Village Squire, 1975-03, Page 26Keith's Kolumn
Give us back
our air waves
BY KEITH ROULSTON
I belong to the radio generation: no not the
first radio generation, the second. Not the
people of the big brown box in the corner, the
people of the miniature radio.
You know us. We were the ones who
walked around with a little black plastic box
over one' ear like we were trying to hide a
cauliflower ear. Ours was the generation of
the transister, when Sony first began to
revolutionize the world with compact little
radios that could go anywhere...and usually
did. We took them to the bathroom and
carried them with us from the bedroom where
we listened to them while we did our
homework, to the kitchen where we listened
to them while we raided the fridge. More than
one mother threatened to pitch the little box
out the window as she screamed and waved
her arms to get attention while we continued
in our own little world, driving ourselves
slowly deaf listening to the noisy music of the
Beatles and other rock groups.
We were addicted. I got to the point I could
hardly stand silence in a room and so no
matter what I was doing the radio would be
on. I developed a way of shutting out the
radio, letting the music through but not the
ads and the jibberish from the rock disc
jockey while I put the biggest part of my mind
on other things, like algebra and chemistry.
No wonder they ended up being my worst
subjects.
I knew one or two people who got even
worse marks though because they'd smuggle
the little radios into class, especially at
World Series time.
It was back in those days I began to see how
interesting radio could be I guess. If you took
some time and flipped around the radio dial
you could learn a lot about how people in
other areas felt about things, much the same
as you could if you read their newspapers
which you can't because they're not available
around here.
As a high school kid, of course, I couldn't
care about much except what was the number
one record on the hit parade this week. The
last couple of years, however, it's been an
interesting way about finding out what the
Americans really think about their own
country.
You know Canadiar nationalists, yours
truely included, make a big deal about the
American domination of our culture, but it's
often hard to really get to know what
Americans think about things like Watergate.
We get their soap commercials sponsoring
their situation comedies, but its often hard to
see just what the ordinary man in the street
across the border thinks. Radio in the past
couple of years through the medium of talk
shows and radio commentaries has give us a
way of tuning in on what's going on down
there. Driving at night or sitting in the rec
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THE CHEESE HOUSE
P.O. Box 111
423 Erie Street, Stratford, Ontario
Telephone 271-3160
24, VILLAGE SQUIRE/MARCH 1975
room, you can flip the dial around and catch a
half-dozen talk shows from all over the U.S.
and soon get something of the feeling of the
people.
That can be educational, but it can also be a
pain in the neck and stir the most nationalistic
feelings in this bird.
I mean it's all right to get Houston Texas if
you want to listen to Houston Texas, but if
you get Houston and you want Chatham or
Toronto or some other place closer to home
and in ones own country, it gets a little
upsetting. Why is it, I wonder that I can get
broadcasts of the Toronto Maple Leaf games
if they play against Boston or Pittsburgh or
Detroit or Minnesota because stations in
those cities carry the games, but there's a
Toronto station that carries all the Leaf games
and you can never get it. Or that CFRB is one
of the most powerful stations in Canada, but
when I'm listening to the news on a winter
night, the Canadian station gets blocked out
often by a station in Boston, three or four
hundred miles farther away.
In fact, chances are if you live more than a
few miles from a radio transmitter you'll have
a hard time trying to find a Canadian
newscast to listen to after dark. I live about
six miles trom the CKNX radio transmission
towers but after supper at night it's hard to
get a clear signal.
Now I know radio signals don't know
anything about borders but it's getting a little
ridiculous. If someone from the Canadian
government doesn't soon sit down and work
out a solution with someone from the
American government, I'm soon going to
_develop a Texas Twang.
See y'all next month. ❑
SE1
THIS ST. PATRICK'S DAY
CARD
Make your plans early and shop
at Harris Stationery
Supplies are limited on Easter and St.
Patrick cloths, serviettes, cut-outs, centre
pieces, plates and cups.
Large stock of St. Patrick's
and Easter cards.
Harris Stationery
Wingham Phone 357-3191
(1%-(Arig*(