Transcript
00:00:03 Speaker 2
Anytime you want to cut it going you know, but.
00:00:05 Speaker 1
OK.
00:00:08 Speaker 1
What approximate year or month did you become involved?
00:00:10 Speaker 1
In radio production.
00:00:13 Speaker 2
I’ll give you the exact page.
00:00:15 Speaker 2
November the 24th, 1928.
00:00:18 Speaker 1
How old were you?
00:00:19 Speaker 2
I will look.
00:00:21 Speaker 2
Well, let me see.
00:00:22 Speaker 2
I never figured back when was how many years it was.
00:00:25 Speaker 2
It’s been a long time ago, but.
00:00:30 Speaker 2
You know about 16 years, but.
00:00:33 Speaker 2
That would be about 16, no?
00:00:37 Speaker 2
Different thing.
00:00:39 Speaker 2
Be 20 average probably about 23.
00:00:43 Speaker 1
What area of the station?
00:00:45 Speaker 1
Were you working in?
00:00:46 Speaker 2
Well this this is the funny part about my entire life and also the radio business, the radio business.
00:00:53 Speaker 2
In those days, you didn’t have a big staff.
00:00:55 Speaker 2
We had a staff of exactly 7 people in those days running 100 Watt station. I’m sharing a wavelength with.
00:01:03 Speaker 2
Two other space.
00:01:07 Speaker 2
We learned every department.
00:01:11 Speaker 2
We learned every department because we were we would go out and sell it responsive.
00:01:17 Speaker 2
We’d come back into the studio.
00:01:20 Speaker 2
We’d rate the commercials.
00:01:22 Speaker 2
We picked the music, which was mostly recorded.
00:01:25 Speaker 2
Then we would announce operated.
00:01:27 Speaker 2
So you did everything in the in the businesses and this is how you liked the business.
00:01:31 Speaker 2
You didn’t specialize in one thing, you did everything.
00:01:35 Speaker 1
What station did you start with?
00:01:37 Speaker 2
CKW X in Vancouver.
00:01:39 Speaker 1
What year did they start?
00:01:41 Speaker 2
What year did they start?
00:01:42 Speaker 2
They had started the five years before over in Nanaimo.
00:01:48 Speaker 2
And they moved.
00:01:48 Speaker 2
They moved to Vancouver, and they used to be.
00:01:51 Speaker 2
Next door to the Belmont.
00:01:54 Speaker 2
Until the fire and put them out of there and then they move this studios to the penthouse in the Hotel Georgia and that is that is when I first came into the picture.
00:02:04 Speaker 2
I had been the theater orchestra leader until 1928.
00:02:09 Speaker 2
And the turkeys taught me how to work.
00:02:11 Speaker 2
And the only thing that I could find that looked like anything and with the help of one of the boys from C KWX who had an experimental license at that time.
00:02:22 Speaker 2
He used to get.
00:02:22 Speaker 2
Me to in between shows at the theater.
00:02:25 Speaker 2
He’d get me to go and play some live stuff.
00:02:28 Speaker 2
And he suggested to me he said, well, how would you like to try?
00:02:33 Speaker 2
Radio and come and work at the.
00:02:36 Speaker 2
So I went and started at the transmitter.
00:02:38 Speaker 2
For about 5 months.
00:02:39 Speaker 1
As an engineer kind of privately transmitter.
00:02:41 Speaker 2
Well, I was learning and learning it from the engineer standpoint and one man was a man by the name of Joyce Taggart, had a children’s program under the name of Uncle Jerry.
00:02:52 Speaker 2
They had a little dolphin town, which the counter player used to play a little song that went riggity jig, and then we we go we go.
00:03:00 Speaker 2
So we we go.
00:03:01 Speaker 2
And the piano player was talking.
00:03:05 Speaker 2
I got a frantic call from the studios up in the Georgia.
00:03:09 Speaker 2
Can you help us out if we can please come up to the studio.
00:03:13 Speaker 2
I never went back to the transmitter because after the first show was over.
00:03:18 Speaker 2
Our program boss or the manager of the station, not the owner but the manager of the station, Harold Paulson, who finally ended up as a salesman, and CBC and Harold Paulson said.
00:03:30 Speaker 2
Did you ever.
00:03:31 Speaker 2
Think of becoming an announcer and I said no.
00:03:35 Speaker 2
So I said I’m going to give you an audition.
00:03:38 Speaker 2
So he had me three different things.
00:03:41 Speaker 2
Enemy newspaper and handed me a commercial and he handed me a musical.
00:03:47 Speaker 2
Example, no, just to no, just to find out whether I could pronounce the words right.
00:03:49
The thing.
00:03:54 Speaker 2
Composers and musicians and so forth.
00:03:59 Speaker 2
And when it was, when it was through, is it all?
00:04:01 Speaker 2
Right.
00:04:02 Speaker 2
You’re on the staff up here.
00:04:05 Speaker 2
Six months later, it was program director.
00:04:07 Speaker 1
Did you ever announce news or did you just?
00:04:10 Speaker 2
Driven on spot news, I did everything we had to do, everything you know.
00:04:17 Speaker 2
And we didn’t have teletypes around very much, and teletype was about all we had in all these and.
00:04:23 Speaker 1
Even in the late.
00:04:24 Speaker 1
1920s, they had a talent.
00:04:26 Speaker 2
Well, that was in the jump up in the urban area we where the teletouch are just beginning to be used then and we took the Canadian Press Service.
00:04:36 Speaker 2
And this is where we get the national news from.
00:04:39 Speaker 2
We just tear it up, the fellow type and make sure that we knew what we were talking about.
00:04:44 Speaker 2
And that was it.
00:04:45 Speaker 2
We go and do the news that way.
00:04:47 Speaker 2
Local news was gathered from the newspaper reporters visiting the scenes ourselves and anything that was occurring.
00:04:55 Speaker 1
Did they have strings?
00:04:57 Speaker 2
Do they have wish?
00:04:58 Speaker 1
I got people all over the.
00:05:00 Speaker 1
Province that were.
00:05:01 Speaker 2
Well, yes, there was.
00:05:02 Speaker 1
Writing something and.
00:05:03 Speaker 2
To a certain extent that people people would have fallen in and used beds because we usually offered a cash, cash bonus to anybody that give U.S.
00:05:13 Speaker 2
And so the result was we we got, we got a lot of new to buy the news coverage, but we were very heavy on the local scene.
00:05:20 Speaker 2
For instance, some Fire Chief here.
00:05:23 Speaker 2
Had been a Sergeant with me overseas in the.
00:05:26 Speaker 2
First World War.
00:05:28 Speaker 2
And he gave us permission.
00:05:32 Speaker 2
To go even with the fire department or fire, and I’ve stood right beside the nozzles.
00:05:38 Speaker 2
And with the building on fire.
00:05:41 Speaker 1
Did you ever use that?
00:05:43 Speaker 1
A police monitor before they became legal like.
00:05:45 Speaker 2
We we worked with the police.
00:05:47 Speaker 2
No, we worked with the police.
00:05:48 Speaker 2
We had a special line with the police.
00:05:50 Speaker 2
They knew that we were picking up their.
00:05:53 Speaker 2
It was all arranged.
00:05:54 Speaker 2
I mean, we we did it fundamentally.
00:05:55 Speaker 2
We did the basic basic business.
00:05:57 Speaker 1
Up till what year? It’s Jane Curtin said that 1937, they didn’t have a police monitor or anything like that, and NWO was using one illegal.
00:06:07 Speaker 2
Well, the.
00:06:09 Speaker 1
Did you just have like if the police had something going like phone you or did they allow you access to their police?
00:06:15 Speaker 2
They allowed us eggs and in fact I was fingerprinted and I was given.
00:06:20 Speaker 2
I was given a police car, giving me permission to go through police line and we worked closely with all the like the fire department and the.
00:06:29 Speaker 2
And the Police Department, we work very closely with them.
00:06:32 Speaker 1
Did you go out and?
00:06:34 Speaker 1
Sort of interview.
00:06:35 Speaker 1
Or go on the scene and broadcast.
00:06:37 Speaker 1
From there, or did you?
00:06:39 Speaker 2
No, we.
00:06:39 Speaker 1
Well then do it and have to come back to the studio.
00:06:41 Speaker 2
We did it right on the scene.
00:06:43 Speaker 2
This is why we made our reputation.
00:06:43 Speaker 1
Just remote.
00:06:45 Speaker 2
We did it on the right, on the scene.
00:06:47 Speaker 2
Another thing that was done that fellow named was Trev Coleman was public relations for the CP.
00:06:53 Speaker 2
For the CPU railway, he wired the entire station for us, so all we had to do was go down and plug in on any pole.
00:06:59 Speaker 2
We we could go right into the transmitter.
00:07:02 Speaker 2
We also had a shortwave transmitter pickup underneath the mountain bolt.
00:07:07 Speaker 2
And I used to carry a 60 pound pack to go out to interviews.
00:07:10 Speaker 2
I’d go out to the airport.
00:07:12 Speaker 2
I interviewed John Charles Thomas out there, and Senator Magnussen all within or 20 minutes.
00:07:18 Speaker 1
I see.
00:07:21 Speaker 1
OK.
00:07:21 Speaker 1
So if WX had been doing, like, all the scene and that kind of thing ever since they really started.
00:07:25 Speaker 2
Public events.
00:07:29 Speaker 2
Yes, we we we did the we did a broadcast of the the landscape bridge, the opening of that we did the opening of the Pattullo Bridge.
00:07:39 Speaker 2
We did all we did, all these public events.
00:07:42 Speaker 2
In fact, it got to be that we became the public events station one another thing that we used to do in the afternoon at 2:00 o’clock.
00:07:54 Speaker 2
We would shut down in the studios and the transmitter would play uninterrupted Symphony till 4.
00:08:02 Speaker 2
And while that was on.
00:08:03 Speaker 1
Live or records?
00:08:05 Speaker 2
You know the records and while that was on.
00:08:08 Speaker 2
I would be preparing with my pipe transmitter to go down the Stanley Park where I was doing a series of the Indian legends in Stanley Park.
00:08:17 Speaker 2
With the with Mr.
00:08:18 Speaker 2
Rohland, who at that time was the chairman of the Parks Board and has died last May and.
00:08:26 Speaker 2
I would go down there and we would sit in the exact spot where the story of the Indian legend actually happened with that pack transmitter.
00:08:33 Speaker 2
We would do just.
00:08:34 Speaker 2
Exactly like you and I are.
00:08:35 Speaker 2
Doing now we would ask each other questions I would ask.
00:08:37 Speaker 1
But you’d also get all the.
00:08:38 Speaker 1
Sounds around you, so that you actually feel.
00:08:40 Speaker 2
We’ve got all the sounds around boats and cars going past and everything.
00:08:41 Speaker 1
Like you’re way out to make sure.
00:08:44 Speaker 2
You see what we did in those days and you must understand that everything was an experiment.
00:08:51 Speaker 2
There were a lot of things that had never been fired and it was an experiment, and today the basics.
00:08:59 Speaker 2
In fact, they don’t do as much of it now as we used to do it with.
00:09:01 Speaker 1
That’s something that we’re trying to do.
00:09:03 Speaker 1
In our programs to.
00:09:05 Speaker 1
We’ve broadcast on Hastings St.
00:09:07 Speaker 1
so I like to take at 11:00 o’clock at night.
00:09:10 Speaker 1
Before our 11:30 show to get get.
00:09:13 Speaker 1
The people an.
00:09:13 Speaker 1
Idea where we are, where it’s.
00:09:15 Speaker 2
Well, you know, one thing that I did from the 24th of November, the 24th of December every year between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the 2nd.
00:09:24 Speaker 2
I used to build the land on the.
00:09:27 Speaker 2
I used to race.
00:09:27 Speaker 2
I used to let anybody be interviewed and I carried an old tin can with me and they had put something in for charity and I worked in conjunction with Vancouver Sun on that.
00:09:37 Speaker 2
And we did that.
00:09:38 Speaker 2
We did that between the two wars.
00:09:41 Speaker 2
And very successfully too.
00:09:43 Speaker 2
In fact, successful enough that the Billboard magazine awarded us.
00:09:50 Speaker 2
Their award for outstanding.
00:09:53 Speaker 2
Efforts of the of the mind.
00:09:56 Speaker 2
And that was.
00:09:58 Speaker 2
I used to have a lot of fun.
00:09:59 Speaker 2
I used to be out from.
00:10:01 Speaker 2
From 12.
00:10:03
Don’t say.
00:10:05 Speaker 2
So change locations every every two hours.
00:10:09 Speaker 2
12:30 to 2:00.
00:10:12 Speaker 2
Three to five.
00:10:14 Speaker 2
Every day but Sunday for an entire month and right up to Christmas Eve.
00:10:19 Speaker 2
And the amount of money that we took in and the order single father receipts I have in.
00:10:22 Speaker 2
My scrapbook. Each day, each day’s receipts.
00:10:27 Speaker 2
But that is one thing that a lot of old timers will Remember Me for, and the man on the street I still have people come along and say when I.
00:10:34 Speaker 2
Was a kid I used to come and talk to me on microphone.
00:10:38 Speaker 1
What album is here?
00:10:40 Speaker 1
Traffic is getting louder.
00:10:42 Speaker 2
The The thing is that we.
00:10:46 Speaker 2
Working in a theater was a hobby to me more than a job working in radio was equally as pleasurable and exciting because we tackled everything.
00:10:59 Speaker 1
Was the what two frequencies did they share with?
00:11:02 Speaker 1
What other stations?
00:11:03 Speaker 2
Well, CK MO was the first was six months ahead of CK WX.
00:11:09 Speaker 2
And we shared the wavelength with the Vancouver province with O Kelly.
00:11:14 Speaker 2
The province only wanted a license just to broadcast news.
00:11:18 Speaker 1
That must. Yeah, because that’s right, 192627. They stopped being their variety thing two hours a night.
00:11:26 Speaker 2
In this ride and we used to shut down on a Wednesday night at 7:30.
00:11:31 Speaker 2
Because when I first started they they opened WX, opened a studio in New Westminster right next door to the theatre.
00:11:40 Speaker 2
It used to be known as Island Cafe.
00:11:43 Speaker 2
And I operated from there and our studios for operating was the Terminal city.
00:11:50 Speaker 2
Terminal City building down at the waterfront.
00:11:53 Speaker 1
Did you broadcast?
00:11:55 Speaker 1
Like so many hours in the morning and so many in the afternoon and someone.
00:11:58 Speaker 2
That’s right, it was broken up that way. And this is at 7:30 Wednesday night. The.
00:11:58 Speaker 1
Else came in.
00:12:05 Speaker 2
The province station would take over, do their news and then uncle Billy Hassell had the time for the rest of the evening.
00:12:12 Speaker 1
When do you remember the state most?
00:12:14 Speaker 1
Every most.
00:12:15 Speaker 1
All the programs in the station becoming live.
00:12:18 Speaker 2
Oh yes, it was.
00:12:19 Speaker 2
It was mostly reliable because.
00:12:21 Speaker 2
And I.
00:12:23 Speaker 2
For 6:30.
00:12:25 Speaker 2
6:30 at player records, giving time, weather and news.
00:12:29 Speaker 2
And then at 8:00 o’clock I would switch over to the piano and I do a nonsense program singing silly songs and giving a lot of weird little tips to the housewives.
00:12:38 Speaker 2
You know you you filled them.
00:12:39 Speaker 2
We had so much live talent.
00:12:41 Speaker 2
But of course you didn’t pay much for live talent.
00:12:44
OK.
00:12:44 Speaker 1
See. Yeah, I’ve been through all the old province newspapers back from 1921 to the early 30s and you see the transition like in 2526, there’s not.
00:12:56 Speaker 1
A lot of live.
00:13:00 Speaker 1
Before the.
00:13:01 Speaker 1
You know it’s or then it’s all recorded and then they get all.
00:13:04 Speaker 1
Very almost everything is live.
00:13:06 Speaker 2
But most of it was live.
00:13:08 Speaker 2
The we had, for instance, on a Friday night, we had a a musical show.
00:13:12 Speaker 2
And had a seven piece mountain like orchestra and about 15 people.
00:13:16 Speaker 2
And we did a live show every Friday night from 9 to 10.
00:13:20 Speaker 2
And this this went on for a long time.
00:13:24 Speaker 2
We had an awful lot of live talent, but in those days, of course, the the wages were ridiculous.
00:13:31 Speaker 2
I know that when I was programmed director for the station.
00:13:37 Speaker 2
My entire talent bill cost for one week was $27.00.
00:13:42 Speaker 2
But those were the days when the dollar bought the dollars with the goods.
00:13:53 Speaker 1
Did they do news?
00:13:54 Speaker 1
Broadcasts, since they had a lot of variety shows and did, did they have news broadcasts at definite times?
00:14:01 Speaker 1
Of the day.
00:14:01 Speaker 2
Oh, yes, yes, they had.
00:14:03 Speaker 2
They had definite time.
00:14:05 Speaker 1
Do you remember what times like?
00:14:07 Speaker 1
Say like.
00:14:07 Speaker 2
Well, it’d be very like, for instance, 6:30 to 8:00 in the morning. It was quite frequently you would give, you’d start out and you’d give the news almost immediately and then about to happen. Our Lady, you’d come in with the highlights of the news and.
00:14:21 Speaker 2
And you’d sign off with the latest news, time, weather.
00:14:25 Speaker 1
Did they have a limited time for news?
00:14:27 Speaker 1
Or could you?
00:14:28 Speaker 2
Only it was all it was all scheduled.
00:14:29 Speaker 2
No, it was all scheduled, because even in even in those days we kept a log.
00:14:33 Speaker 2
We had to.
00:14:34 Speaker 1
So like.
00:14:37 Speaker 1
In 1940s, they were allowed 15 minutes, say only any newscast had to fit exactly 15 minutes. Did it have to be a certain time links for every news time or?
00:14:48 Speaker 2
Well, yes, yes, it’s always been timed as far as I can remember.
00:14:51 Speaker 2
Always been time.
00:14:52 Speaker 1
So that one day you could.
00:14:53 Speaker 1
Say, well, I’m going to do 8.
00:14:54 Speaker 1
Minutes and lose.
00:14:55 Speaker 1
Today and the next day do 13 or something.
00:14:55 Speaker 2
No, no, no, no.
00:14:59 Speaker 1
Were they usually about 15 minutes long or 10 minutes?
00:15:01 Speaker 2
It varied, but invariably it it would be a fairly comprehensive coverage and.
00:15:08 Speaker 2
I would say on the hour it would be a a fairly long one.
00:15:12 Speaker 2
But the the point is that this is where you develop listener habit.
00:15:18 Speaker 2
People would know you were coming on with the news.
00:15:20 Speaker 2
Of the set tonight.
00:15:20 Speaker 1
Like 8 in the morning and noon, and what 6:30 and then 10:00 o’clock, something like that.
00:15:22 Speaker 2
Right.
00:15:24 Speaker 2
Right.
00:15:26 Speaker 2
Yes it it.
00:15:26 Speaker 2
It had to have a format that had to be kept to the oven.
00:15:32 Speaker 2
But as you say yourself, we did a lot of live content in those days like I would do.
00:15:39 Speaker 2
I would do from 4:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon on the Indian legend thing down at Stanley Park.
00:15:45 Speaker 2
Four to five sometimes.
00:15:47 Speaker 2
Sometimes we go down there and.
00:15:50 Speaker 2
I’ve even bought a box of chocolate bars and just gone down and interviewed parked cars from out of town.
00:15:56 Speaker 2
Where are you from so they can and then you give them a chocolate bar, you know.
00:16:01 Speaker 2
And then on your way out of the park, when your time is up, people were coming down and he was those chocolate bars.
00:16:09 Speaker 1
Was the station on five days A?
00:16:10 Speaker 1
Week or seven days.
00:16:11 Speaker 2
We operate no, we operate every day.
00:16:14 Speaker 2
We operate.
00:16:14 Speaker 2
We shared another wavelength we shared was.
00:16:18 Speaker 2
It was a church.
00:16:20 Speaker 1
The reverend cook.
00:16:21 Speaker 2
That was the.
00:16:21 Speaker 1
Is that him?
00:16:22 Speaker 2
That was the United Church, and it was.
00:16:28 Speaker 2
An experimental license in those days, but they they took Sunday mornings after we, after we opened up from the service, they would take up till.
00:16:32 Speaker 1
OK.
00:16:37 Speaker 1
So they then did you broadcast in the afternoon?
00:16:41 Speaker 1
Oh, there’s, there’s.
00:16:42 Speaker 1
I don’t have record of you broadcast of the station broadcasting every day.
00:16:47 Speaker 2
But we were sharing wavelengths.
00:16:48 Speaker 2
There’s three of us sharing one wavelength.
00:16:51 Speaker 2
And to get to get the one wavelength.
00:16:53 Speaker 2
Of course, we have to absorb the other two.
00:16:56 Speaker 2
And eventually we did we we absorbed the other two to get an increase in power.
00:17:01 Speaker 1
What year did?
00:17:03 Speaker 1
You become the only station on that frequency.
00:17:07 Speaker 2
Well, we were always on one frequency, but we weren’t crystal control, so you could wobble all over the place.
00:17:13 Speaker 1
OK, not sharing.
00:17:16 Speaker 1
Not sharing.
00:17:16 Speaker 1
If you could see.
00:17:18 Speaker 2
Oh, you mean when?
00:17:18 Speaker 2
When we got?
00:17:19 Speaker 2
When we took over the whole wavelengths completely.
00:17:22 Speaker 2
Oh, let me see.
00:17:23 Speaker 2
Now this.
00:17:23 Speaker 2
This is one thing.
00:17:25 Speaker 2
A little vague.
00:17:26 Speaker 2
I forget the date of it now, but.
00:17:30 Speaker 2
We moved, we moved our studios from.
00:17:34 Speaker 2
The Georgia roof is when we got an increase in power and we went to 543 Seymour St. and.
00:17:42 Speaker 2
I think with the exception of the Sunday morning service.
00:17:47 Speaker 2
Which had been written in for the picking up the one wavelength.
00:17:53 Speaker 2
Earl Kelly from the province came over and worked at CKW X and did his evening broadcast from us from our studios.
00:18:02 Speaker 1
Oh, was so the province broadcast from your studios.
00:18:05 Speaker 2
They broadcast from the province building in those days.
00:18:08 Speaker 2
Oh, Kelly.
00:18:11 Speaker 2
But after the after WX absorbed the other two stations then it all went from it went from.
00:18:19 Speaker 2
See Kitterick studios.
00:18:20 Speaker 1
I have record of January 1940 with CCD was closed down, so would.
00:18:27 Speaker 1
That be when it.
00:18:27 Speaker 1
Was absorbed or would it?
00:18:28 Speaker 2
No, they still they still we still.
00:18:31 Speaker 2
Allowed them time for.
00:18:33 Speaker 2
Billy, Hassle but Billy Hassle will double CK WX.
00:18:35 Speaker 1
So actually the.
00:18:37 Speaker 1
It was.
00:18:38 Speaker 1
The station disappeared under the call letters, but the people moved, just moved over to your station.
00:18:42 Speaker 2
That’s right.
00:18:43 Speaker 2
They moved over into our.
00:18:44 Speaker 2
Studios so.
00:18:45 Speaker 2
That for their.
00:18:45 Speaker 1
Broadcast the time allowance is that it had been.
00:18:48 Speaker 1
Under CK CD before just stayed under became.
00:18:49 Speaker 2
We came out out to see our wavelengths in the last days. We started out at 7:13 and then we went to 10:10.
00:18:51 Speaker 1
The same people.
00:19:00 Speaker 2
You know.
00:19:01 Speaker 2
Went to 10:10 with the with the increase in power.
00:19:08 Speaker 2
We had to move the transmitter again.
00:19:10 Speaker 2
You know, he’s done.
00:19:10 Speaker 2
The transmitter had to be moved because we had originally transmitted from down the Seymour St.
00:19:19
This is.
00:19:19 Speaker 2
Low wattage.
00:19:22 Speaker 1
Oh, you said something about commercials.
00:19:24 Speaker 1
How long had the station been doing commercials?
00:19:26 Speaker 1
Ever since they opened.
00:19:27 Speaker 2
Oh, it was.
00:19:28 Speaker 2
Did commercials.
00:19:30 Speaker 2
There was a commercial station.
00:19:31 Speaker 2
I’ve got it.
00:19:34 Speaker 1
Oh, I get, I get told.
00:19:34 Speaker 2
It was privately owned.
00:19:36 Speaker 2
It was privately owned by a Mr.
00:19:38 Speaker 2
on his horse, dad, whom we affectionately called Sparks.
00:19:41 Speaker 2
And the reason we call him sparks that when he was in the normal, he was in the automotive business and he was an expert on ignition.
00:19:48 Speaker 2
And he operated the station haphazardly for five years until he moved to Vancouver.
00:19:55 Speaker 2
And of course, he had to.
00:19:58 Speaker 2
In more time and.
00:20:00 Speaker 1
Which you were originally given the call letters KWO and they changed because it sounded like camo.
00:20:05 Speaker 2
No, no, no. My original original call letters was CFCCDCCD.
00:20:14 Speaker 1
But let’s say I’ve got.
00:20:15 Speaker 1
Him moving over here illegally and being in Nanaimo.
00:20:18 Speaker 1
Illegally, with a radio station.
00:20:21 Speaker 1
Well, we didn’t have a nice thing.
00:20:22 Speaker 2
He didn’t have a license.
00:20:24 Speaker 2
How the hell that came about, how that came about?
00:20:27 Speaker 2
One of those things that was a new kind of entertainment coming.
00:20:29 Speaker 2
It came out called a radio set.
00:20:33 Speaker 2
And he got the agency for grieving.
00:20:37 Speaker 1
Used to sell them.
00:20:39 Speaker 2
He used to sell them and the.
00:20:40 Speaker 2
Way he used to sell them.
00:20:41 Speaker 2
He would turn on the transmitter that he’d got over there, dashed down with the grieving to a prospective customer.
00:20:48 Speaker 2
Tune into it.
00:20:50 Speaker 2
And it was.
00:20:53 Speaker 2
It was illegal, actually.
00:20:55 Speaker 2
He didn’t know that he had to have a license for it.
00:20:58 Speaker 2
And so when they, the inspectors came in and.
00:21:01 Speaker 2
Proceeded to do some investigating.
00:21:04 Speaker 2
So then he moved to Vancouver.
00:21:06 Speaker 2
Of course he it became he gradually built up from there.
00:21:09 Speaker 2
But as I say, there was only seven employees there.
00:21:12 Speaker 2
When I left, I think there was somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 / a night.
00:21:16 Speaker 1
So what it?
00:21:18 Speaker 1
When all the technology started to come in and all the the new inventions, then they had to expand.
00:21:22 Speaker 2
Yeah, we went through.
00:21:23 Speaker 2
We went through the wires and the acetate, the acetate and they they basically the tapes.
00:21:30 Speaker 2
And now of course it’s automatic now.
00:21:32
Which button?
00:21:35 Speaker 1
Had no idea that the dukkho.
00:21:37 Speaker 1
That they did commercials from the beginning.
00:21:39 Speaker 2
Oh yes, we do commercial because I used to remember what I said.
00:21:42 Speaker 2
We had to go out.
00:21:42 Speaker 1
Yeah. I just.
00:21:43 Speaker 2
And sell the customer.
00:21:44 Speaker 1
Who? Who would?
00:21:46 Speaker 1
Do commercial like would.
00:21:47 Speaker 1
It be local little, you know, little people.
00:21:47 Speaker 2
Well, I’ll give you.
00:21:48 Speaker 2
I’ll give you an instance.
00:21:49 Speaker 2
I’ll give you an instance, one that I had a very pleasant association with the obesity electric.
00:21:55 Speaker 2
They had the Symphony down in the Stanley Park Bowl.
00:22:01 Speaker 2
They did.
00:22:02 Speaker 2
They did institutional advertising.
00:22:05 Speaker 2
That is about electricity in general.
00:22:08 Speaker 2
They had a retail outlet for appliances, lamps and so forth, right where Germains is now on the corner of Dunsmuir and Grand.
00:22:20 Speaker 2
That was one of the places I used to do my man in the street, broadcast from.
00:22:23 Speaker 2
I used to do in front of the front of there in the Hudson Bay.
00:22:28 Speaker 2
I I had the job.
00:22:31 Speaker 2
In fact, I I not only sold the.
00:22:34 Speaker 2
The account.
00:22:36 Speaker 2
But I also sold myself because I got booked to be the announcer for the Symphony from the Stanley Park Bowl.
00:22:42 Speaker 2
And then.
00:22:44 Speaker 2
I did that.
00:22:46 Speaker 2
But we are there again.
00:22:47 Speaker 2
I sold the customer, then I had to write the commercials.
00:22:52 Speaker 2
Another one that another one I broke in that I I was a little proud of in those days.
00:22:57 Speaker 2
There was a coffee.
00:22:59 Speaker 2
A coffee merchant here in town and the coffee is still on the still on the market.
00:23:06 Speaker 2
But they used our station only.
00:23:08 Speaker 2
No newspaper, no other station to.
00:23:12 Speaker 2
Give a test as to the selling ability of a radio.
00:23:18 Speaker 2
For three months I studied coffee.
00:23:21 Speaker 2
They gave me the books on coffee.
00:23:22 Speaker 2
They bought their their coffee from Bogota and Colombia, and they made an appropriation for a program and we we pulled one on the on the poor public.
00:23:32 Speaker 2
Because we worked out of a proposition where we would TuneIn, supposedly.
00:23:40 Speaker 2
Bogota and Colombia for Don Pedro and his guitar.
00:23:44 Speaker 2
And Don Pedro would come on and sing his Spanish songs.
00:23:48 Speaker 2
He would.
00:23:48 Speaker 1
Who was doing that?
00:23:49 Speaker 2
There’s a a local boy.
00:23:53 Speaker 2
The non federal would sing his Spanish songs and we then we would feed him up with a lot of static.
00:23:54 Speaker 1
Arrangement probably.
00:24:01 Speaker 2
And what have you.
00:24:02 Speaker 2
And that through the people that wrote in asking for a request, we sent the names and addresses to Bogota.
00:24:08 Speaker 2
Whereupon they sent a picture of Don Pedro.
00:24:15 Speaker 2
Thanking, thanking them, they would send, they would send her a postcard of John Peter or thanking them for their request, and we launched.
00:24:22 Speaker 2
We launched that.
00:24:26 Speaker 2
And their coffee is still on the market, but the the the man who ran it is dead.
00:24:30 Speaker 1
When is it?
00:24:33 Speaker 2
The name still exists on the package with the exception.
00:24:36 Speaker 2
They changed one word and is now owned by one of our big wholesalers here.
00:24:43 Speaker 1
Where most of the commercial sponsors like, did they sponsor a program or they didn’t have commercials come?
00:24:48 Speaker 2
No, no, no.
00:24:49 Speaker 1
In, in between and all that.
00:24:49 Speaker 2
They sponsor they sponsor programs.
00:24:51 Speaker 1
Did they have to sponsor program in order?
00:24:53 Speaker 2
No, no, no, no, no, no.
00:24:53 Speaker 1
To be advertised or.
00:24:55 Speaker 2
But the the selling wasn’t high pressured like it is today.
00:24:58 Speaker 2
Today it’s high pressure in those days we went down and talked to we knew every advertising man and we were personally acquainted and they knew us.
00:25:06 Speaker 2
We knew them and we would discuss what was going to go on the air.
00:25:11 Speaker 2
I can remember going to this particular coffee fast one day and I said, well, it’s coming along to Easter.
00:25:18 Speaker 2
It’s anything special that you want to add to?
00:25:23 Speaker 2
What are you asking me for?
00:25:24 Speaker 2
I said.
00:25:24 Speaker 2
You know more about the coffee than I do, he said.
00:25:26 Speaker 2
You studied it.
00:25:28 Speaker 1
Did you have?
00:25:28 Speaker 2
Write your own.
00:25:29 Speaker 1
Did you have regulations regarding advertising or was it basically your own decision of?
00:25:33 Speaker 2
No, there was there was, there was actually, there was no, there was no percentage per day or anything like that in those days.
00:25:42 Speaker 2
That’s why it got a little out of hand, I imagine because you know.
00:25:45 Speaker 2
They were mostly minute 2 minute spots.
00:25:48 Speaker 2
But they were cheap in most days.
00:25:50 Speaker 1
What about selling before?
00:25:51 Speaker 1
And after the news were you allowed to?
00:25:56 Speaker 2
No, we do you mean that the news is sponsored by some so?
00:26:00 Speaker 1
Well, or you have an advertisement immediately before the news, so it sounds like it’s sponsored.
00:26:07 Speaker 2
Well, we had that.
00:26:08 Speaker 2
We had the we had the announcements, but we always broke them off with the call letters.
00:26:13 Speaker 2
We always broke them off the call letters and went into the news.
00:26:16 Speaker 1
So did you.
00:26:16 Speaker 1
Have sort of the standing thing that that the news was not to be sponsored or sold.
00:26:23 Speaker 2
There was.
00:26:24 Speaker 2
There was no.
00:26:26 Speaker 2
I’m just trying to recall now.
00:26:28 Speaker 2
Whether there was was a regulation on that, I think there was, but it was a it was a sort of a thing that a lot, a lot of those, a lot of things that happened those days were station sensitive.
00:26:39 Speaker 2
You know what I mean?
00:26:40 Speaker 2
You used your you use your own sense of what is new is what isn’t news or what is the program.
00:26:46 Speaker 2
Isn’t a program.
00:26:49 Speaker 2
My my theory.
00:26:52 Speaker 2
Nobody will.
00:26:53 Speaker 2
Well, a lot of people will say wrong, but my theory is.
00:26:59 Speaker 2
When you’re selling stuff, you’ve got to be you’ve got to be truthful about it.
00:27:04 Speaker 2
You’ve got to know the product.
00:27:05 Speaker 2
Believe me, I tried all the products.
00:27:09 Speaker 1
She had ever advertised a product that you thought.
00:27:12 Speaker 1
Was really bad.
00:27:14 Speaker 1
No, just for the money.
00:27:16 Speaker 1
Or who are you?
00:27:16 Speaker 2
My my, my approach maybe I’m I’m a little reserved but I.
00:27:21 Speaker 2
I use my head.
00:27:23 Speaker 2
What there was in it, and I used my head.
00:27:27 Speaker 2
Put myself in the place of a listener.
00:27:30 Speaker 2
How would I feel if somebody suddenly tore into the door, then started screaming the head off at me?
00:27:35 Speaker 2
And so I never used that hard approach.
00:27:38 Speaker 2
I always used the friendly.
00:27:41 Speaker 2
Client approach and it cost me jobs.
00:27:44 Speaker 2
I mean it cost me.
00:27:45 Speaker 2
There’s one firm in town would never use.
00:27:48 Speaker 2
They wouldn’t use me because my approach was too soft.
00:27:50 Speaker 2
They felt and on another fact, my voice was too deep.
00:27:55 Speaker 1
I’m going to have.
00:27:55 Speaker 1
To fade it out and change sides.
Part 2
Audio file
Transcript
00:00:03 Speaker 2
Anytime you want to cut it going you know, but.
00:00:05 Speaker 1
OK.
00:00:08 Speaker 1
What approximate year or month did you become involved?
00:00:10 Speaker 1
In radio production.
00:00:13 Speaker 2
I’ll give you the exact page.
00:00:15 Speaker 2
November the 24th, 1928.
00:00:18 Speaker 1
How old were you?
00:00:19 Speaker 2
I will look.
00:00:21 Speaker 2
Well, let me see.
00:00:22 Speaker 2
I never figured back when was how many years it was.
00:00:25 Speaker 2
It’s been a long time ago, but.
00:00:30 Speaker 2
You know about 16 years, but.
00:00:33 Speaker 2
That would be about 16, no?
00:00:37 Speaker 2
Different thing.
00:00:39 Speaker 2
Be 20 average probably about 23.
00:00:43 Speaker 1
What area of the station?
00:00:45 Speaker 1
Were you working in?
00:00:46 Speaker 2
Well this this is the funny part about my entire life and also the radio business, the radio business.
00:00:53 Speaker 2
In those days, you didn’t have a big staff.
00:00:55 Speaker 2
We had a staff of exactly 7 people in those days running 100 Watt station. I’m sharing a wavelength with.
00:01:03 Speaker 2
Two other space.
00:01:07 Speaker 2
We learned every department.
00:01:11 Speaker 2
We learned every department because we were we would go out and sell it responsive.
00:01:17 Speaker 2
We’d come back into the studio.
00:01:20 Speaker 2
We’d rate the commercials.
00:01:22 Speaker 2
We picked the music, which was mostly recorded.
00:01:25 Speaker 2
Then we would announce operated.
00:01:27 Speaker 2
So you did everything in the in the businesses and this is how you liked the business.
00:01:31 Speaker 2
You didn’t specialize in one thing, you did everything.
00:01:35 Speaker 1
What station did you start with?
00:01:37 Speaker 2
CKW X in Vancouver.
00:01:39 Speaker 1
What year did they start?
00:01:41 Speaker 2
What year did they start?
00:01:42 Speaker 2
They had started the five years before over in Nanaimo.
00:01:48 Speaker 2
And they moved.
00:01:48 Speaker 2
They moved to Vancouver, and they used to be.
00:01:51 Speaker 2
Next door to the Belmont.
00:01:54 Speaker 2
Until the fire and put them out of there and then they move this studios to the penthouse in the Hotel Georgia and that is that is when I first came into the picture.
00:02:04 Speaker 2
I had been the theater orchestra leader until 1928.
00:02:09 Speaker 2
And the turkeys taught me how to work.
00:02:11 Speaker 2
And the only thing that I could find that looked like anything and with the help of one of the boys from C KWX who had an experimental license at that time.
00:02:22 Speaker 2
He used to get.
00:02:22 Speaker 2
Me to in between shows at the theater.
00:02:25 Speaker 2
He’d get me to go and play some live stuff.
00:02:28 Speaker 2
And he suggested to me he said, well, how would you like to try?
00:02:33 Speaker 2
Radio and come and work at the.
00:02:36 Speaker 2
So I went and started at the transmitter.
00:02:38 Speaker 2
For about 5 months.
00:02:39 Speaker 1
As an engineer kind of privately transmitter.
00:02:41 Speaker 2
Well, I was learning and learning it from the engineer standpoint and one man was a man by the name of Joyce Taggart, had a children’s program under the name of Uncle Jerry.
00:02:52 Speaker 2
They had a little dolphin town, which the counter player used to play a little song that went riggity jig, and then we we go we go.
00:03:00 Speaker 2
So we we go.
00:03:01 Speaker 2
And the piano player was talking.
00:03:05 Speaker 2
I got a frantic call from the studios up in the Georgia.
00:03:09 Speaker 2
Can you help us out if we can please come up to the studio.
00:03:13 Speaker 2
I never went back to the transmitter because after the first show was over.
00:03:18 Speaker 2
Our program boss or the manager of the station, not the owner but the manager of the station, Harold Paulson, who finally ended up as a salesman, and CBC and Harold Paulson said.
00:03:30 Speaker 2
Did you ever.
00:03:31 Speaker 2
Think of becoming an announcer and I said no.
00:03:35 Speaker 2
So I said I’m going to give you an audition.
00:03:38 Speaker 2
So he had me three different things.
00:03:41 Speaker 2
Enemy newspaper and handed me a commercial and he handed me a musical.
00:03:47 Speaker 2
Example, no, just to no, just to find out whether I could pronounce the words right.
00:03:49
The thing.
00:03:54 Speaker 2
Composers and musicians and so forth.
00:03:59 Speaker 2
And when it was, when it was through, is it all?
00:04:01 Speaker 2
Right.
00:04:02 Speaker 2
You’re on the staff up here.
00:04:05 Speaker 2
Six months later, it was program director.
00:04:07 Speaker 1
Did you ever announce news or did you just?
00:04:10 Speaker 2
Driven on spot news, I did everything we had to do, everything you know.
00:04:17 Speaker 2
And we didn’t have teletypes around very much, and teletype was about all we had in all these and.
00:04:23 Speaker 1
Even in the late.
00:04:24 Speaker 1
1920s, they had a talent.
00:04:26 Speaker 2
Well, that was in the jump up in the urban area we where the teletouch are just beginning to be used then and we took the Canadian Press Service.
00:04:36 Speaker 2
And this is where we get the national news from.
00:04:39 Speaker 2
We just tear it up, the fellow type and make sure that we knew what we were talking about.
00:04:44 Speaker 2
And that was it.
00:04:45 Speaker 2
We go and do the news that way.
00:04:47 Speaker 2
Local news was gathered from the newspaper reporters visiting the scenes ourselves and anything that was occurring.
00:04:55 Speaker 1
Did they have strings?
00:04:57 Speaker 2
Do they have wish?
00:04:58 Speaker 1
I got people all over the.
00:05:00 Speaker 1
Province that were.
00:05:01 Speaker 2
Well, yes, there was.
00:05:02 Speaker 1
Writing something and.
00:05:03 Speaker 2
To a certain extent that people people would have fallen in and used beds because we usually offered a cash, cash bonus to anybody that give U.S.
00:05:13 Speaker 2
And so the result was we we got, we got a lot of new to buy the news coverage, but we were very heavy on the local scene.
00:05:20 Speaker 2
For instance, some Fire Chief here.
00:05:23 Speaker 2
Had been a Sergeant with me overseas in the.
00:05:26 Speaker 2
First World War.
00:05:28 Speaker 2
And he gave us permission.
00:05:32 Speaker 2
To go even with the fire department or fire, and I’ve stood right beside the nozzles.
00:05:38 Speaker 2
And with the building on fire.
00:05:41 Speaker 1
Did you ever use that?
00:05:43 Speaker 1
A police monitor before they became legal like.
00:05:45 Speaker 2
We we worked with the police.
00:05:47 Speaker 2
No, we worked with the police.
00:05:48 Speaker 2
We had a special line with the police.
00:05:50 Speaker 2
They knew that we were picking up their.
00:05:53 Speaker 2
It was all arranged.
00:05:54 Speaker 2
I mean, we we did it fundamentally.
00:05:55 Speaker 2
We did the basic basic business.
00:05:57 Speaker 1
Up till what year? It’s Jane Curtin said that 1937, they didn’t have a police monitor or anything like that, and NWO was using one illegal.
00:06:07 Speaker 2
Well, the.
00:06:09 Speaker 1
Did you just have like if the police had something going like phone you or did they allow you access to their police?
00:06:15 Speaker 2
They allowed us eggs and in fact I was fingerprinted and I was given.
00:06:20 Speaker 2
I was given a police car, giving me permission to go through police line and we worked closely with all the like the fire department and the.
00:06:29 Speaker 2
And the Police Department, we work very closely with them.
00:06:32 Speaker 1
Did you go out and?
00:06:34 Speaker 1
Sort of interview.
00:06:35 Speaker 1
Or go on the scene and broadcast.
00:06:37 Speaker 1
From there, or did you?
00:06:39 Speaker 2
No, we.
00:06:39 Speaker 1
Well then do it and have to come back to the studio.
00:06:41 Speaker 2
We did it right on the scene.
00:06:43 Speaker 2
This is why we made our reputation.
00:06:43 Speaker 1
Just remote.
00:06:45 Speaker 2
We did it on the right, on the scene.
00:06:47 Speaker 2
Another thing that was done that fellow named was Trev Coleman was public relations for the CP.
00:06:53 Speaker 2
For the CPU railway, he wired the entire station for us, so all we had to do was go down and plug in on any pole.
00:06:59 Speaker 2
We we could go right into the transmitter.
00:07:02 Speaker 2
We also had a shortwave transmitter pickup underneath the mountain bolt.
00:07:07 Speaker 2
And I used to carry a 60 pound pack to go out to interviews.
00:07:10 Speaker 2
I’d go out to the airport.
00:07:12 Speaker 2
I interviewed John Charles Thomas out there, and Senator Magnussen all within or 20 minutes.
00:07:18 Speaker 1
I see.
00:07:21 Speaker 1
OK.
00:07:21 Speaker 1
So if WX had been doing, like, all the scene and that kind of thing ever since they really started.
00:07:25 Speaker 2
Public events.
00:07:29 Speaker 2
Yes, we we we did the we did a broadcast of the the landscape bridge, the opening of that we did the opening of the Pattullo Bridge.
00:07:39 Speaker 2
We did all we did, all these public events.
00:07:42 Speaker 2
In fact, it got to be that we became the public events station one another thing that we used to do in the afternoon at 2:00 o’clock.
00:07:54 Speaker 2
We would shut down in the studios and the transmitter would play uninterrupted Symphony till 4.
00:08:02 Speaker 2
And while that was on.
00:08:03 Speaker 1
Live or records?
00:08:05 Speaker 2
You know the records and while that was on.
00:08:08 Speaker 2
I would be preparing with my pipe transmitter to go down the Stanley Park where I was doing a series of the Indian legends in Stanley Park.
00:08:17 Speaker 2
With the with Mr.
00:08:18 Speaker 2
Rohland, who at that time was the chairman of the Parks Board and has died last May and.
00:08:26 Speaker 2
I would go down there and we would sit in the exact spot where the story of the Indian legend actually happened with that pack transmitter.
00:08:33 Speaker 2
We would do just.
00:08:34 Speaker 2
Exactly like you and I are.
00:08:35 Speaker 2
Doing now we would ask each other questions I would ask.
00:08:37 Speaker 1
But you’d also get all the.
00:08:38 Speaker 1
Sounds around you, so that you actually feel.
00:08:40 Speaker 2
We’ve got all the sounds around boats and cars going past and everything.
00:08:41 Speaker 1
Like you’re way out to make sure.
00:08:44 Speaker 2
You see what we did in those days and you must understand that everything was an experiment.
00:08:51 Speaker 2
There were a lot of things that had never been fired and it was an experiment, and today the basics.
00:08:59 Speaker 2
In fact, they don’t do as much of it now as we used to do it with.
00:09:01 Speaker 1
That’s something that we’re trying to do.
00:09:03 Speaker 1
In our programs to.
00:09:05 Speaker 1
We’ve broadcast on Hastings St.
00:09:07 Speaker 1
so I like to take at 11:00 o’clock at night.
00:09:10 Speaker 1
Before our 11:30 show to get get.
00:09:13 Speaker 1
The people an.
00:09:13 Speaker 1
Idea where we are, where it’s.
00:09:15 Speaker 2
Well, you know, one thing that I did from the 24th of November, the 24th of December every year between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the 2nd.
00:09:24 Speaker 2
I used to build the land on the.
00:09:27 Speaker 2
I used to race.
00:09:27 Speaker 2
I used to let anybody be interviewed and I carried an old tin can with me and they had put something in for charity and I worked in conjunction with Vancouver Sun on that.
00:09:37 Speaker 2
And we did that.
00:09:38 Speaker 2
We did that between the two wars.
00:09:41 Speaker 2
And very successfully too.
00:09:43 Speaker 2
In fact, successful enough that the Billboard magazine awarded us.
00:09:50 Speaker 2
Their award for outstanding.
00:09:53 Speaker 2
Efforts of the of the mind.
00:09:56 Speaker 2
And that was.
00:09:58 Speaker 2
I used to have a lot of fun.
00:09:59 Speaker 2
I used to be out from.
00:10:01 Speaker 2
From 12.
00:10:03
Don’t say.
00:10:05 Speaker 2
So change locations every every two hours.
00:10:09 Speaker 2
12:30 to 2:00.
00:10:12 Speaker 2
Three to five.
00:10:14 Speaker 2
Every day but Sunday for an entire month and right up to Christmas Eve.
00:10:19 Speaker 2
And the amount of money that we took in and the order single father receipts I have in.
00:10:22 Speaker 2
My scrapbook. Each day, each day’s receipts.
00:10:27 Speaker 2
But that is one thing that a lot of old timers will Remember Me for, and the man on the street I still have people come along and say when I.
00:10:34 Speaker 2
Was a kid I used to come and talk to me on microphone.
00:10:38 Speaker 1
What album is here?
00:10:40 Speaker 1
Traffic is getting louder.
00:10:42 Speaker 2
The The thing is that we.
00:10:46 Speaker 2
Working in a theater was a hobby to me more than a job working in radio was equally as pleasurable and exciting because we tackled everything.
00:10:59 Speaker 1
Was the what two frequencies did they share with?
00:11:02 Speaker 1
What other stations?
00:11:03 Speaker 2
Well, CK MO was the first was six months ahead of CK WX.
00:11:09 Speaker 2
And we shared the wavelength with the Vancouver province with O Kelly.
00:11:14 Speaker 2
The province only wanted a license just to broadcast news.
00:11:18 Speaker 1
That must. Yeah, because that’s right, 192627. They stopped being their variety thing two hours a night.
00:11:26 Speaker 2
In this ride and we used to shut down on a Wednesday night at 7:30.
00:11:31 Speaker 2
Because when I first started they they opened WX, opened a studio in New Westminster right next door to the theatre.
00:11:40 Speaker 2
It used to be known as Island Cafe.
00:11:43 Speaker 2
And I operated from there and our studios for operating was the Terminal city.
00:11:50 Speaker 2
Terminal City building down at the waterfront.
00:11:53 Speaker 1
Did you broadcast?
00:11:55 Speaker 1
Like so many hours in the morning and so many in the afternoon and someone.
00:11:58 Speaker 2
That’s right, it was broken up that way. And this is at 7:30 Wednesday night. The.
00:11:58 Speaker 1
Else came in.
00:12:05 Speaker 2
The province station would take over, do their news and then uncle Billy Hassell had the time for the rest of the evening.
00:12:12 Speaker 1
When do you remember the state most?
00:12:14 Speaker 1
Every most.
00:12:15 Speaker 1
All the programs in the station becoming live.
00:12:18 Speaker 2
Oh yes, it was.
00:12:19 Speaker 2
It was mostly reliable because.
00:12:21 Speaker 2
And I.
00:12:23 Speaker 2
For 6:30.
00:12:25 Speaker 2
6:30 at player records, giving time, weather and news.
00:12:29 Speaker 2
And then at 8:00 o’clock I would switch over to the piano and I do a nonsense program singing silly songs and giving a lot of weird little tips to the housewives.
00:12:38 Speaker 2
You know you you filled them.
00:12:39 Speaker 2
We had so much live talent.
00:12:41 Speaker 2
But of course you didn’t pay much for live talent.
00:12:44
OK.
00:12:44 Speaker 1
See. Yeah, I’ve been through all the old province newspapers back from 1921 to the early 30s and you see the transition like in 2526, there’s not.
00:12:56 Speaker 1
A lot of live.
00:13:00 Speaker 1
Before the.
00:13:01 Speaker 1
You know it’s or then it’s all recorded and then they get all.
00:13:04 Speaker 1
Very almost everything is live.
00:13:06 Speaker 2
But most of it was live.
00:13:08 Speaker 2
The we had, for instance, on a Friday night, we had a a musical show.
00:13:12 Speaker 2
And had a seven piece mountain like orchestra and about 15 people.
00:13:16 Speaker 2
And we did a live show every Friday night from 9 to 10.
00:13:20 Speaker 2
And this this went on for a long time.
00:13:24 Speaker 2
We had an awful lot of live talent, but in those days, of course, the the wages were ridiculous.
00:13:31 Speaker 2
I know that when I was programmed director for the station.
00:13:37 Speaker 2
My entire talent bill cost for one week was $27.00.
00:13:42 Speaker 2
But those were the days when the dollar bought the dollars with the goods.
00:13:53 Speaker 1
Did they do news?
00:13:54 Speaker 1
Broadcasts, since they had a lot of variety shows and did, did they have news broadcasts at definite times?
00:14:01 Speaker 1
Of the day.
00:14:01 Speaker 2
Oh, yes, yes, they had.
00:14:03 Speaker 2
They had definite time.
00:14:05 Speaker 1
Do you remember what times like?
00:14:07 Speaker 1
Say like.
00:14:07 Speaker 2
Well, it’d be very like, for instance, 6:30 to 8:00 in the morning. It was quite frequently you would give, you’d start out and you’d give the news almost immediately and then about to happen. Our Lady, you’d come in with the highlights of the news and.
00:14:21 Speaker 2
And you’d sign off with the latest news, time, weather.
00:14:25 Speaker 1
Did they have a limited time for news?
00:14:27 Speaker 1
Or could you?
00:14:28 Speaker 2
Only it was all it was all scheduled.
00:14:29 Speaker 2
No, it was all scheduled, because even in even in those days we kept a log.
00:14:33 Speaker 2
We had to.
00:14:34 Speaker 1
So like.
00:14:37 Speaker 1
In 1940s, they were allowed 15 minutes, say only any newscast had to fit exactly 15 minutes. Did it have to be a certain time links for every news time or?
00:14:48 Speaker 2
Well, yes, yes, it’s always been timed as far as I can remember.
00:14:51 Speaker 2
Always been time.
00:14:52 Speaker 1
So that one day you could.
00:14:53 Speaker 1
Say, well, I’m going to do 8.
00:14:54 Speaker 1
Minutes and lose.
00:14:55 Speaker 1
Today and the next day do 13 or something.
00:14:55 Speaker 2
No, no, no, no.
00:14:59 Speaker 1
Were they usually about 15 minutes long or 10 minutes?
00:15:01 Speaker 2
It varied, but invariably it it would be a fairly comprehensive coverage and.
00:15:08 Speaker 2
I would say on the hour it would be a a fairly long one.
00:15:12 Speaker 2
But the the point is that this is where you develop listener habit.
00:15:18 Speaker 2
People would know you were coming on with the news.
00:15:20 Speaker 2
Of the set tonight.
00:15:20 Speaker 1
Like 8 in the morning and noon, and what 6:30 and then 10:00 o’clock, something like that.
00:15:22 Speaker 2
Right.
00:15:24 Speaker 2
Right.
00:15:26 Speaker 2
Yes it it.
00:15:26 Speaker 2
It had to have a format that had to be kept to the oven.
00:15:32 Speaker 2
But as you say yourself, we did a lot of live content in those days like I would do.
00:15:39 Speaker 2
I would do from 4:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon on the Indian legend thing down at Stanley Park.
00:15:45 Speaker 2
Four to five sometimes.
00:15:47 Speaker 2
Sometimes we go down there and.
00:15:50 Speaker 2
I’ve even bought a box of chocolate bars and just gone down and interviewed parked cars from out of town.
00:15:56 Speaker 2
Where are you from so they can and then you give them a chocolate bar, you know.
00:16:01 Speaker 2
And then on your way out of the park, when your time is up, people were coming down and he was those chocolate bars.
00:16:09 Speaker 1
Was the station on five days A?
00:16:10 Speaker 1
Week or seven days.
00:16:11 Speaker 2
We operate no, we operate every day.
00:16:14 Speaker 2
We operate.
00:16:14 Speaker 2
We shared another wavelength we shared was.
00:16:18 Speaker 2
It was a church.
00:16:20 Speaker 1
The reverend cook.
00:16:21 Speaker 2
That was the.
00:16:21 Speaker 1
Is that him?
00:16:22 Speaker 2
That was the United Church, and it was.
00:16:28 Speaker 2
An experimental license in those days, but they they took Sunday mornings after we, after we opened up from the service, they would take up till.
00:16:32 Speaker 1
OK.
00:16:37 Speaker 1
So they then did you broadcast in the afternoon?
00:16:41 Speaker 1
Oh, there’s, there’s.
00:16:42 Speaker 1
I don’t have record of you broadcast of the station broadcasting every day.
00:16:47 Speaker 2
But we were sharing wavelengths.
00:16:48 Speaker 2
There’s three of us sharing one wavelength.
00:16:51 Speaker 2
And to get to get the one wavelength.
00:16:53 Speaker 2
Of course, we have to absorb the other two.
00:16:56 Speaker 2
And eventually we did we we absorbed the other two to get an increase in power.
00:17:01 Speaker 1
What year did?
00:17:03 Speaker 1
You become the only station on that frequency.
00:17:07 Speaker 2
Well, we were always on one frequency, but we weren’t crystal control, so you could wobble all over the place.
00:17:13 Speaker 1
OK, not sharing.
00:17:16 Speaker 1
Not sharing.
00:17:16 Speaker 1
If you could see.
00:17:18 Speaker 2
Oh, you mean when?
00:17:18 Speaker 2
When we got?
00:17:19 Speaker 2
When we took over the whole wavelengths completely.
00:17:22 Speaker 2
Oh, let me see.
00:17:23 Speaker 2
Now this.
00:17:23 Speaker 2
This is one thing.
00:17:25 Speaker 2
A little vague.
00:17:26 Speaker 2
I forget the date of it now, but.
00:17:30 Speaker 2
We moved, we moved our studios from.
00:17:34 Speaker 2
The Georgia roof is when we got an increase in power and we went to 543 Seymour St. and.
00:17:42 Speaker 2
I think with the exception of the Sunday morning service.
00:17:47 Speaker 2
Which had been written in for the picking up the one wavelength.
00:17:53 Speaker 2
Earl Kelly from the province came over and worked at CKW X and did his evening broadcast from us from our studios.
00:18:02 Speaker 1
Oh, was so the province broadcast from your studios.
00:18:05 Speaker 2
They broadcast from the province building in those days.
00:18:08 Speaker 2
Oh, Kelly.
00:18:11 Speaker 2
But after the after WX absorbed the other two stations then it all went from it went from.
00:18:19 Speaker 2
See Kitterick studios.
00:18:20 Speaker 1
I have record of January 1940 with CCD was closed down, so would.
00:18:27 Speaker 1
That be when it.
00:18:27 Speaker 1
Was absorbed or would it?
00:18:28 Speaker 2
No, they still they still we still.
00:18:31 Speaker 2
Allowed them time for.
00:18:33 Speaker 2
Billy, Hassle but Billy Hassle will double CK WX.
00:18:35 Speaker 1
So actually the.
00:18:37 Speaker 1
It was.
00:18:38 Speaker 1
The station disappeared under the call letters, but the people moved, just moved over to your station.
00:18:42 Speaker 2
That’s right.
00:18:43 Speaker 2
They moved over into our.
00:18:44 Speaker 2
Studios so.
00:18:45 Speaker 2
That for their.
00:18:45 Speaker 1
Broadcast the time allowance is that it had been.
00:18:48 Speaker 1
Under CK CD before just stayed under became.
00:18:49 Speaker 2
We came out out to see our wavelengths in the last days. We started out at 7:13 and then we went to 10:10.
00:18:51 Speaker 1
The same people.
00:19:00 Speaker 2
You know.
00:19:01 Speaker 2
Went to 10:10 with the with the increase in power.
00:19:08 Speaker 2
We had to move the transmitter again.
00:19:10 Speaker 2
You know, he’s done.
00:19:10 Speaker 2
The transmitter had to be moved because we had originally transmitted from down the Seymour St.
00:19:19
This is.
00:19:19 Speaker 2
Low wattage.
00:19:22 Speaker 1
Oh, you said something about commercials.
00:19:24 Speaker 1
How long had the station been doing commercials?
00:19:26 Speaker 1
Ever since they opened.
00:19:27 Speaker 2
Oh, it was.
00:19:28 Speaker 2
Did commercials.
00:19:30 Speaker 2
There was a commercial station.
00:19:31 Speaker 2
I’ve got it.
00:19:34 Speaker 1
Oh, I get, I get told.
00:19:34 Speaker 2
It was privately owned.
00:19:36 Speaker 2
It was privately owned by a Mr.
00:19:38 Speaker 2
on his horse, dad, whom we affectionately called Sparks.
00:19:41 Speaker 2
And the reason we call him sparks that when he was in the normal, he was in the automotive business and he was an expert on ignition.
00:19:48 Speaker 2
And he operated the station haphazardly for five years until he moved to Vancouver.
00:19:55 Speaker 2
And of course, he had to.
00:19:58 Speaker 2
In more time and.
00:20:00 Speaker 1
Which you were originally given the call letters KWO and they changed because it sounded like camo.
00:20:05 Speaker 2
No, no, no. My original original call letters was CFCCDCCD.
00:20:14 Speaker 1
But let’s say I’ve got.
00:20:15 Speaker 1
Him moving over here illegally and being in Nanaimo.
00:20:18 Speaker 1
Illegally, with a radio station.
00:20:21 Speaker 1
Well, we didn’t have a nice thing.
00:20:22 Speaker 2
He didn’t have a license.
00:20:24 Speaker 2
How the hell that came about, how that came about?
00:20:27 Speaker 2
One of those things that was a new kind of entertainment coming.
00:20:29 Speaker 2
It came out called a radio set.
00:20:33 Speaker 2
And he got the agency for grieving.
00:20:37 Speaker 1
Used to sell them.
00:20:39 Speaker 2
He used to sell them and the.
00:20:40 Speaker 2
Way he used to sell them.
00:20:41 Speaker 2
He would turn on the transmitter that he’d got over there, dashed down with the grieving to a prospective customer.
00:20:48 Speaker 2
Tune into it.
00:20:50 Speaker 2
And it was.
00:20:53 Speaker 2
It was illegal, actually.
00:20:55 Speaker 2
He didn’t know that he had to have a license for it.
00:20:58 Speaker 2
And so when they, the inspectors came in and.
00:21:01 Speaker 2
Proceeded to do some investigating.
00:21:04 Speaker 2
So then he moved to Vancouver.
00:21:06 Speaker 2
Of course he it became he gradually built up from there.
00:21:09 Speaker 2
But as I say, there was only seven employees there.
00:21:12 Speaker 2
When I left, I think there was somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 / a night.
00:21:16 Speaker 1
So what it?
00:21:18 Speaker 1
When all the technology started to come in and all the the new inventions, then they had to expand.
00:21:22 Speaker 2
Yeah, we went through.
00:21:23 Speaker 2
We went through the wires and the acetate, the acetate and they they basically the tapes.
00:21:30 Speaker 2
And now of course it’s automatic now.
00:21:32
Which button?
00:21:35 Speaker 1
Had no idea that the dukkho.
00:21:37 Speaker 1
That they did commercials from the beginning.
00:21:39 Speaker 2
Oh yes, we do commercial because I used to remember what I said.
00:21:42 Speaker 2
We had to go out.
00:21:42 Speaker 1
Yeah. I just.
00:21:43 Speaker 2
And sell the customer.
00:21:44 Speaker 1
Who? Who would?
00:21:46 Speaker 1
Do commercial like would.
00:21:47 Speaker 1
It be local little, you know, little people.
00:21:47 Speaker 2
Well, I’ll give you.
00:21:48 Speaker 2
I’ll give you an instance.
00:21:49 Speaker 2
I’ll give you an instance, one that I had a very pleasant association with the obesity electric.
00:21:55 Speaker 2
They had the Symphony down in the Stanley Park Bowl.
00:22:01 Speaker 2
They did.
00:22:02 Speaker 2
They did institutional advertising.
00:22:05 Speaker 2
That is about electricity in general.
00:22:08 Speaker 2
They had a retail outlet for appliances, lamps and so forth, right where Germains is now on the corner of Dunsmuir and Grand.
00:22:20 Speaker 2
That was one of the places I used to do my man in the street, broadcast from.
00:22:23 Speaker 2
I used to do in front of the front of there in the Hudson Bay.
00:22:28 Speaker 2
I I had the job.
00:22:31 Speaker 2
In fact, I I not only sold the.
00:22:34 Speaker 2
The account.
00:22:36 Speaker 2
But I also sold myself because I got booked to be the announcer for the Symphony from the Stanley Park Bowl.
00:22:42 Speaker 2
And then.
00:22:44 Speaker 2
I did that.
00:22:46 Speaker 2
But we are there again.
00:22:47 Speaker 2
I sold the customer, then I had to write the commercials.
00:22:52 Speaker 2
Another one that another one I broke in that I I was a little proud of in those days.
00:22:57 Speaker 2
There was a coffee.
00:22:59 Speaker 2
A coffee merchant here in town and the coffee is still on the still on the market.
00:23:06 Speaker 2
But they used our station only.
00:23:08 Speaker 2
No newspaper, no other station to.
00:23:12 Speaker 2
Give a test as to the selling ability of a radio.
00:23:18 Speaker 2
For three months I studied coffee.
00:23:21 Speaker 2
They gave me the books on coffee.
00:23:22 Speaker 2
They bought their their coffee from Bogota and Colombia, and they made an appropriation for a program and we we pulled one on the on the poor public.
00:23:32 Speaker 2
Because we worked out of a proposition where we would TuneIn, supposedly.
00:23:40 Speaker 2
Bogota and Colombia for Don Pedro and his guitar.
00:23:44 Speaker 2
And Don Pedro would come on and sing his Spanish songs.
00:23:48 Speaker 2
He would.
00:23:48 Speaker 1
Who was doing that?
00:23:49 Speaker 2
There’s a a local boy.
00:23:53 Speaker 2
The non federal would sing his Spanish songs and we then we would feed him up with a lot of static.
00:23:54 Speaker 1
Arrangement probably.
00:24:01 Speaker 2
And what have you.
00:24:02 Speaker 2
And that through the people that wrote in asking for a request, we sent the names and addresses to Bogota.
00:24:08 Speaker 2
Whereupon they sent a picture of Don Pedro.
00:24:15 Speaker 2
Thanking, thanking them, they would send, they would send her a postcard of John Peter or thanking them for their request, and we launched.
00:24:22 Speaker 2
We launched that.
00:24:26 Speaker 2
And their coffee is still on the market, but the the the man who ran it is dead.
00:24:30 Speaker 1
When is it?
00:24:33 Speaker 2
The name still exists on the package with the exception.
00:24:36 Speaker 2
They changed one word and is now owned by one of our big wholesalers here.
00:24:43 Speaker 1
Where most of the commercial sponsors like, did they sponsor a program or they didn’t have commercials come?
00:24:48 Speaker 2
No, no, no.
00:24:49 Speaker 1
In, in between and all that.
00:24:49 Speaker 2
They sponsor they sponsor programs.
00:24:51 Speaker 1
Did they have to sponsor program in order?
00:24:53 Speaker 2
No, no, no, no, no, no.
00:24:53 Speaker 1
To be advertised or.
00:24:55 Speaker 2
But the the selling wasn’t high pressured like it is today.
00:24:58 Speaker 2
Today it’s high pressure in those days we went down and talked to we knew every advertising man and we were personally acquainted and they knew us.
00:25:06 Speaker 2
We knew them and we would discuss what was going to go on the air.
00:25:11 Speaker 2
I can remember going to this particular coffee fast one day and I said, well, it’s coming along to Easter.
00:25:18 Speaker 2
It’s anything special that you want to add to?
00:25:23 Speaker 2
What are you asking me for?
00:25:24 Speaker 2
I said.
00:25:24 Speaker 2
You know more about the coffee than I do, he said.
00:25:26 Speaker 2
You studied it.
00:25:28 Speaker 1
Did you have?
00:25:28 Speaker 2
Write your own.
00:25:29 Speaker 1
Did you have regulations regarding advertising or was it basically your own decision of?
00:25:33 Speaker 2
No, there was there was, there was actually, there was no, there was no percentage per day or anything like that in those days.
00:25:42 Speaker 2
That’s why it got a little out of hand, I imagine because you know.
00:25:45 Speaker 2
They were mostly minute 2 minute spots.
00:25:48 Speaker 2
But they were cheap in most days.
00:25:50 Speaker 1
What about selling before?
00:25:51 Speaker 1
And after the news were you allowed to?
00:25:56 Speaker 2
No, we do you mean that the news is sponsored by some so?
00:26:00 Speaker 1
Well, or you have an advertisement immediately before the news, so it sounds like it’s sponsored.
00:26:07 Speaker 2
Well, we had that.
00:26:08 Speaker 2
We had the we had the announcements, but we always broke them off with the call letters.
00:26:13 Speaker 2
We always broke them off the call letters and went into the news.
00:26:16 Speaker 1
So did you.
00:26:16 Speaker 1
Have sort of the standing thing that that the news was not to be sponsored or sold.
00:26:23 Speaker 2
There was.
00:26:24 Speaker 2
There was no.
00:26:26 Speaker 2
I’m just trying to recall now.
00:26:28 Speaker 2
Whether there was was a regulation on that, I think there was, but it was a it was a sort of a thing that a lot, a lot of those, a lot of things that happened those days were station sensitive.
00:26:39 Speaker 2
You know what I mean?
00:26:40 Speaker 2
You used your you use your own sense of what is new is what isn’t news or what is the program.
00:26:46 Speaker 2
Isn’t a program.
00:26:49 Speaker 2
My my theory.
00:26:52 Speaker 2
Nobody will.
00:26:53 Speaker 2
Well, a lot of people will say wrong, but my theory is.
00:26:59 Speaker 2
When you’re selling stuff, you’ve got to be you’ve got to be truthful about it.
00:27:04 Speaker 2
You’ve got to know the product.
00:27:05 Speaker 2
Believe me, I tried all the products.
00:27:09 Speaker 1
She had ever advertised a product that you thought.
00:27:12 Speaker 1
Was really bad.
00:27:14 Speaker 1
No, just for the money.
00:27:16 Speaker 1
Or who are you?
00:27:16 Speaker 2
My my, my approach maybe I’m I’m a little reserved but I.
00:27:21 Speaker 2
I use my head.
00:27:23 Speaker 2
What there was in it, and I used my head.
00:27:27 Speaker 2
Put myself in the place of a listener.
00:27:30 Speaker 2
How would I feel if somebody suddenly tore into the door, then started screaming the head off at me?
00:27:35 Speaker 2
And so I never used that hard approach.
00:27:38 Speaker 2
I always used the friendly.
00:27:41 Speaker 2
Client approach and it cost me jobs.
00:27:44 Speaker 2
I mean it cost me.
00:27:45 Speaker 2
There’s one firm in town would never use.
00:27:48 Speaker 2
They wouldn’t use me because my approach was too soft.
00:27:50 Speaker 2
They felt and on another fact, my voice was too deep.
00:27:55 Speaker 1
I’m going to have.
00:27:55 Speaker 1
To fade it out and change sides.