Victoria (channel 29), promising to duplicate the Citytv formula on the West Coast. In a move called unprecedented, sitting BC premier Glen Clark endorsed the CHUM application. Craig Broadcast Systems (owner of two stations in Manitoba and shortly thereafter licensed to launch two more in Alberta) sought to start a service to be known as "Very Independent Television" (VITV), also broadcast on UHF in Vancouver and Victoria, complete with a multilingual news service producing English, Mandarin, and Punjabi-language news programs (with the latter two in the dinner hour) as well as a nightly entertainment show named Yaletown. The commission's decision, released on January 31, 1997, approved the Baton/Electrohome application and denied the others. The prospective Rogers station was denied largely because it would have replaced some of Talentvision's existing ethnic programming with U.S. syndicated fare. Moreover, Talentvision's existing owner (the company now known as Fairchild Media Group) indicated there was "no plan to abandon [the current Talentvision licence] at this time". As for CanWest, the commission determined that the existence of the CHAN/CHEK twinstick did not justify licensing a new station to a company already serving the market. The three proposals for an independent station in Vancouver were all determined to be high-calibre. However, the deciding factor in favour of Baton/Electrohome was a commitment to air new Vancouver-produced programming (which ultimately manifested as, among other programs, Gabereau Live!, The Camilla Scott Show, and Cold Squad) across all of Baton's and Electrohome's stations, a promise that the smaller CHUM and Craig station groups could not match. The decision was met with mixed reception in the entertainment community; Baton's large commitment to Canadian programming won praise from the production industry, but others had generally backed the CHUM application, and several people wished the CRTC had awarded multiple stations. "Vancouver Television" Construction and planning for CIVT began immediately after the licence award. In March, Baton secured space in a former public library at Robson and Burrard streets; the space had been planned as an arcade, but the proposal was rejected by Vancouver's city council just days before the CRTC decision. Ivan Fecan, the chief executive of Baton, led much of the early planning effort. Fecan had been the former program head of CBC television and a former protégé of Moses Znaimer, founder of CITY-TV, whose format was a major inspiration for the new Vancouver station; in an interview with Maclean's, he described the