day on VSB's Channel 11, could go off the air after its owners halted production.

The Channel, which broadcasts a mixture of news, public affairs and entertainment shows, will air reruns until June 15. If the channel is not sold by then, it will be closed.

It is not clear what changes will be made to Channel 11, which began airing Monitor in January. Mr. Kenneth DeFontes, president of DeFontes Broadcasting, which owns the channel, could not be reached for comment. Less than two weeks ago, Monitor television's vice president Ms Florence Tambone told The Royal Gazette that the network's chairman Mr. John Hoagland said there would no changes in the foreseeable future and programming would remain on the air.

Owners of the Boston-based Monitor Channel, the Christian Science Church, halted production last week, less than a year after it went on the air.

The cable channel needed to reach at least 25 million homes to become financially stable, but reportedly reached only about 5 million.

Most of the station's 400 employees received pink slips last week and a small staff remains.

Employees spent last week saying goodbye and comparing job prospects in a tough TV market. Some had found jobs at the Monitor Channel after being laid off during recent hard times at network affiliates.

"All of us got a little spoiled in being here,'' said `Monitor News' anchor Ms Gail Harris. "Such an atmosphere encouraged creativity.'' The shutdown halts the Boston-based church's attempt to do for television what it has done in print with its respected Christian Science Monitor newspaper.

Mr. John Palmer, a former NBC correspondent and anchor of `World Monitor', said he spent part of his last day working on the closing lines of his Wednesday night newscast, the last live programme on the channel.

"At a time when the line between news and entertainment have become so blurred, we feel the `World Monitor' and the Monitor Channel have stood out as beacons of quality,'' he concluded.

Negotiations to sell the channel continue.

The shutdown will cost $45 million, and funds will come from the church's pension reserve, according to a statement released by Ms Virginia Harris, chairman of the church's board of directors.

In September 1988, the church launched `World Monitor', an international news show, which aired on the Discovery channel.

Its 24-hour programming included the nightly news show, `Monitor News', social satire with commentator Mr. Mort Sahl and financial shows such as `Business Report' and `Money and You'. After Discovery opted to drop `World Monitor' earlier this year, it moved to the Monitor Channel.

Internal dissent over whether the church should expand into television erupted when church officials admitted $41.5 million was borrowed from church pension funds to cover cash needs.

An estimated $250 million has been poured into its broadcast media operations, and those operations cost an estimated $4 million a month.