*Chercover deserves credit

I was very happy to see your well-deserved tribute to Trina McQueen in Playback (Oct. 18).

I hope, however, that I may be forgiven for expressing a little disappointment at one small part of the piece.

In her enthusiasm for the new job, Trina managed in one sentence to give the back of her hand to the first thirtysomething years of ctv’s existence, and to all of us who worked so hard to make ctv the company which Baton tried so hard for so long to acquire.

I quote: ‘It was only when Ivan [Fecan] finally found a way to put the network and its affiliates together that ctv became a real broadcasting organization…’

I think former ctv president Murray Chercover deserves better than that. Despite the infighting among the affiliate stations – for much of which cfto itself was responsible – Murray led a team which worked with those stations to create Canada’s preeminent network in just about all the areas which had long been dominated by the cbc.

We were a real broadcasting organization, as Trina knows full well from her days in competition with us in both news and entertainment programming. If epitaphs for the ‘old’ ctv are to be written, please let them have the accuracy which they deserve.

pip wedge,

former vp programming,

ctv.

*A chance to say thanks

I’m writing to thank you, and your b.c. news correspondent Ian Edwards for inviting me to be a part of the Producers Roundtable for the Sept. 20 edition of Playback. It was a fun forum and a chance for me to meet other filmmakers whose experiences are similar to mine.

It was also a terrific opportunity to publicly thank Panavision whose continued generosity towards my past and future productions makes it possible for me to create films. Their support, encouragement and generosity is invaluable to my development as a filmmaker.

kellie benz,

shocking buckwheat pictures,

vancouver