Audio file
Transcript
00:00:02 Speaker 1
Trying to get back to Vancouver.
00:00:03 Speaker 1
OK, this is tape #2 with Mr. Ian Clark in Kamloops.
00:00:11 Speaker 1
OK.
00:00:13 Speaker 1
We were talking about the early days with CFJC and I wondered if perhaps you could tell me about the early network programming involvement that would be.
00:00:24 Speaker 1
According to your manuscript, there was network program going on even before the advent of the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission.
00:00:33 Speaker 1
Would that be the railway network?
00:00:34 Speaker 2
Yes, they they started, I think with with the Canadian National Railways, they were were the first people, the first network broadcast in Canada was on July the 26th or wherever it was in 1926.
00:00:51 Speaker 2
In Regina.
00:00:53 Speaker 2
Saskatchewan, of all places, Rex Bell and his orchestra played to mark the.
00:01:03 Speaker 2
What birthday of our nation isn’t that terrible?
00:01:05 Speaker 2
Not to be able to know that right off hand.
00:01:08 Speaker 2
Of our country would be the 50th person birthday of our country.
00:01:12 Speaker 2
And that was carried on the.
00:01:16 Speaker 2
A group of privately owned states at night in the sea and weren’t in, but I guess that was the the thing that started the CNN and the business.
00:01:23 Speaker 2
To Dennis.
00:01:24 Speaker 2
And they set up this network and they they had phantom stations like at the region.
00:01:31 Speaker 2
And I don’t say this was a case, but I think CKC Kane.
00:01:37 Speaker 2
When there was network programming came on, they closed down CKCK and the station came back on the areas in the same transmitter and called it CNR Regina.
00:01:46 Speaker 1
Oh, I see.
00:01:47 Speaker 2
But the CNR did owned stations in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal, but they they leased time on the others, but they changed the call letters so they.
00:01:56 Speaker 1
That was a that was standard operating procedure.
00:01:59 Speaker 2
Certainly on those days, yeah.
00:02:08 Speaker 1
So CFJC was carrying some network programming.
00:02:13 Speaker 2
And then yes, at that time they were, yes.
00:02:17 Speaker 2
And they were on the old Canadian Radio Commission network too.
00:02:23 Speaker 2
They used to originate some programs and.
00:02:27 Speaker 2
In Kamloops, in fact.
00:02:31 Speaker 2
They. Uh, maybe I shouldn’t tell the story, but in any event, the in the studio CK.
00:02:39 Speaker 2
FJC at that time the heating was done from the basement and there was a large grill on the floor to allow the wire mirror to come up.
00:02:48 Speaker 2
One of these would.
00:02:48 Speaker 2
Walk over grills and they were just starting a broadcast and.
00:02:53 Speaker 2
I won’t mention the name of this fellow.
00:02:54 Speaker 2
Very heavy chap went over the microphone.
00:02:58 Speaker 2
And he walked over this to the the music had stopped and he started to walk towards the microphone, which was just sitting off the grill.
00:03:05 Speaker 2
And as he passed over the grill, the grill caved in lunch, you know, and right down into the basement, he went.
00:03:12 Speaker 2
And this was on a broadcast, was being carried on.
00:03:16 Speaker 1
He fell right out of the room.
00:03:17 Speaker 2
Right out of the room disappeared naturally, blank on the air or the decorum was being restored.
00:03:26 Speaker 2
And uh, but the when Mr.
00:03:30 Speaker 2
Dutton started the CBC network, that was the really the the commencement of first class broadcasting in our country.
00:03:40 Speaker 2
And I must say that Mister Dutton will go down in Canadian history as one of the great contributors and one of to broadcasting in Canada. And one of them, Canada’s greatest citizens. History will eventually be written up what he did.
00:03:56 Speaker 2
You know, he sent up the CBC network and gosh, he was smart.
00:03:59 Speaker 2
He stole all top programs off NBC and off CBS and.
00:04:03 Speaker 2
ABC and the BBC and so on.
00:04:06 Speaker 2
And he really.
00:04:08 Speaker 2
Really had things going and then he started the second coast to Coast network, the Dominion Network and.
00:04:14 Speaker 2
And gosh, they it’s the.
00:04:19 Speaker 2
I’m not saying anything against TV, Dennis, but the TV is never wrong.
00:04:25 Speaker 2
The the listenership that radio did in its heyday.
00:04:30 Speaker 2
I remember times that I’m sure that there were times when the national audience built up to 60%, and I’ve seen it here in town and can’t move up to 8085% listening.
00:04:45 Speaker 2
The radio played a very, very important part in people’s lives, much more so than TV.
00:04:53 Speaker 1
Did you feed a lot of programs the different networks over the years or yes?
00:04:57 Speaker 2
From Kamloops.
00:05:00 Speaker 2
Yes, the I didn’t.
00:05:04 Speaker 2
Some writing for the CBC in Vancouver.
00:05:09 Speaker 2
As a sideline in my time programs and what have you.
00:05:14 Speaker 2
And the CBC were very good.
00:05:17 Speaker 2
They let us originate.
00:05:20 Speaker 2
I think this could be said without fear correction, that of all the privately owned and affiliated stations on the CBC network that perhaps CFJC originated more network programming than any of the others.
00:05:36 Speaker 2
They mind you, there were a lot of network shows.
00:05:40 Speaker 2
Commercial type shows that we were originated here to the network, but they were also being originated in other communities throughout Canada.
00:05:48 Speaker 2
I remember one time they I came up with an idea for a program called the Story of Christmas.
00:05:58 Speaker 2
I was working on the story.
00:05:59 Speaker 2
My daughter was just a little girl at the time and my son was just a baby and my daughter was after me and told her the story of Christmas.
00:06:09 Speaker 2
So and working this thing out.
00:06:11 Speaker 2
So I finally told the story that I was going to tell her on the air.
00:06:17 Speaker 2
And we had to acquire St. Anne’s Academy here, and we had all kinds of wonderful cooperation from local people.
00:06:27 Speaker 2
And in those days, as before the tape recorder.
00:06:33 Speaker 2
If I’m not mistaken, but in any event, we fed a sample of it down to Doctor Aaron Delworth, who was the regional director of the CBC in Vancouver at the time, and.
00:06:45 Speaker 2
And he said yes, we’ll carry this on the.
00:06:50 Speaker 2
BBC Network on Christmas Eve then went along a little bit further and he said we will carry this on the Western network of the CBC.
00:07:00 Speaker 2
And then just on Christmas Eve.
00:07:03 Speaker 2
Just a few days before Christmas Eve.
00:07:06 Speaker 2
We got to a phone call from Vancouver and they said the time is 5:30 to 6:00 o’clock Pacific Time. It’s going to be carried coast to coast.
00:07:17 Speaker 2
And I remember very well coming out of the studios.
00:07:23 Speaker 2
Last night.
00:07:25 Speaker 2
It was snowing.
00:07:25 Speaker 2
My car was covered with snow.
00:07:28 Speaker 2
And you couldn’t have picked a more beautiful evening.
00:07:33 Speaker 2
There was just a beautiful evening.
00:07:35 Speaker 2
And Walter Harwood, the late Walter Harwood, who was a tremendous help putting the show together.
00:07:40 Speaker 2
And what have you and.
00:07:42 Speaker 2
And he said, you know, I I don’t know.
00:07:47 Speaker 2
He said ordinarily I’d like to go.
00:07:49 Speaker 2
And have a drink.
00:07:51 Speaker 2
After relieve the tension, but he said not now.
00:07:55 Speaker 2
And he walked off.
00:07:57 Speaker 2
And I didn’t know whether he was going down to get some cigarettes or whether he was just, you know, caught up in the ocean or just what.
00:08:05 Speaker 2
So in any event, I went to my car and I going to open the door and get off the brush to clean the snow off the windshield.
00:08:13 Speaker 2
And I thought, no, just leave it.
00:08:15 Speaker 2
There I’ll walk.
00:08:16 Speaker 2
So I walked home, you know, and just a tremendous feeling.
00:08:21 Speaker 2
The the, I guess we relief because was the.
00:08:26 Speaker 2
You know, the first time we had done anything locally, it was carrying coast to coast and I got home.
00:08:34 Speaker 2
My wife and my children, of course, were glad to see me and they listened.
00:08:38 Speaker 2
The children thought was just for them.
00:08:41 Speaker 2
And I guess in the way it was for them.
00:08:44 Speaker 2
And then the wire started coming in from people all over the country and all.
00:08:50 Speaker 2
And the for the Telegraph people.
00:08:53 Speaker 2
Instead of sending somebody out, they just phoned the wires, you know.
00:08:58 Speaker 2
It was one of the highlights of my life that.
00:09:01 Speaker 1
Would that have been?
00:09:02 Speaker 1
A live program?
00:09:02 Speaker 1
Or was it?
00:09:02 Speaker 2
Oh yeah. No, no, there was this before Taffe 00.
00:09:05 Speaker 1
So it must be difficult to coordinate all those different people you had there.
00:09:10 Speaker 2
And all the we originated on many programs are religious.
00:09:14 Speaker 2
Period originated here and.
00:09:18 Speaker 2
And own a number of them.
00:09:20 Speaker 2
They the Speaking of religious period, I don’t know.
00:09:23 Speaker 2
They should tell this story or not.
00:09:24 Speaker 2
But this was uh.
00:09:26 Speaker 2
On the CBC and it was on between 11:00 and 11:30 on Sunday morning, and it originated in various parts of the country. But that’s.
00:09:34 Speaker 2
As I recall, the origination was in Regina.
00:09:38 Speaker 2
And the I was on over at the transmitter at the time.
00:09:42 Speaker 2
In fact, I used to put a shift in the transmitter.
00:09:46 Speaker 2
So this is in the real early days.
00:09:50 Speaker 2
And all of a sudden the line went dead.
00:09:54 Speaker 2
And so I reached for a record to put on a felony.
00:09:58 Speaker 2
Voice came in and said.
00:09:59 Speaker 2
Hey, what the Hell’s going on here?
00:10:02 Speaker 2
And then there was silence for a few moments, and I just want to start the record when they basically back on again.
00:10:07 Speaker 2
They were saying, father, forgive them for they don’t.
00:10:10 Speaker 2
Know what they do.
00:10:15 Speaker 1
Well, this this Christmas program must have been a tremendous experience.
00:10:19 Speaker 1
How did how did it feel to be?
00:10:22 Speaker 1
Did you narrate the program as well?
00:10:24 Speaker 2
Well, there were about, oh, I guess a dozen voices altogether.
00:10:29 Speaker 2
And then the thing.
00:10:31 Speaker 2
And the choir and we had chimes and what have you.
00:10:37 Speaker 2
But basically it was just merely the story of Christmas told and.
00:10:42 Speaker 2
You know, as somebody said to me the next day, they said, Gee.
00:10:46 Speaker 2
As we sat there and listened, and this is the beauty of radio or TV, you could visualize these all these things on the imagination, on the canvas of your own imagination.
00:10:57 Speaker 2
You never weren’t watching something and they gave.
00:11:00 Speaker 2
I suppose everybody a little different slant on things.
00:11:03 Speaker 2
And this fellow, something you know, and after that program was over, I felt it, really.
00:11:08 Speaker 2
Was there and I thought you mean that was good enough.
00:11:11 Speaker 2
If he felt he was there at the time of the birth of Christ.
00:11:15 Speaker 2
The final programmer accomplished its purpose.
00:11:19 Speaker 1
How did it feel to be talking to?
00:11:22 Speaker 1
To know that to to go on there and know that?
00:11:24 Speaker 1
You were talking to all those thousands.
00:11:26 Speaker 1
Of people all across Canada.
00:11:29 Speaker 2
It was a little on the scary side.
00:11:32 Speaker 2
I think my my concern was that that that it would be.
00:11:38 Speaker 2
Dennis, that we’ve been able to do a decent job and that we would have it down so that when the queue came up to that 29 minutes and 40 seconds, we would be right on that queue would be right on the button.
00:11:54 Speaker 2
And it was.
00:11:57 Speaker 2
We weren’t the second over, second under.
00:12:00 Speaker 2
And I I went yes, I used to be a bit of a fuss part about that the CBC queues were such a good such a watch on them, you know, they were really good. And I remember one time they broadcast from Saint Paul’s and the cathedral here.
00:12:15 Speaker 2
They on the network program and they, you know, I want to and it’s difficult with the church group to get them to, to stay right on time, especially when you, the Archbishop Dean was the the speaker and you know tie him down to.
00:12:36 Speaker 2
Split second is impossible to do.
00:12:38 Speaker 2
But always managed to get them right on the buttons.
00:12:53 Speaker 1
Was it unusual that the new?
00:12:58 Speaker 1
Studio should be developed.
00:13:00 Speaker 1
And during the war, during wartime, and as I see in your manuscript that you started, you were developing new studio facilities in 1942.
00:13:09 Speaker 2
You know, it was an absolutely essential thing to do.
00:13:11 Speaker 2
You mean we’re going to?
00:13:17 Speaker 2
If we were going to progress the way the community was progressing, we had no choice and it was a good move.
00:13:24 Speaker 2
It was a good move, put in all brand new equipment and nice new studios.
00:13:29 Speaker 2
So on and I think at that time we don’t appear boasting, Dennis, but I think we had the best broadcasting setup.
00:13:37 Speaker 2
Certainly in the prophets it was a really smart studios and equipment was first class.
00:13:43 Speaker 1
More so than the coast.
00:13:45 Speaker 2
Oh, I think we’re ahead of anybody in the coast at that time.
00:13:47 Speaker 2
And I’m not saying CBC.
00:13:49 Speaker 2
I’m time your private broadcasters.
00:13:58 Speaker 1
Any stories about the war, wartime broadcasting, about any, any particular events during the war that you remember carrying or broadcasting about or war news?
00:14:10 Speaker 2
There were several things during the war.
00:14:12 Speaker 2
I don’t think that Dennis.
00:14:18 Speaker 2
That I can really speak on that the station played a very vile part in the war effort.
00:14:27 Speaker 2
And the station itself was used for communication on a different frequency.
00:14:35 Speaker 2
But I don’t think that I would be at liberty to.
00:14:39 Speaker 2
It may be a hangover because they I would get certain wires certain names.
00:14:48 Speaker 2
Patient, for instance, would mean certain things.
00:14:51 Speaker 2
And other words.
00:14:53 Speaker 2
But I was never at liberty to disclose to anyone what these words meant, and I, even at this late day, the war has been over for umpteen dozen years.
00:15:02 Speaker 2
I don’t think I would be my prerogative to say in the what our part.
00:15:11 Speaker 2
In the war effort was, which was a very vital part.
00:15:14 Speaker 1
Well, is.
00:15:15 Speaker 1
Is there anything you can tell me about anything from the public domain then about?
00:15:20 Speaker 1
Can you remember, for instance, can you remember the?
00:15:21 Speaker 1
End of the war.
00:15:24 Speaker 1
You know how the news came through.
00:15:26 Speaker 2
Well, of course this was they were an affiliate of the CBC.
00:15:30 Speaker 2
And the CBC did a first class job, naturally uncovering all these things they.
00:15:39 Speaker 2
We did a whole whack of things.
00:15:41 Speaker 2
They, mile of Dimes, and we used to have and we had the mare rolling down the street and the wheel barrel and all these type of things for more efforts to selling bonds of and all kinds of different gimmicks and what have you.
00:15:58 Speaker 2
I remember one of them.
00:16:03 Speaker 2
In the event and that took place in, it was taking place during a time when reserved time on the CBC.
00:16:11 Speaker 2
So I wired to George Young, who was in the.
00:16:15 Speaker 2
Station leasing manager, CBC and Tronstad can we take?
00:16:21 Speaker 2
The hour Long Montreal Symphony out on Sunday, such and such date, and he said.
00:16:28 Speaker 2
Quarterback regrets unable to grant.
00:16:32 Speaker 2
So in any event, we took the time.
00:16:36 Speaker 2
And we always never fixed our logs, so they our logs showed it and I wrote to Mr.
00:16:45 Speaker 2
Young later and said, hey, you know, I received your wire and you said no permission granted.
00:16:49 Speaker 2
And we acted in such and such a manner.
00:16:52 Speaker 2
We took the time and the round line.
00:16:54 Speaker 2
The reason for it was a war effort.
00:16:57 Speaker 2
And he said, well, he was huge.
00:16:58 Speaker 2
I didn’t get a reply from him.
00:17:00 Speaker 2
But the next time I saw him, this might have been a matter of weeks or months afterwards, he said to me.
00:17:05 Speaker 2
And that’s fine, he said to me.
00:17:07 Speaker 2
You mean where you didn’t specifically say in your original wire that what you’re the purpose of was and they said they true of the title would give the indication of his a war effort.
00:17:18 Speaker 2
So we did much programming.
00:17:21 Speaker 2
We used to feed.
00:17:30 Speaker 2
Peoples messages to somewhere in the United States through the CBC and they were greetings from people in camp roofs and their sons and daughters, and so on.
00:17:44 Speaker 2
And we eventually bought a.
00:17:47 Speaker 2
This was before the tape recorders came in.
00:17:49 Speaker 2
We bought a disc recorder.
00:17:51 Speaker 2
And we sent to meet a lot of these ticks ourselves.
00:17:56 Speaker 2
The quality wasn’t, you know, and he seemed to write home about but.
00:18:01 Speaker 2
You know.
00:18:02 Speaker 2
To to go into $50,000 type of record and those they was a practical thing to do.
00:18:18 Speaker 1
What effect did being a CDC affiliate have was it?
00:18:22 Speaker 1
Was it in general beneficial to the?
00:18:24 Speaker 2
Station all very beneficial, very beneficial they.
00:18:31 Speaker 2
As far as the CBC are concerned, Dennis, we went hand in hand with them.
00:18:36 Speaker 2
They we worked cooperatively with them and they worked cooperatively with us.
00:18:42 Speaker 2
They assisted us and so many, many different ways.
00:18:46 Speaker 2
And then we just kind of had finer relations and the CBC, we got along just like, so very well.
00:18:56 Speaker 2
We we’re proud to be the CBC here and we we try to keep a very high standard because of the CBC.
00:19:07 Speaker 1
Has that.
00:19:08 Speaker 1
Has that changed over the years?
00:19:09 Speaker 2
None at all.
00:19:10 Speaker 2
Not at all.
00:19:11 Speaker 2
Will there be no TV here in Kamloops or in any other spot in, in the in the Canadians, if not in the world?
00:19:22 Speaker 2
If it weren’t for the CBC.
00:19:24 Speaker 1
Are you still carrying?
00:19:25 Speaker 1
Are you still still a CBC affiliate?
00:19:29 Speaker 2
On the TV, yes.
00:19:31 Speaker 1
What about on the radio?
00:19:32 Speaker 2
Though the CBC have their own station here, they.
00:19:38 Speaker 2
Uh, the CPC have a.
00:19:42 Speaker 2
Their AM networks carried on an FM station campus and then they have an FM station carrying the French language programming and at least transmitters are located at the CFTC’s transmitter site and are looked after by the CFG.
00:20:02 Speaker 2
The engineering people.
00:20:06 Speaker 2
I think CFJC was perhaps the last station to be disaffiliated from the CBC network.
00:20:11
Right.
00:20:13 Speaker 1
I know some some broadcasters have told me that they were more than anxious to.
00:20:20 Speaker 1
Disaffiliate themselves because they felt that the CBC was becoming too esoteric in their in their programming.
00:20:28 Speaker 2
Well, there are many reasons. When the CBC uh in its heyday from UH 1940 to 1960.
00:20:43 Speaker 2
In that 20 year period.
00:20:45 Speaker 2
I think the stations that were affiliated with the CBC network were very, very glad to be affiliated with the CBC network.
00:20:52 Speaker 2
Then, with becoming a TV they you know all the many of the good programs, national programs started disappearing off radio and.
00:21:03 Speaker 2
Uh, you know already all kind of took a beating.
00:21:06 Speaker 2
When what’s coming to TV and I think a lot of the affiliated stations felt that, you know, the replacement programs were.
00:21:14 Speaker 2
We’re not, uh, attracting the audiences that they they thought they could attract by substituting other programs.
00:21:26 Speaker 1
OK.
00:21:29 Speaker 1
To begin with, perhaps you could tell me.
00:21:34 Speaker 1
You mentioned before that it was quite common for a person for one person to do both technical work and on air announcing.
00:21:44 Speaker 1
Was there a certain kind of person that got involved in radio in those days?
00:21:48 Speaker 2
Well, I think so.
00:21:49 Speaker 2
You see in it was a.
00:21:52 Speaker 2
A combination in people you had to have the.
00:21:57 Speaker 2
You know to and and I think really Dennis, it was a good thing because you know you could be script writer, you could be engineering the engineering department, you could be in the announcing department, you could be in the sales department.
00:22:10 Speaker 2
You’ve got a full grasp of the whole operation.
00:22:14 Speaker 2
You didn’t specialize in anyone operation.
00:22:18 Speaker 2
I don’t think in the early days there was any specs.
00:22:21 Speaker 2
Let’s you know, Ross, my entire WX, Aaron O’Connor, they were announcer, and there were technicians at the same time.
00:22:30 Speaker 2
And I think it was a very good training they announcing in those days was pretty well all done at the transmitter level.
00:22:40 Speaker 2
The records were played from there.
00:22:42 Speaker 2
There was not very much originated in their studios and.
00:22:47 Speaker 2
As such, live programs and so on, but other than that, all the records were run from the transmitter.
00:22:54 Speaker 2
And that was the the situation here in Kamloops, too.
00:22:58 Speaker 2
The you know, we look back on those days, they there, there wasn’t a perfection, I suppose in a sense.
00:23:09 Speaker 2
You know the.
00:23:12 Speaker 2
I remember one time and this is going back to the days of the home built equipment which up till 1940 every private broadcaster had home built equipment.
00:23:22 Speaker 2
And Larry, I’m not Speaking of Bing stations like CFRB in Toronto or the places like that.
00:23:27 Speaker 2
But I’m Speaking of Vancouver and Calgary, Edmonton and smaller communities such as Canvas and clone and.
00:23:35 Speaker 2
Prince Albert and so on.
00:23:38 Speaker 2
And they there were more laughs, I think, in those days than we have today.
00:23:46 Speaker 2
Dennis, I remember one time.
00:23:49 Speaker 2
We we lost a.
00:23:51 Speaker 2
A condenser that was used in the tuning of the antenna.
00:23:58 Speaker 2
And to get one of these condensers, we had to.
00:24:03 Speaker 2
And sent back east. And yet we were going to be off the air. Maybe a couple of weeks. So we had to make up something. And this was quite common. You made-up something.
00:24:12 Speaker 2
So we’ve got a big glass.
00:24:16 Speaker 2
Pan from one of our ladies and we got some aluminum and we got knitting needles and we.
00:24:25 Speaker 2
We built up this condenser and we poured Castor oil in it.
00:24:29 Speaker 1
No councillor was to be the conductor.
00:24:31 Speaker 2
Well, the the you know the not not exactly the conductor was to to complete the.
00:24:40 Speaker 2
The capacity of the condenser.
00:24:44 Speaker 2
And so we got this thing all rigged up and all connected and what have you and.
00:24:52 Speaker 2
They it was around 10:00 o’clock at night.
00:24:56 Speaker 2
So Laurie was there and Doug Horsham.
00:25:00 Speaker 2
And myself and Doug was sitting up on top of the transmitter, fixing and finished working on this antenna tuning units which sat on the the top of the wall.
00:25:12 Speaker 2
And so they said, well, I think we’re all set to go.
00:25:17 Speaker 2
So we had a motor generator in those days.
00:25:20 Speaker 2
We didn’t have each 60 sixes for rectifying AC current to DC current motor generator.
00:25:28 Speaker 2
Lori said going in the back room and get her going.
00:25:32 Speaker 2
So I went, then kicked the thing up.
00:25:34 Speaker 2
You know, it was a.
00:25:36 Speaker 2
Turned out 2200 volts of DC current.
00:25:40 Speaker 2
And you had to start to consume that current.
00:25:44 Speaker 2
So you just started the generator, or otherwise would be turning into heat so soon to start up with.
00:25:50 Speaker 2
Already can to hear the things of heat through the switch, and the whole thing blew up.
00:25:53 Speaker 2
And Doug was just absolutely covered from head to foot with Castor oil, Lori too and you never heard.
00:25:59 Speaker 2
That’s shown it going on.
00:26:02 Speaker 1
Why would why would it have done that?
00:26:04 Speaker 1
It just wasn’t viable.
00:26:05 Speaker 2
Just just wouldn’t work and it really blew.
00:26:09 Speaker 1
So what did you finally do?
00:26:10 Speaker 1
Did you have to?
00:26:11 Speaker 2
Send away for the no, we we finally we were off there most of the next day before we devised a ways to get this thing going.
00:26:20 Speaker 2
We had to reduce power and so on.
00:26:22 Speaker 2
We’re turning about 10 or 12 amps into the antenna at the time we reduced that down to about 6 amps and.
00:26:28 Speaker 2
We got by.
00:26:30 Speaker 2
But these are the type of things that went on one night.
00:26:34 Speaker 2
Dennis a.
00:26:37 Speaker 2
Around about 8:00 o’clock all of a sudden the whole thing just collapsed.
00:26:42 Speaker 2
Couldn’t figure out what so we got over the transmitter and we found the the transformer.
00:26:47 Speaker 2
The main Transpower transformer had just given out.
00:26:51 Speaker 2
So we were what we’re gonna do.
00:26:53 Speaker 2
So we decide well, we would go to the BC Park Commission, the four runners before BC Hydro, and we’ll borrow a pole pig from.
00:27:04 Speaker 2
That would give us, you know, get us started.
00:27:07 Speaker 2
So we’ve got this pole pig and we’ve got the thing in and got the station on the air.
00:27:12 Speaker 2
It wasn’t. You know, we’re down to maybe 405 hundred watts from 1000, but at least we were on the air.
00:27:21 Speaker 2
So and in any event, they I said, why would open up the next morning?
00:27:26 Speaker 2
No, I didn’t open up the next morning and somebody else opened up the next morning.
00:27:31 Speaker 2
But about 7:00 o’clock in the morning, the phone rang and Mr.
00:27:33 Speaker 2
Davis of the VC Telephone company said, you know, you just got the get that doggone station off the air.
00:27:39 Speaker 2
There’s a lot of electricity coming down the telephone lines and our girls are getting.
00:27:46 Speaker 2
Small sharks.
00:27:48 Speaker 2
Well, I said, Mr.
00:27:49 Speaker 2
That’s not us, you know?
00:27:51 Speaker 2
Yeah, I sent you.
00:27:53 Speaker 2
You getting that station off the air.
00:27:55 Speaker 2
Well, how about Mr.
00:27:57 Speaker 2
Can you put up with it until after the CBC News at 8:00?
00:28:01 Speaker 2
I’ll do that, but no further.
00:28:03 Speaker 2
Absolutely no further mangoes the phone.
00:28:07 Speaker 2
So we hear the CBC News and.
00:28:09 Speaker 2
We went over.
00:28:09 Speaker 2
And you know, and we said, well, Gee, how can this be?
00:28:13 Speaker 2
How can we be 5, you know?
00:28:16 Speaker 2
Solve the BC High and pilot Hydro and BC Power Commission.
00:28:21 Speaker 2
Man that Mister Cox came over and.
00:28:24 Speaker 2
And he said, oh, he said.
00:28:27 Speaker 2
Where does that center tab go to?
00:28:29 Speaker 2
And we said goes to ground.
00:28:32 Speaker 2
Oh my God, he said.
00:28:35 Speaker 2
You’ve got the thing wired in backwards and we had a wired it backwards too and what was happening ordinarily it would have blown the transmitter, blown the the polepy, but they over this our transmitter was in North camp.
00:28:52 Speaker 2
And there’s nothing but sand over there.
00:28:54 Speaker 2
And sand is not a good conductor of electricity.
00:28:57 Speaker 2
And all I was doing was just scattering it around.
00:29:00 Speaker 2
The thing was, running back on the telephone lines and what have you and this is where the electricity was getting around.
00:29:06 Speaker 1
Well, did did, did.
00:29:07 Speaker 1
Did you use telephone lines in anyway?
00:29:08 Speaker 1
I was wondering how it got.
00:29:09 Speaker 1
Under the telephone line.
00:29:10 Speaker 2
Well broadcast loops that were coming in from the telephone company and our own telephone.
00:29:15 Speaker 1
They were just meeting.
00:29:16 Speaker 2
Just as it was just leaking into lamb.
00:29:19 Speaker 2
But we.
00:29:21 Speaker 2
Lots of fun.
00:29:22 Speaker 2
One time.
00:29:23 Speaker 2
I mustn’t go on with these stories.
00:29:25 Speaker 1
Oh, that’d be great.
00:29:26 Speaker 2
They one time they.
00:29:30 Speaker 2
And Laurie would vouch for this.
00:29:32 Speaker 2
Laurie Irving would vouch for this.
00:29:34 Speaker 2
There was a lady who lived across the street from the transmitter.
00:29:38 Speaker 2
And we had a Marconi or an inverted T type micro transmitted antenna.
00:29:46 Speaker 2
And we used to lose the RF we we’re putting, as I say about 1012 amps into this antenna and and guys, you could go along with the with the we used to use a phonograph needles in those days. We used to use phonograph needles and screw them in and we used to have a pair of pliers. You can go around.
Part 2
Transcript
00:00:02 Speaker 1
And guys, you could go along with a with a we used to use a phonograph needle in those days.
00:00:08 Speaker 1
We used to use phonograph needles and screw them in and we used to have a pair of pliers.
00:00:12 Speaker 1
You can go around draw sparks.
00:00:14 Speaker 1
With these things and you could drive them off the fence so a wire fence on the front of the place.
00:00:19 Speaker 1
But in any event, uh, on this day.
00:00:23 Speaker 1
She was busy cooking late dinner.
00:00:25 Speaker 1
It’s around about 20 minutes to 12 as I remembered quite well now, and she came over and said I just don’t understand it.
00:00:34 Speaker 1
Radio station is coming out of my stove.
00:00:38 Speaker 1
So over the Cross Street we go and sure enough they thing was singing away and the commercial was on.
00:00:46 Speaker 1
You could understand it quite well.
00:00:49 Speaker 1
And she was being cabbage, boiling cabbage.
00:00:53 Speaker 1
And the Rs started to rectify and I don’t know, Laurie might be able to explain it.
00:00:57 Speaker 1
I’ve never had it before.
00:00:58 Speaker 1
They explained to me, but the leaves of the calling of the cabbage rectified.
00:01:04 Speaker 1
The RF was so strong it produced a, you know, caused sound to.
00:01:08 Speaker 1
Come out of it.
00:01:08
And the pod acted as an amplifier.
00:01:10 Speaker 1
Yeah, and that was quite clear.
00:01:13 Speaker 1
We had all kinds of these type of things.
00:01:15 Speaker 1
And as I say.
00:01:16
Kind of being quite common was was there so much power floating around with these patients.
00:01:19 Speaker 1
Oh yeah, there are a lot of loose power floating around.
00:01:22 Speaker 1
The antennas in those days.
00:01:24 Speaker 1
You know, we weren’t into vertical transmission, was all horizontal transmission and they they did the trick, but they, you know, it’s threw an awful lot of our effort around close by.
00:01:40 Speaker 1
And mind you, today you certainly get our refer on from the vertical radiators and so on, but not.