Museum acquires Southwest TV News archives
The Swift Current Museum made a major step to ensure that Swift Current’s recent history would be well documented by acquiring the extensive Southwest TV News video archive.
The museum was announced as the new home of the Southwest TV News archive on Feb. 7. “It’s a valuable and significant part of our history,” said Museum Director Lloyd Begley at the announcement. “By housing these records in the form of video documents, almost 15 years of news coverage in Swift Current and the Southwest has come has found a home. It will allow all citizens access to the history of Swift Current and the Southwest’s recent past. So I want to thank you all for making our history available to everybody.”
The acquisition was sponsored by Stark & Marsh and the Living Sky Casino.
“I think tracking our history is vital. I think it is extremely important to all of us. Maybe the older I get I feel that even a little bit more. When you look back at some of the things that you’ve seen over 50 years now I guess in my case and there’s a lot of things that you remember back on very fondly and I think that’s important that you’re able to do that,” said Elden Moberg of Stark & Marsh. He noted that being a part of the Centennial celebrations peaked his interest in the history of his hometown. Moberg also pointed out that much of the video footage prior to Southwest TV had been lost.
“I’ve only been here for 11 years,” added Trevor Marion, Living Sky Casino General Manager. “I’m from Swift Current, but prior to that I didn’t know the landscape. I didn’t know the people. So I started to look at that sense of it and I thought we need to get involved with this. The casino likes to give back, wants to give back. If I don’t give back, who else will and is there a risk that this archive goes away for somebody else to look at?”
Southwest TV News was a product of managing partners George Tsougrianis and Carol Andrews for nearly 15 years.
“It’s a bittersweet day here for us because this truly does mark the end of Southwest TV News, but I guess I am thankful and I am happy that we’ve reached this milestone where we can hand off all this material to Lloyd and his staff,” explained Tsougrianis. “I’m hopeful that with technology there’s all kinds of great opportunities that we haven’t even considered because the one great thing about all this stuff is it’s all digital. Even though we started off initially as a tape-based format, we digitized everything. The one thing we were very meticulous about is everything was catalogued to the very shot, so it’s all there and it’s a question of how do we use it. So I really look forward to seeing in what ways, not just the staff here, but hopefully the public, can use this wonderful archive.”
“I think you are looking at two people who committed a lot of their life to this work and to make sure that basically the history of our community over the 2000’s was covered. I think that I would be remiss if I didn’t say thank you to George and Carol for the work they put into this. Obviously this becomes a little bit of their legacy too when they walk into the museum they get an opportunity to look at their life’s work a little bit through that period of time too,” noted Moberg.
The library includes 2,985 data DVDS with over 150,000 video files. There are an additional 100,000 video files on network drives. The collection is catalogued and archived in a database. “Ultimately, the real power… as a living document is that it is totally searchable,” explained Tsougrianis.
The collection includes approximately 1,400 episodes of Southwest TV News covering all the municipal, provincial, and federal elections since 2005, the construction of the Cypress Regional Hospital, the Casino construction and grand opening, the expansion of the Civic Centre, the construction and opening of All Saints and École Centennial Schools. Other notable events include the 2010 Winter Olympic Torch Relay, the 2010 World Womens Curling Championship, the Centennial celebrations, the 2016 World Womens Curling, Rogers Hometown Hockey, Hockey Day in Canada, and the 2019 Western Canada Summer Games.
Other parts of the collection include 20 citizen profiles that were part of the five most fascinating series, 21 Art Gallery exhibition profiles, and 14 historical documentaries as part of the Stories of the Great Southwest documentary series.
Tsougrianis said that in the end it really came down to the people of the Southwest and the great honour and privilege that he and Andrews had in telling their stories.
“It’s hard for me to talk about because when you’re passionate about something it’s something that lives with you. I can’t turn that off. That really stuck with me and it stuck with me over these years that we weren’t just telling the stories. This was a responsibility that we had to tell these stories, but to also archive them in a way that’s going to live on long after we’re both gone. That’s why this is so important.”
“Well it’s like any part of an archive, it’s a depository for your history, your past. It’s for generations who are still yet to be part of our community to go back and take a look at and learn about the significant aspects of their past and of their history,” added Begley, who said the footage would be accessible on site so people could come and look through the archives.
Though it was a deal two years in the making, it was still an emotional day for Tsougrianis when the announcement was made at the museum.
“That’s why this was for me exceptionally difficult because it does represent the finality of the Southwest TV News project. Even though we finished in June, we had been talking about this for a couple years. It’s just one of those things that it’s a physical manifestation of the end. There it is, they’ll soon be here and now that will be an empty shelf or series of shelves for us. For me it’s a very physical.”
He hopes that his work will help document the history of the Southwest for generations to come.
“When I saw that gosh they had just a smattering of what was 45 years of broadcasting history that really brought it home to me… that it’s not just about the news, it’s about we’re creating something that we have to do in a way that will live on beyond us. I really do think that there are opportunities that we haven’t even considered in terms of how this could be used.”
Andrews has moved on to work for the Dr. Noble Irwin Regional Healthcare Foundation.
“I’m still a storyteller,” said Tsougrianis. “I’ll probably be 80 years old and have a camera in my hand and that will be part of what I will continue to do. I guess for the short term I am interested in trying to find out what are some other stories that maybe transcend the local audience. Certainly we’re interested in still doing stories here, it’s just things like documentaries and potentially other projects are what I’m trying to pursue now instead of doing the news.”