Veteran television news anchor Tony Parsons announces his move to CBC News on Monday in Vancouver. (Mike Laanela/CBC) Veteran B.C. news anchor Tony Parsons has returned to the Vancouver airwaves as a new host of the CBC's supper-hour newscast, the corporation announced on Monday afternoon.
Parsons will co-host the CBC local television newscasts with Gloria Macarenko. He replaces former co-anchor Ian Hanomansing, who left last week to take up a position as a replacement anchor and reporter with CBC News: The National.
Parsons, 71, was Canada's most watched local news anchor when he retired from Global TV in Vancouver in December.
Shortly afterwards, he took a job hosting the 10 p.m. PT local newscast on CHEK television, an independent station in Victoria that was recently bought from Global TV by its employees.
He remains one of the most recognizable faces in B.C. news, Johnny Michel, the managing director for CBC's B.C. region, said in a statement.
"Tony Parsons has been synonymous with local news in Vancouver for 35 years and we're thrilled to welcome him to the CBC News Vancouver team," said Michel.
Under the new agreement, Parsons will host the newscast for CBC in Vancouver from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., then fly to Victoria to host CHEK's late-night Vancouver Island newscast at 10 p.m.
"I am fortunate to have had an exceptional career in broadcast journalism and look forward to joining the team at CBC," Parsons said in a statement.
Parsons did his first newscast in the new job Monday.
Tony Parsons, centre left, will join co-host Gloria Marcarenko, left, meteorologist Claire Martin and sportscaster Shane Foxman on the CBC supper-hour newscast in Vancouver. (CBC) Michel said Parsons' decades of experience will help attract a new audience for CBC's local newscasts.
"This is going to be water-cooler talk for the next little while, because it is a major coup and it is the biggest media move that this province has seen in the last 35 years," he said.
"People will come and they will watch our news and they're going to love what they see."
The deal also means CBC News and CHEK will share news resources, and the 6 p.m. portion of the CBC Vancouver newscast will also be broadcast on CHEK TV at 6 p.m.
CBC also announced it has filed an application with the CRTC on Monday for a western broadcast of its cable news channel CBC News Network.
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