ONTARIO—All good things must someday come to an end, but with that ending sometimes something new and exciting comes to pass. The Expositor was pleased to welcome novice journalist Warren Schlote into our ranks a number of years ago and we were sorry to see him leave to take up a new post with the CBC in Sudbury.
Mr. Schlote’s first love in journalism has always been rooted in the documentary genre and the new position, being part time, offered him the opportunity to pursue a number of projects in film. Unsurprisingly, one of the first of those projects has just achieved a significant milestone—Ontario’s public broadcaster, TVO, has just picked up eight segments of Mr. Schlote’s Living History series and will be broadcasting the segments as part of a new focus on small town Ontario.
A number of segments feature Manitoulin Island subjects, including the swing bridge and part of a segment on octagonal buildings.
Mr. Schlote attended Guelph University/Humber College where he attained his degree in Media Studies. “It was a four-year program partnership between the university and the college,” explained Mr. Schlote. “They were among the first schools to offer such a partnership.”
A couple of weeks following graduation in 2021, Mr. Schlote arrived on Manitoulin’s shore to take up his post at The Expositor. He would go on to win numerous accolades and awards, including a number for his seminal work on ‘Out of the Shadows,’ The Expositor’s in-depth investigation of the opioid crisis. His penchant for puns provided ongoing entertainment in the office. Our loss was most certainly CBC’s gain.
“I took the casual position at CBC because it was part-time and allowed me to work on a number of my passion projects,” said Mr. Schlote. “I thought I would not be working all the time; I was wrong,” he laughed. It turned out that he was rarely out of the newsroom in some capacity. He is currently being trained as a radio show host.
As for his ‘Living History’ series, Mr. Schlote explains that “it was an idea I had starting in university. I was never really engaged in history classes in school; the subject matter never really grabbed me. I found it hard to relate, there just didn’t seem to be a connection with my own life.” That struck him as unfortunate on reflection.
He decided to see if he could discover a route for people to “get more into their heritage.”
Casting his gaze about, Mr. Schlote noticed that in many small rural towns, such as Manitoulin’s own Little Current, vestiges remain of major edifices and events that have largely been forgotten, even in their own communities. “They are still there,” he said. “You just have to know how to look for it and where. It is in so many places; you just have to train yourself to look. There are so many stories in everyday spots.”
Mr. Schlote borrowed some technical equipment from The Expositor and set about creating his vision. The result is 14 episodes in the can and a host of ancillary commentaries and expansions that expand in the set pieces. The episodes can be found online on the video sharing platform YouTube.com.
The route to being broadcast on TVO was a bit circuitous, thanks to pandemic challenges and the TVO labour disruption.
Mr. Schlote had approached TVO about perhaps airing some of his work and the producers initially seemed interested.
In the meantime, Mr. Schlote approached TVO host Steve Paikin seeking the veteran host of the documentary talk show ‘The Agenda’ for input into his work. “I was hoping he might give me a few pointers,” said Mr. Schlote. It helped that one of the segments that Mr. Schlote was working on included late Ontario Premier Bill Davis, a subject that Mr. Paikin is known to be interested in. The host (who has a summer cottage in Kagawong) generously agreed to meet with him to chat about his work and they set up a meeting at Mr. Paikin’s TVO office in Toronto.
In the meantime, it seemed to be crickets in the hallway when it came to the producers, until one day the phone rang. The producer was on the line, apologizing for the delay and noting that, with the labour disruption and COVID, the concept had fallen off the radar a bit, but was now back on the table for discussion.
During discussion, the (unbeknownst to the producer) meeting with Mr. Paikin came up and it made perfect sense to schedule the meeting with the producer for the same day.
In the end, Mr. Schlote not only got some valuable insight from a veteran broadcaster he admires but found himself with a great career boost in the realm of documentary production.
Unfortunately, word of the first episode airing did not arrive until after production of last week’s edition of The Expositor (it took place on Wednesday, April 17). But despair not, you can still see the segment featuring ‘The Newmarket Ghost Canal’ online at TVO.org. Episodes air live on Wednesdays.
Mr. Schlote continues to make occasional contributions to the pages of The Expositor and returns to Manitoulin fairly regularly. An accomplished musician in his own right, he can often be seen playing in the Manitoulin Swing Band.
“I have to thank The Expositor for the loan of the video equipment,” he said. Mr. Schlote also expressed gratitude to Wiikwemkoong’s Crystal Shawanda. “She gave me a great shout-out,” he said.
Mr. Schlote’s complete (and ongoing) repertoire can be accessed on YouTube or by stopping by LivingHistory.ca, as well as the TVO addendums to the agenda.
