I feel the need to congratulate myself. I just recently graduated from ‘Recession  101’.  I learned the basics of ‘realizing just how bad of shape our economy is’ in just under five minutes.

How did I learn you ask? After reading a well-written story from another publication in town, I gathered the facts and wrote my final exam and I passed with flying colours.

What did I learn? Well, I learned that CKX Television, a place where I spent two and a half years working as a Creative Produc-er/Writer, is currently in a state of flux yet again after it was revealed Shaw Communications opted out of their agreement to purchase the station last week.

CKX TV is once again, without a buyer, and once again, waiting ever so patiently for a positive outcome and hopefully, a lengthy future in the Wheat City.

The ‘recession’ we are currently in the midst of, has had to rear its ugly head on numerous occasions. I mean, look at General Motors for pete’s sake. It’s had to ‘reinvent’ itself for a reason.

As for the media world, advertising dollars are down, which means layoffs. I have seen it and I have heard about it. There are people I know that have lost jobs. People I consider to be very good at what they do, but unfortunately have had to find other ways to make a living.

I consider myself very fortunate to be still doing this for a living. There are days where I take this job for granted. But I wouldn’t trade this in for anything. I went to a post secondary institution where I was able to acquire a communications degree.

I worked hard in order to get here. So did the employees at CKX Television.

They deserve to be working in the media field. It’s what many of them went to school for. For some, it’s a job, and for some, it’s a way of life.

With that being said, I felt compelled to do a story on my former employer. I felt  that despite the fact, we here at the Journal tend to stray away from ‘hard news’ content, I felt as though Journal readers need to know about the current state of the station even though they may have heard or read it somewhere else already.

Like I’ve mentioned in a previous column, I have built relationships with many at CKX and hope the station somehow finds a way to stay alive.

It would be sad to see a station with so much history in this community fade to black.

Let’s hope for the sake of hoping, that’s not the case.