporting. The above graphic is information they collected with no help from North Dakota. The state itself seems to have no desire to keep track of the huge energy and water consumers in the state and organizations that collect data with seeming no regulation at all. The energy consumption is the equivalent of the Hoover dam and the employment numbers once operational don't seem to rival even the most modest farm processing plant. The campus construction of buildings and roads brings temporary job and start-up money but aside from a new bowling alley, what will these hyperscale camp data centers bringing to our neighbour? And what are the implications for Manitoba?

That is the billion dollar question for North Dakota. It is a supermajority Republican government and the counties have near full control to what they want. The seven large data centers have non-disclosures and all sorts of blocks to finding out who owns them or for what purposes they will serve. The only certainty is they are incredible users of electricity and water. Half the counties in North Dakota have been approached for data centers.

Manitoba and North Dakota have already concerns about the huge expansion of dairy industry near the Red River watershed. In two counties by the river, a 25,000 cow operation and a 12,500 cow operation have been approved. The concerns in both countries is manure spreading to the water of the river  and causing nutrients that are are toxic. There is also the issue of water usage.  It takes 31 liters of water to make 1 liter of milk. That's a lot of water. Add the hyperscale data sites and there could be water shortages. It is entirely possible the Red could be dry by the time it crosses the border.

Industrial farms don't even come close to the massive energy and water needed of hyperscale data centers. Elon Musk is building massive facilities near Memphis and is tapping that state's (and neighbouring state's) energy and water resources for his artificial intelligence GROK. He said he needs he will have exceeds what out sun generates...or the universe. Yes, he said that.

One thing is clear is that hyperscale data centers eat up huge amounts of water and energy. They are extremely hot and extremely noisy. They employ very few people. While the upfront costs are in the billions for what goes into these campuses, the amount of resources needed seems to exceed what any region can provide. It is that enormous. 

It is now beyond the realm of possibility that North Dakota will seek hydro deals with Manitoba to help drive its relentless addition of data centers. This seems unlikely as Manitoba is set to make a sale to Nunavut and has more deals with Saskatchewan coming. We are already about to build gas turbines to cover our own internal shortfalls.

The growth in AI in Canada is also coming. The water and energy resources and cooler temperatures in the country make it inevitable that companies are in the hunt. However, they are also looking for jurisdictions with literally no rules like North Dakota. These companies don't like people people poking into zoning, ownership or what the data center is doing. 

The people who know something about AI say it is about doing things with few workers. In short, ending lawyers, diagnosticians, accountants, ad agencies, actors/directors/writers and so on. The short sightedness of this seems obvious. Who will but these services if no humans and jobs. Perhaps AI will sell to other AI. At some point, will they even need humans? Certainly AI can be a tool but if, as Elon Musk says, this tool requires all the energy of the sun and every bit of water in the solar system, is it really good for us?

Hats of to the Fargo Forum for there investigative journalism.

The Hour of Worship Fargo and Religious TV in Winnipeg

Winnipeg knows something about faith broadcasting. Initially, it was radio with Mennonite gospel on CKRC as early as 1947. The radio station CFAM started in 1956 and had a lot of Mennonite religious programs populated the airwaves, In 2020, Winnipeg got its first faith-based channel on FM radio.

One of the reasons the CRTC came in to being was the faith-based broadcasts out of Alberta from Ernest Manning were exploding across Canada where the premier/evangelist made requests for money. This raised concern in Ottawa and the CRTC was formed so that CBC was not the arbiter of broadcasting.

Mennonites were prime drivers of religious broadcasting in Manitoba and while their start came in radio, by the 1960s moves to TV broadcasting began. In Winnipeg, Calvary Temple started Faith to Live by on CJAY which later became CKY/CTV in 1962. It is now one of the longest running TV shows in Canada.

The first faith TV broadcast began in 1950 on ABC in New York during TV's infancy. TV arrived in Canada two years later and the first broadcast in Manitoba was CBC in Winnipeg in 1954, It consisted of three hours of programming. Consumers started buying black and white TV and the programming on CBC grew and it was 1960 when CJAY joined CBWT in Winnipeg as the first private station. The same year, CBWFT, French CBC began broadcasting. 

Across the border KCND in Pembina, North Dakota began to broadcast. With rabbit ear or antennae, it could be seen in parts of the city. This brought a total of four TV stations that could be seen in the city and the 1960s saw a huge increase in programming. Some of it was Canadian, lots of it American but with literally so many hours to fill, much of it was local. Some of that was by mandate but some was practicality of it being cheaper to fill than buying elsewhere.

CJAY at two years old welcomed Calvary Temple's Faith to Live By because production was handled by the church and it filled time on Sunday mornings that the station wasn't sure what to do with. Manitoba on Sundays was very quiet. Blue Bomber games were not allowed to be played on Sundays till 1965! The churches ruled the roost. No shopping, no games and even after 1965, mornings were pretty quiet. So Faith to Live by in 1962 kind of had the audience there for it.

Cable TV did not reach River Heights where I lived until 1968. And until 1970 my parents rented so it was not up to them to install the cable at $10 and pay $5 a month. We moved into our home in late summer of 1970 and by late 1971 had both colour and cable TV. The colour TV was a gift from my grandparents.

Colour TV did not come out till 1966 in Canada but so much of broadcasting was in black and white. Literally everyone I knew was getting colour TVs between 1968 and 1972. In our house, it was Saturday morning cartoons in colour that was a huge attraction. Jetsons and Flintstones were among the the first full colour series to be produced for TV. Older Warner Bros. material that originally has been in colour on the big screen was well suited for Saturday morning.

Sunday was not a day for cartoons in the morning. In Winnipeg there wasn't even a Sunday newspaper. Today, we have Vision TV and JOY-TV for faith-based programming. However, through the 1960s and 1970s Sundays and sometimes early mornings there was faith-based programming. As mentioned, Faith to Live By was one of the earliest on the air in 1962 and now one of the longest running faith programs in Canada. A few others were around for decades like It's a New Day. Church of the Rock has been on CityTV since 1996. Meanwhile, Mennonite broadcasting is done based here in Winnipeg in multi-languages for Russian and Spanish audiences.

Most people who watched TV in the 1960s through 1990s on cable would be aware of Jimmy Swaggert, Jim Bakker, Pat Robertson and whole lost of other televangelists in the U.S. However, there was some more traditionally services on the air too. In North Dakota, a Lutheran Church founded in 1950 began to broadcast in 1967 and because of cable, it was on the dial on WDAZ from the mother channel WDAY in Fargo. This year that church is 75 years old and the broadcast continues to be seen on cable in Winnipeg.

Elim Lutheran Church is a modest church in the Fargo-Moorhead area and because of the reach of cable has been part of the Winnipeg Sunday morning programming since 1968 when cable reached the city. North Dakota and Manitoba have shared a prairies experience living along the Red River. One can imagine the Swedish meatballs that will be eaten at their celebrations as the reach age 75.

It is a reminder that while times are more difficult now, we still share a heritage. The threats weekly from the U.S. ambassador in Canada notwithstanding, it is notable that our contact with our southern neighbour have lasted decades. 

Travel to North Dakota/Minnesota

The absence of Canadians is being noticed in North Dakota. A column this past weekend in the Fargo Forum lamented the loss. However, there was a war of words between liberal and conservative commenters after. Some indicated Canada was getting what they deserved and that it didn't matter what we did and it had no impact. There were others though that talked about the longstanding relationship being trashed.

To our friends in the U.S., it should be said that, most Canadians have responded with hurt and anger. Most of the trade that passes between the two countries has no tariffs. However, some items in both countries are protected by quotas. In the U.S. it is sugar and in Canada, it is milk. There is room for negotiation but accusations that Canada is a main source for fentanyl headed to the U.S. is a fiction shown clearly from America's own numbers. 

Ever since the election of Trump, Canadians have re-thought their travel and investment in the U.S. for winter housing, business and the like. Smooth travel across the border is always a concern. No one wants to be stopped at the border when they cross. Being asked questions about whether you support Trump and the answer dependent on if you cross is not exactly what anyone wants to hear. Also, knowing that any and all your electronic devices can be searched is enough to discourage people. What if you have business materials that you don't want your competitors to know on pricing, specifications and so on? Does this get passed along to U.S. business? You don't have any rights when you cross as a Canadian. You can be denied for whatever reason. In the past, this was not nearly as aggressive as it is now. Being denied entry because you brought a pre-paid phone instead of your regular phone has happened as well.

Crossing at Winnipeg International Airport or through North Dakota and Minnesota crossings seems to be less of an issue than at other crossings in Canada. Perhaps, those entry points are different than others but who can say? Regardless, traffic is down by a significant margin at those crossings. It isn't just the value of Canadian dollar either. People continued travelling to the States when the dollar was much lower. No, the problem now runs much deeper. Many are choosing not to go because of deeply felt convictions that it is wrong when Canadian sovereignty is threatened.

State and federal officials from the U.S. have appealed to Canada to return as tourists and encourage trade. Many have come to Canada to make their pitch. The thing is that a discount or appreciative banners on streets saying: we love Canadians is not going to remove the fear of border crossings or feelings in regards to 51st state talk. It is a question of respect. It may be that we are in for an even rougher road ahead. The full free trade act comes up for renewal next year.

Every long weekend since the beginning of the year, the car traffic to North Dakota and Minnesota has dropped. It will likely not completely die off. Too many Canadians have family in the U.S., or kids in school, work, conferences, winter homes that they have owned for years or holidays planned for a very long time. All of that will continue. Not to mention it will be hard to keep Canadians from wanting to see Team Canada in the Los Angeles Olympics, of soccer's World Cup in 2026. This applies to Blue Jays game and playoffs and NHL teams over the next months.

It is likely though that many Canadians will limit their travel or spending plans in the U.S. for some time to come unless there is a dramatic de-escalation of tariffs, tensions and other irritants. So states like North Dakota and Minnesota will likely still see reductions in Canadian travel and that could be more pronounced in the weeks and months ahead.

For the U.S., it is probably not just Canadian travellers who are absent this year but so far the overall decline is listed as 30% below last year's levels. From all tourism that is a $30 billion hit. There is no evidence that this is changing. Canadian tourism is up 30% as more in Canada have travelled elsewhere in the country.

America First is looking more like America alone. And Trump says this is only the beginning.

CBC Manitoba Adds Steinbach Bureau

 

Between CBC Manitoba Radio One and CBC Manitoba Television, CBC has a fairly large presence in the news department. Aside from Brandon, CBC Manitoba has a fairly light presence in covering anything outside the perimeter. The radio unit does make regular attempts to send the team to various parts of the province. And the TV unit does cover stories outside Winnipeg but the capital remains the biggest source of news material.

Brandon has had a news reporter based in the city for many years. They have needed one since their affiliation with CKX television in Brandon ended. That brought the station to an end in 2009 and CBC now had no real coverage for the second largest city in the province. A number of correspondents have worked the Brandon bureau. Their assignment is the city of Brandon and rural issues.

For decades some of the biggest advertisers on CBC Manitoba's evening news was ag related commercials. It is less so now. While CBC Radio One's Winnipeg broadcast is number 1 in the ratings, that is not true of the CBC local TV news in recent decades. It was once the top newscast but changes at the anchor desk and consistency at the other stations saw CBC slip to second and then third.

In today's market of cord cutting, as people sign on for streaming services and the like, the audience for local news goes down or appears to be on the decline. Certainly, how media reaches their audiences has changed greatly. When Bell dropped sports radio, it opened up several podcasts for former broadcasters and new entries in this niche. It is fairly shocking how pretty much all the local stations have dropped their sports reporting.

It certainly isn't written in stone that this is the best approach. Looking south to Fargo, North Dakota, we see WDAY use digital options to create a sports channel offshoot of their ABC slot dedicated to high school and university sports in the state. No media comes close to this coverage in Manitoba and North Dakota has a smaller population.

The overall CBC English and French service receives a lot of federal money. However, compared to other industrialized countries, it is below almost everyone except the U.S. The American have even cut their support more but have left the tax credits in place for people who donate to PBS and NPR.

In the last election the Conservatives said they would end CBC funding while the Liberals said they would increase spending. Since the election, Prime Minister Carney has ordered CBC to look for savings but kept the increase promised in election. All government departments have been asked to make cuts so the CBC is among those departments and Crowns. At the billion mark, there is a lot of money in the system. CBC Radio and Radio Canada, the French service punch above their weight class. They are both popular services and in the case of radio, have no advertising taken away from private broadcasters. CBC North can be regarded as an essential service given the lack of any alternatives.

The CBC English TV, with the goal of trying to serve a wider audience, the network decided to hire 30 more journalists in 22 communities. The Prairies would see the most of any region with nine communities having reporters. For Manitoba, the Steinbach/Hanover community the allocation is to be two reporters. The first one has already been hired. The second one will be soon. This will increase the coverage from 48 to 66 stations and bureaus across the country. It is long overdue.

CBC Manitoba is often accused of perimeter-itis. While it has reporters who know the outside of the city, it is not as often reflected in news. It isn't in their remit if they are reporting on city hall or the legislature. It remains to be seen how the new reporters will be utilized from Brandon to Steinbach. The Brandon reporter in recent years seems to have one digital story a week and regular contributions to the broadcast through the week. 

The CBC Manitoba evening news has a new set. The one old overlooked Portage at Spence. 

Brittany Greenslade took over as full time anchor after a period of rotating anchors when Janet Stewart left to take over the noon radio call in show for a year. While there isn't anything wrong with the new set per se, it really doesn't allow for much interaction between anchor and guest. Compared to APTN down the street, it isn't a very active set. National CBC programs have far more interesting sets for discussions which largely seem absent on CBC Manitoba.

I mention the news desk set because with two bureaus outside Winnipeg, it would be interesting at times if the Brandon or Steinbach correspondent could have a segment where they interact with the anchor. There have been occasions when correspondents have interacted in analysis segments. The Kives/Kavanaugh explainers were always interesting. Most of the interactions are now between weather anchor and new anchor. No stations carry sports reporters anymore. It is disappointing because nothing gets reported in Manitoba on high school and university sports. It isn't what happens south of the border. Nor does it happen in Britain. The BBC is full of sports coverage. That will be a discussion for another day.

The most important thing from the posting outside of Winnipeg will be new perspectives from those areas. And so it will go with all of the new bureaus. Will it magically make CBC television news number 1 in the markets it serves? No. There still needs to be a review of what CBC offers Canada. The future for CBC would appear to lie in streaming and they have moved local broadcasts to that format but so far it doesn't seem to coordinated enough to extend this service world-wide like BritBox or Acorn does with British programming.

I expect we will see more reporting from the bureaus across Canada in the fall as they are fully staffed. Given how many parts of the country have lost newspapers and radio stations, it may be the first full time reporter for those communities.

John Wheeler WDAZ/WDAY Retires - Winnipeg Perspective 2025

I've written how powerful WDAZ/WDAY has been in terms of being watched and recognized by people in Winnipeg. The NBC/ABC affiliate has been seen north of the border since 1967 although in my house we didn't get cable until l970 and colour TV till 1971. WDAZ was the Grand Forks satellite of the larger WDAY of Fargo. The local newscast of WDAZ was seen in Winnipeg and for travellers from Manitoba who went to Grand Forks. 

We became familiar with Terry Dullum as anchor from 1975 and Pat Sweeney at sports from 1983. We also got to see weather personality Dewey Bergquist who gave the weather from Fargo but also the Grand Forks broadcast. Some people who travelled to the States were familiar with Bergquist because they heard or saw him in Fargo doing weather as early as the 1950s.

I remember when Bergquist retired in 1985, there were a few of those old timers who were sad on both sides of the border. Even for myself, he was the face of weather south of us for 15 years of my life. He was replaced in 1985 by the first full time meteorologist in the state John Wheeler. He was based at the WDAY location in Fargo but did the Grand Forks WDAZ broadcast as well.

It would be some time before Winnipeg would get a local meteorologist with John Sauder first with CKY/CTV and CBC Winnipeg. We have had to receive broadcasts from weather specialists most of the broadcast history on Manitoba. Even now, we have do with broadcast meteorologists outside Manitoba. 

Our regional relationship with different areas is fading with digital and satellite radio, cord cutting from cable and the like. Some young people only get information from smart phones so are not exposed to television in the same way. There were just fewer listening and viewing options. This meant many people were exposed to the same entertainment and news. 

For Winnipeg, the 1970s and the 1980s saw most in the city having cable television. There were three Canadian networks and four U.S. networks (including PBS). A weather channel, a French channel and public access pretty much rounded out the dial. While many programs were simulcast, often weather updates broke into the North Dakota signals. It is at those times a meteorologist like John Wheeler would appear with a bad weather report.

In the 1970s, I began to watch U.S. national news. My favourite network was ABC which was on KTHI from Fargo. I was aware of local news from that station but my interest was more in the national ABC World News Tonight broadcast. Still, I knew that the weather guy at least in the early 1980s at KTHI was Rob Thorson. The KTHI station had the tallest tower in the world. It was needed because reception was a problem for all the American station. During bad weather it was possible to lose signal for any and all the stations.

WDAZ was the closest North Dakota cable station to Winnipeg (along with Prairie Public Television and PBS). KCND Pembina, North Dakota was closed and moved to Winnipeg to become CKND in 1974. The WDAZ station was affiliated with NBC which in the 1970s was third place in the ratings in the U.S. whereas KTHI in Fargo carried ABC and that network had moved into number one in ratings.

NBC programming had a few bright spots in 1970s such as Saturday Night Live but had programming that older Americans liked such as Marcus Welby, Ironside, Columbo, McLeod and McMillan and Wife. Other programming later in the decade such as Little House on the Prairie, Diff'rent Strokes and Facts of Life appealed to families and younger kids but network struggled. Regardless, in North Dakota, WDAZ/WDAY had high ratings which may have had to do with local news which they did very well. And once someone tuned into a network, they were likely to stick with it. No remore controls back then.

In 1983, everything changed in August when ABC went to WDAY/WDAZ and asked them to change affiliations to their number one network. For ABC, it was an attempt to lock in Fargo and Grand Forks but also Bismarck which even in the 1980s did not have much in network affiliates. KTHI was completely taken by surprise with many staff only learning about it after the deal was done. It caught people in Manitoba by surprise too although we had no say in what U.S networks did.

Suddenly, WDAZ with ABC affiliation had the number one station. KTHI with NBC now had the third rated network. The good news for KTHI was that ratings steadily climbed as they focused on comedies and acclaimed dramas and reclaimed the long lost position at the top. It was in 1985 when John Wheeler came aboard the WDAZ broadcast as meteorologist.

While Grand Forks was smaller than Fargo, they offered a very good news broadcast than won awards for their coverage of the 1997 flood. Wheeler became a recognizable face for his cut-ins during bad weather south of the border. By 1986, the only two North Dakota stations left on cable were WDAZ and Prairie Public when KTHI and KXJB were dropped because of signal quality. This meant that John Wheeler was the only weather guy we saw from North Dakota in our homes in Winnipeg.

In the years following we received our NBC, CBC and later Fox signals from Detroit, Toldeo, Rochester, New York and lastly Minneapolis. Or connection to WDAZ remained strong even as the Grand Forks station closed their news department in 2018. Winnipeg still got their signal from Grand Forks but the news came from WDAY in Fargo. All through this John Wheeler was the meteorologist. That is, until this week when he retired. 

His weather department grew to six people. It is an example of what local news can be. WDAY has a large weather, sports and news department and lots of local broadcasting. It is worth comparing to our own local news which is pathetically tiny when covering local sports or have meteorologists employed. John Wheeler's retirement is the end of another era of broadcasters and he'll be missed even from those in Canada.

All over, there have been retirements. In the last two years, we have seen Janet Stewart and John Sauder leave local TV broadcasts. Some have been let go in cost cutting. Given how local TV has seen audiences drift away to so many other platforms, perhaps we never get to know someone as well as a John Wheeler. The audience has grown so fragmented. Here's to John Wheeler in retirement!

Von Maur Department Store Now Open in Fargo

Manitobans travelling to North Dakota had to brave two lanes of traffic and no passing lanes on Highway 75 from Winnipeg to the border until twinning took place from 1985 to 1994. The U.S. in North Dakota completed twinning in 1977 from Pembina all the way to Fargo. The old border stations were easy to cross. Even in the 1970s they were tiny things. Families easily crossed with no IDs. Just a few basic questions. It was the return back to Canada and the low amount of duty free that was a concern. Only in the last decade or so has it risen to higher amounts.

Before Grand Forks and Fargo had malls built, Winnipeggers shopped in their department stores downtown. They also stayed in motels near the downtown. North Dakota was years behind Winnipeg when it came to malls. Fargo would be the first with a mall called West Acres in 1972. It would take two more years for 13th Avenue to be built in front of it. Looking west was wheat fields. Fargo itself was more than a mile a way.

While Winnipeggers continued to stay in Grand Forks and shop in the downtown there, it was not uncommon for families to make a quick day trip to West Acres once the mall was built in 1972.  The lack of hotels nearby and two years of road construction thereafter put those off who wanted to actually stay in Fargo to shop at the new mall. For our family, we stayed for years at the Townhouse in Grand Forks near the downtown because it had an indoor swimming pool. Others stayed in the Holiday Inn from the Holidome that was built in 1966. The Ramada went up in 1973 next door. The pools and event centers inside were more important to people from Winnipeg than staying in Fargo where hotels near West Acres were not popping up till at least 1974.

Although Winnipeg had malls like Polo Park and Grant Park Mall, people were still quite used to going downtown for shopping and restaurants. So shopping downtown Grand Forks was not considered unusual. Still, the construction of West Acres Mall was a gamechanger in border shopping for Canadians.

But as the above picture shows, it was in the middle on nowhere and motels took a bit longer to materialize. It was a good day trip from Grand Forks but not enough to attract those headed down for a two day weekend. And remember, the Canadian part of the journey was on a two lane highway and the Interstate was only finished off in 1977. It could be a harrowing journey with a semi trailer behind you.

The trip to West Acres though was a different experience than what Canadians had experienced in North Dakota though and many curious travellers went to shop. What they found was local Fargo department store Delendrecies, Minnesota-based retailer Dayton's and national retailer Sears. It was the smaller stores and their variety that attracted Winnipeggers as well such Hickory Farms and Musicland. By 1979, in an expansion, West Acres added J.C. Penny. 

Many changes in retail over the decades meant Delendrecies eventually becoming Herbergers in 1998. Dayton's became Marshall Fields in 2001 and Macy's in 2006. In recent years Herberger's and Sears have closed leaving malls all over the U.S. scrambling. It was only in 2000-01 that West Acres put in a food court. In one of the empty spaces left from department store closing, the mall has created The District which features restaurants inside and outside the mall. Crave, a sushi restaurant from Minnesota was the first tenant.

Best Best eventually moved into the mall in 2017 in 50,000 square feet of Sear which shuttered in 2017 after 45 years in the mall. Best Best had been next door since 1994 in a 45,000 square foot location. West Acres has shown considerable resiliency when compared to Columbia Mall in Grand Forks. However, when Herberger's closed, the question of what to do with the space was a big one. A few retailers looked at the space and nothing resulted. That is until a mid-west department store that somehow does well when national retailers are dropping.

Von Maur is a fourth generation family run department store founded in 1872 out in Davenport, Iowa. It has slowly grown to 39 stores across the U.S. The 39th store of 90,000 square feet will be in Fargo, North Dakota. It is Von Maur's first store in the state. Perhaps as a family store that doesn't have to fight takeovers of their shares, they have been able to make decisions on their business that has allowed them to survive and expand over the years. 

So what is Von Maur? It is a department store catering to upscale fashion for men and women. They carry a number of fashion lines and have not tried to do so many general merchandise things like Sears or other department stores have. In other words, they have stayed focused on what they are good at. Perhaps the one department store comparable in Canada is Simon's. That is another example of slow, steady and focused while staying privately owned.

Von Maur's also runs a newer, larger mall store group called Dry Goods USA which has over 80 stores across the U.S. including West Acres. All in all Von Maur's and West Acres are a good match. The mall owners there never gave up on finding tenants. And Von Maur has looked for placed where their unique offerings might work. Unlike Columbia Mall which is largely empty, West Acres is set to remain relevant into the future.

The only thing that might hurt the retail success of West Acres is the tariffs. If higher prices lead to a recession and prices spiking from products that have tariffs, there could be problems. How much does Von Maur have from China on the shelf? How many farmer face tariffs selling into China. As far as Canadian tourists go, the numbers are dropping each month. Fargo is no longer part of a lot of people's travel plans. Canada might be in recession already and people will pull back on spending. And no, Canada will not beg to become the 51st state nor welcome an invasion. It just means we will seek other markets until things change in the U.S.

Some businesses won't notice the drop but they will notice the price changes. The tariffs are still fresh and they will be hard to ignore. At the moment, until the pain reaches into every aspect of the economy, most people will ignore it. The question will be what will be the response?

Fargo is a fine city and West Acres a fine mall. They seem to be doing everything they can to continue prosperity and hospitality. Attracting Von Maur is an indication they are doing everything right. At some point, I hope Canadians will be able to enjoy it in the future.

Media Changes in North Dakota and Minnesota

Media shake-ups abound on both sides of the border. in 2024, Winnipeg Sun was spun off from National Post media group to locally owned Kevin Klein Group. It marks the first time that both major newspapers in the city have been owned locally in their history. For the Sun, it has led to more local news columnists. It also led to breaking more stories.

The Winnipeg Free Press has also added more local columnists over the years even if some have been controversial such as Charles Adler. Local is what newspapers and TV/Radio news need to stand out and yes, make money. Large conglomerates cut and cut again and then often just close and add the tax loss to write off debts. They are rarely builders. Free Press ownership is shared by Winnipegger Bob Silver and former Winnipegger Ronald N. Stern.

Two local owners of major newspapers in Canada is so unusual that is you can count on three fingers the cities they are in. For the west, it is only one city: Winnipeg. And so far they are fighting a battle against what many in Europe call the six gatekeepers: Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Apple, ByteDance (TikTok), Meta (Facebook) and Microsoft. Even those who receive no government money, companies such as these can control access to their platforms. The breakdown of Microsoft update shutting down the Internet is one 2024 example of how bad things can get. And digital ad money gets swooped up and AI from these giants creates content mined from creators all over. In other words, an independent journalist who breaks a story can see it used by the biggies and not get paid for it.

The gatekeepers can do this to even larger companies too. Artificial Intelligence is being used to create new stories. But where does that information come from? It is often mined from companies such as the New York Times. If the largest newspapers, media companies and the like are vulnerable from the super giants, how do the rest of us even cope. Those saying that the government tinkering in business ignore the fact anti-trust moves are to keep things competitive in a capitalist market. For example, the modern Internet became possible when AT&T was broken up. It triggered some of the biggest investments in telecom ever seen which was essential to a widespread, faster Internet.

The questions of what to do about the supranational giants will remain the question of the day. In recent weeks, Google's search engine has been declared a monopoly by the U.S. government. It remains to be seen see what the federal agencies will decide to do. In the meantime, news and media companies are coming up with new strategies to stay relevant and profitable. North Dakota and Minnesota have seen some of their largest media companies make moves in 2024.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has dropped the Minneapolis part and it is now Minnesota Star Tribune. This would be in keeping with their sports teams that have always been wise to using Minnesota for their NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB teams without fail. Minneapolis and St. Paul are truly Twin Cities and there are communities of some size all through the metropolitan area. Changing the name makes sense.

A competing broadsheet in St. Paul, Minnesota also dropped their city name in favour of just Pioneer Press. It is not owned locally and have experienced massive cuts over the years. In 2006 they had over 200 unionized writers. By 2023, that number was down to 23. The MediaNews Group that owns the paper and has a reputation of cuttings. Still, like the Star Tribune, it is trying to extend its readership and their website to include all of Minnesota. Their website is twincities.com which doesn't even mention Pioneer Press.

The Twin Cities also has MinnPost.com which is a non-profit digital news for the region. TV and radio stations have substantial news and sports content in Minnesota as well as North Dakota. PBS has extensive coverage of the regions. While there is less local ownership of TV and radio stations in big markets likes Minneapolis, there remains some. In this way, they are not much different than Winnipeg where nearly all local TV and radio has ownership outside Manitoba.

It is the digital audience that everyone in media is trying to capture. Just as landlines are being cut, people are cutting their print newspapers and cable. The problem is that digital ads don't pay as much as print or TV ones. Plus, the gatekeepers scoop up all the money that is there as well as use the content for their own ends. It is the definition of antitrust. 

What the big digital companies don't do as well is news that people might want or need locally. Reddit has discussions on local stuff but it isn't curated in news, weather and sports categories in the way other media is. To that end, local news and TV/radio in North Dakota and Minnesota are offering much more local appeal. Having a local meteorologist reporting is standard for TV stations in the U.S. where some of the wildest weather keeps them on our toes. Winnipeg does not make this a priority. Also, the new digital sub-channels that a station like WDAY Fargo as makes local sports a priority. Al the high school football games in the Fargo region is on the WDAY sub-channels. We don't have digital sub-channels on TV or radio in Manitoba yet and none seem to be happening in Canada. It would appear media empires and the CRTC just don't see the need. If it is Canadian content guidelines that are required, there would seem to be enough library material of older shows to put in place.

In terms of Minnesota, the 157 years old Star Tribune is hiring more writers, not less. The are focusing on placing more reporters outside Minneapolis-St. Paul and covering areas such as business, downtown, regional state issues and investigations. Cannabis stores are new in Minnesota so they will cover that. This is a familiar area for Free Press who covered cannabis with a dedicated journalist for a while. Overall, the state-wide focus means that the Star Tribune will be reaching large audiences but still remain hyper-local. Large media networks just don't cover those areas except in general terms of news, weather and sports.

There will be a lot of eyes on the Star Tribune's investment in expanded coverage. Glen Taylor, the billionaire local owner, is spending new money on top of the $100 million that he paid for the paper in 2014 has turned the paper around. It makes money and has maintained around 225 writing staff and a total of 1,000 or so altogether. The Free Press, by contrast, has 50 reporter and 580 total staff. The Free Press also have community newspapers, Brandon and Steinbach journalists which adds to total writers in Manitoba.  

The Winnipeg Free Press, like Star Tribune, have rich owners. The Free Press is owned by Bob Silver from Winnipeg and Ronald N. Stern, formerly from Winnipeg but now based in Vancouver. Bob Silver is the director in charge. Stern owns companies valued just under $2 billion including many based in Winnipeg. Some wags have suggested that only papers with deep pocketed owners, preferably local, will ever invest in local media. Examples abound in Canada and the U.S. of this.

Digital subscriptions, as the New York Times has shown, is the way for the newspapers to find success. However, the big six grow ever more powerful so that that they can simply use artificial intelligence to create news stories largely harvested from what others report. All the money flowing to the big six even threatens the major industrial nations. It is the inherent danger if antitrust is not pursued. Total monopolies bullying nations.

The Star Tribune is probably not finished evolving. Both the Star Tribune and Free Press are doing newsletters and podcasts. Those are likely a lot of better for a newspaper than X/Twitter or Facebook. As the fifth largest newspaper in America and the addition of hiring six more Minnesota reporters, it will be creating considerably content.

In Canada, TV and radio conglomerates such as Corus, Rogers and Bell use their news teams across platforms. However, they have all made cuts and likely overpaying for show rights in the U.S. This makes them routinely ask to cut Canadian content. Rarely do they use Canadian-made content such as news as part of their commercial success. The mergers and acquisitions and overpaying for product brings inevitable cuts. And for what? Some of the radio and TV stations that get bought get closed down. Often enough there isn't even an attempt to sell the enterprise. Luckily, in Winnipeg, the National Post sold three papers including the Winnipeg Sun to Kevin Klein so they could be owned locally. There is a strong possibility that the papers might have been closed otherwise.

Throughout North America, the rate of closures is about two newspapers a week. Often this mean no local coverage of any regional issues which can lead to poor performance from local officials who face no scrutiny. You don't need a billionaire for a small media company but you sure could use a leading citizen or two interested in running and operating something that can't be treated like a franchise 

with identical reporting.

The Star Tribune has a billionaire owner in Glen Taylor and a local interested in investing in more reporting. The competitive market in Minnesota will be very interesting to keep an eye on. However, Minnesota is not the only state to keep an eye on. North Dakota has seen their own local media become regional in focus.

In the case of North Dakota, Winnipeg has been able to watch the growth of this media company much more closely. Anyone from Manitoba has been able to read the Grand Forks Herald and Fargo Forum newspapers has been exposed this Pulitzer-prize winning companies. The Herald won the Pulitzer for its coverage of the 1997 flood and fire which flooded and burned down their building.  The Forum won the Pulitzer for coverage of the 1957 F5 tornado that killed over 100 people. It was the northern most F5 today until the Elie, Manitoba F5 in 2007. 

The Black-Marcil family have built their business from the Fargo Forum platform. The newspaper was started in 1878 and took on the name Forum in 1891. The Black-Marcil family have owned it since 1917 and took over the Grand Forks Herald in 2006. Forum Communications is also a TV and radio owner. Most in Winnipeg will be familiar with today's WDAY (formerly WDAZ) that has been on the cable band for decades. Along with Prairie Pubic Broadcasting (PBS), these two station remain the only North Dakota stations still seen in Manitoba.

Forum Communications, from their Fargo headquarters, has run a large news team from their newspaper as well as their TV station. WDAY began in 1953 and was originally a NBC affiliate with a helping of other network programming from CBC, ABC and Dumont. A sister station in Grand Forks was started in 1967 because the region needed a station since Fargo's signal was now powerful enough to reach the area with CBC Winnipeg's broadcast. WDAZ ended in 2006 except for a news bureau of WDAY.

The Marcil family has had to adjust to the size of the state and but to go where their audience is. The state capital is down the highway from Fargo and has to be covered so a Forum bureau reporter is based there. The WDAY network maintains a bureau and sales office in Grand Forks. All of the newspapers that Forum Communications has purchased from big media companies have been folded into a news service that covers North Dakota, Minnesota and South Dakota.

In 2024, Forum Communications continues to pick up independent TV stations in places like South Dakota with the intent of establishing a regional media presence. The company has been expanding rather contracting. While it was a blow to Grand Forks to lose WDAZ, the trade off has been great state broadcasting of local sports throughout the region including Grand Forks. No national media corporation will ever be interested in this type of work.

Forum also owns WDAY radio but literally everything in radio is owned by huge conglomerates. Forum contracts out management to a North Dakota media group. Almost everything in American AM radio is conservative or Christian broadcasting. In many cases there is not a single employee working aside from some technical person. It has been problematic in disasters as there is often no one to even broadcast emergency signals as mandated by the FCC.

Bismarck, which is the second largest city in North Dakota, literally has no media that is locally owned. Were it not for  Forum Communications, it would not have any North Dakota owned media. So much of newspaper, TV and radio industry is controlled from somewhere else and often, they would rather shutter the business than attempt to sell it. It has been Forum Communications that has picked up these assets when they have come available.

In Canada and the U.S. we have seen newspapers, TV station and radio stations closed down with very little attempt to find buyers. Assets are trades by big corporations and then dumped after after a while. It is only local owners who will care such as we see in Minneapolis and Fargo or in Winnipeg. And the goal of the local owners is to expand coverage and reach a larger regional audience.

1984 Democratic National Convention Tale of Two Cities Speech - Mario Cuomo

I don't remember too much of the 1972 Democratic and Republican conventions as a kid except what might have been on Canadian news. We had only moved into our new house in 1970 and a had a black and white television with rabbit ears and really only two channels. CBC French channel really didn't come in that well in River Heights without a rooftop antenna. We got Videon cable in 1971 and a colour TV in the same year. The colour TV was a gift from my mom's parent's. 

It was our first exposure to ABC, CBS and NBC at home. Our family had begun to venture down to Grand Forks, North Dakota the same year and had discovered Saturday morning cartoons. We would stay at the Town House motel as it had a pool and all shopping at the time was downtown as Columbia Mall was a few years away from being built.

In 1972 in our travels to the States, I noticed the political signs for Republican and Democratic candidates and even in elementary school, it was an impressive site. Pretty much even before elementary school, I was aware of politics through the news. The words Vietnam was something I heard on the news all the time. I knew Canada was not in it but our neighbour to the south was. 

As a child in Canada experience the joy and pride of a new flag, a 100th birthday party for the country and a new prime minister called Pierre Trudeau, there seem to be a celebratory mood everywhere. This was followed by Manitoba's birthday in 1970 and Winnipeg's birthday in 1974. Meanwhile the U.S. seemed to be in chaos with wars, assassinations and street riots. 

Travelling to the U.S. at length showed the U.S. was much more than that. North Dakota and Minnesota were familiar territory and comfortable for those in Winnipeg travelling. It had exciting differences too. Cartoons for one. Cereals for another. And for 7 year old me, the pageantry and colour of a U.S. election was hard to look away from.

As mentioned, I was a bit too young in 1972 to stay up late watching the U.S. conventions. On a school night, it would be unusual for me to be up past 9 and that is when things were just getting going for conventions. However, by 1976 I was old enough and aware enough about real differences in the U.S. and Canada. Our family travelled months in the U.S. in the early 1970s which gave a different spin on what one saw on TV and through entertainment.

The amount of media exposure a kid could have by 1976 to the U.S. was overwhelming. And with only a dozen TV stations, the shared experiences via that medium were more widespread. Kids all over were watching Six Million Dollar Man in 1973. Today, there is far more diversity in entertainment offerings. May don't watch TV at all in favour of video gaming. As far as news goes today, if kids don't see it on TikTok, it often is something they don't know about. 

As a little kid I remember the whole house watching the Apollo lunar landings in 1969. The broadcast were watched by nearly 90% of the population. Today that number would seem to be impossible no matter the newsworthiness. CBC covered the landing for hours just as all world networks did. The National on CBC TV was on at 11 pm so my exposure to news was mostly from the local news at 6:30 PM, Yes, you heard that right. CBC's 24Hours news program ran 6:30 to 7:30 until 1977. In our house, we had CBC Radio on and listened to the national news at 6 while eating at the dining room table. With no microwave, toaster oven or other cooking devices, dinners took longer to prepare. In 1971, we'd listen to As it Happens at 6:30 PM with Barbara Frum before the TV might go on.

The 1972 U.S. election saw Richard Nixon re-elected with the biggest majority ever by a Republican. The U.S. economy was booming even as the Vietnam War continued. The Canadian economy, by contrast, was slumping and the Trudeau government was re-elected with a minority. In Manitoba, it meant the only Liberal representation was businessman James Richardson who served in the cabinet. As as kid I saw how Trudeau went from loved to hated in four years. It was mystifying. However, in retrospect the Canadian and U.S. elections happened almost at the same time and a turn to Republicans in the States had some impact in Canada as people compared economies. The 1972 Summit Hockey series was on at start of campaign but did little to help Pierre Trudeau make people forget inflation.

Since Canada has different part conventions, there is no excitement of selecting a leader and policy debates can be a little dry. Both the Liberals and PCs had leaders in 1972. Even Nixon has to secure his party's nomination despite being incumbent president. All I remembered from the 1972 Democratic National convention in New York was that it was chaotic. The Vietnam War still raged on but an extremely Democrats were not able to capitalize and ran on a very liberal platform. Their nominee McGovern was not able to balance the ticket with a big city Democrat with Kennedy-like popularity and by the time he secured the nomination he ended up giving his acceptance speech around 3 AM. Nixon would go on to beat McGovern badly.

It would be the following year that I began delivering the Winnipeg Tribune. I had started filling in the year before and started my own route the next year. For kids, comics was often the first thing they read in the paper. Often sports might come next. I was already interested in the news so as a carrier I would usually read the paper cover to cover. People in Winnipeg were either Free Press people or Tribune people.

The Vietnam War was still a major issue but something called Watergate began to emerge in the U.S. and appearing in the papers in Winnipeg. Nixon dominated the headlines. It was around 1973 that I started watching American evening news more regularly. At first it was CBS and Walter Kronkite, then some NBC with John Chancellor. However, because ABC kept trying to reach new audiences, I would tune in to them and often keep watching their programming into the evening.

I mention the networks because CBS, NBC and ABC all build large studios at Democratic and Republican conventions. It is a rather impressive fare when seen with the backdrop of every state having markers for their delegates and the large convention arena seating. As mentioned, I was a bit too young to have been following the 1972 U.S. conventions but the 1976 ones were a different story.

In 1975, Saturday Night Live started on NBC and in the central time zone, it was on at 10:30 PM. It was the perfect program for weekends for younger people. While I had seen presidential and political humour on Johnny Carson, the craziness of SNL was unparalleled. Nixon was gone but they managed to parody Gerald Ford with pratfalls done by Chevy Chase that were hilarious.

It was shocking to me how popular Nixon was in 1972 and by 1974 he was most hated. My memory of him leaving out the back door by Marine helicopter while Ford took over in the front door remains with me today. The shocking decline felt familiar to me as in 1968 Trudeau was super popular but by 1972 had fallen hard.

I had been interested in politics right from Kindergarten. A teacher had told my parents that I shouldn't be worried about the Arab-Israeli conflict. I obviously had talked about it at school after listening to the news at home. By 1973, I was seeing a war in Israel and was still asking questions but school was a great place to ask them. My school text often had American references to presidents in them. Canadian history was thin. World history even thinner.

By 1976, I was able to take in the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. Gerald Ford had to fight a contested nomination with a few challengers such as Ronald Reagan in the convention in Kansas City in August. I was unfamiliar with the primary system but I do know that there were many who were not happy in the party with the Fall of Saigon, détente and what happened with Nixon's resignation. 

By contrast, the Democrats seemed more upbeat and Jimmy Carter, Governor of Georgia ran as an outsider. In 1975, our family had passed through Georgia on the way to Florida. I remembered Carter's name from our travels there. Carter chose Walter Mondale, the senator from Minnesota. 

The one thing I really remembered was the keynote speech from the Democratic convention in  New York was Barbara Jordan, the first black woman to address at convention. She had recently been elected to Congress in Texas. It was a great speech and was the first time I had heard of a keynote speech before. It was amazing and surprisingly, no duplicated in the 1980 convention.

Jimmy Carter won the election but a terrible economy, price and wage controls and Iran taking American hostages crushed Democrats in the polls. Ronald Regan was back. I remember a little about the conventions. They were a little chaotic but then the who election cycle was overshadowed by American hostages. The Republican convention in Detroit had a keynote speaker who spoke with no notes for 37 minutes and probably set the tone for what was to come with Reagan. It really was a movement.

I won't go into all the conventions but in 1984 Reagan's speech to Republic National Convention and Mario Cuomo's speech were among the finest ever given at a convention ever. I have included Cuomo's speech above.