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The Rural Voice, 1977-11, Page 7members was a boy just off the farm from over in West Wawanosh township near St. Augustine, one Harry J. Boyle. He walked in one day and told Doc he could do better newscasts than Doc was doing and so Doc gave him a shot at it. He started out working for nothing then got a little more as the financial situation improved. Later, he went on to the Stratford Beacon Herald, then the C.B.C. and eventually to the chairmanship of the governing body of broadcasting in Canada. The Canadian Radio Television Commission. By 1941 revenue had reached $27,000 a year. Doc managed to save $2,200 and it served as a downpayment to RCA Victor who took a chance on the small-town entrepreneur and installed a new $30,000 transmitter. A piece of land was purchased a few miles south of town for the transmitter si y. A transmitter house was built. Studios were enlarged and modernized. when the commercial licence was gained that station had jumped in power from 50 to 100 watts. Now the jump was to be to 1000 watts and the frequency was to change from 1200 at one end of the dial to 920 kilocycles .at the middle of the dial. The committment from the beginning was toward local programming. It was evident that to survive, the station was going to have to offer something the larger stations couldn't so Doc pushed his station toward local programming. All news, no matter what was going on in the world, was to have a 50 per cent local content. Talent used in shows whenever possible would be live and local. That local talent policy led to a tradition that was to become almost as legendary as Doc himself in 1937 the first CKNX Barn Dance was held in the studios of the little station. It was comprised of recorded music. There were favourable comments. Three months later the idea arose to replace the recorded music with local artists. The idea clicked and the show became the most listened to program on the station. In 1942 an energetic young man named Johnny Brent joined the staff of the station and became manager of the barn dance. He took the show on the road to various communities letting people see the entertainers as well as hear them. Professional entertainers were brought in as well as local amateurs. The popularity of the show blossomed. By the station's silver anniversary in 1951. over 40 thousand fans a year were witnessing the concerts live and 150.000 listened to the Saturday night broadcasts. The show created its own local stars, Earl Heywood. Ross Man, Ernie King. Don Robinson and the Ranch Boys, Slim Boucher and the Golden Prairie Cowboys. It gave young entertainers like Tommy Hunter and Al Cherney a start in the business. For many years the show remained a symbol of the commitment of the small station to the local programming. By the time the station celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1951 Doc Cruikshank was already looking ahead, talking of the coming of television to the area. The first television station in all of Canada was not to take to the air for another year but Doc was confident that soon CKNX would have a television station too. The government had set aside channels for every area of the country and Channel 8 had been designated for the Owen Sound area north of Wingham though few thought a television station could survive in such a low population base. But the National Broadcasting Company in the U.S. meanwhile had applied for Channel 8 for a station in Buffalo and by international agreement no two cities within 170 miles of each other could have the same channel. If Buffalo got the station Wingham couldn't have one. Doc went to Ottawa and presented plans for a small scale television station to cost about $125,000 and asked for Channel 8. The commissioners heard him and promised they would hold the channel open for him, but asked him to work out plans for a more powerful station. On investigating, Doc found out that a suitable station of the kind the commissioners wanted would cost $500,000 and would need $250,000 a year to meet expenses. The largest single expense was for transmission equipment: $223.000. Again RCA Victor helped out. Then the supplier for the 650 -foot transmission tower agreed to take deferred payments on the $100,000 project. There was still the problem of the building required. The old location downtown was far too small to include a television station. In addition, a higher site was needed for television. The Wingham area was getting a new high school at the time and knowing the problem, the town agreed to sell the old high school building to Doc for $1.00. It still required a lot of renovation but at least the station had a home. Normally it takes a year to put a new station on air. The crew of 65 involved in starting up CKNX television took only three months. The station went on air on November 18, 1955. Early in 1956 the radio station followed the television station uptown from the old Brunswick Hotel studios to the converted high school. So the radio station that people thought in the beginning couldn't survive and the television station people thought couldn't survive shared the same building. But for a few hours in 1962, there was aoubt that they really would survive at all. John Langridge recalls the morning it happened. The early morning crew was about set to come to the station to begin programming at 6:15 a.m. The CKNX caretaker Alex Skin heard a rumbling sound at 6 o'clock. Unable to locate the source which was growing frighteningly louder, he made a dash outside, leaving his jacket behind him. Moments later there was tremendous explosion and the building was aflame. The early morning crew arrived to find the building on fire and quickly jumped into the large truck parked beside the building that served as a portable studio. They drove the truck to the tower site south of Wingham and went on air only 40 minutes after the regular sign -on time, delivering the story of their own tragedy. The staff, Mr. Langridge recalls, stood around hopelessly watching firemen battle the flames for a while, then began to gather in various homes to discuss the problem and what to do. The fire was still at its height when a convoy of trucks, cars and station wagons arrived from CFPL in London with all the spare equipment that could be rounded up by that station. It was just the beginning of the tremendous co-operation that other people in the industry were about to show. The record collection of the station was destroyed so records came from other stations and record suppliers. Suppliers came through with emergency equipment. National advertising agencies came through with duplicates of commercial materials lost in the fire. By nightfall with all this help, CKNX television was back on the air, telecast from the new high school building across the way. The newscast included film of the fire which had been shot and processed through the co-operation of CFPL. A Toronto newspaper headlined its story on the tragedy "Death knell for a station" but Doc Cruickshank was on the air telling his listeners that the people at CKNX would rebuild Your Headquarters for ... •Beatty • Butler •Modern Mill •Westeel Rosco Grain Bins •Cardinal Bucket Elevators •Supe -r B Grain Dryers •Mole Hill underground manure systems •Danor Ventilation Fans * FREE ESTIMATES * a....on a 140...n Farm Systems !..e 3l11..11 • ,• Newton, Ont. Tel 5954182 THIS KURAL VOICF./NAVFtbrRF'Q 10"'7 yr