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Village Squire, 1976-03, Page 8Langridge recalls. the signal just wouldn't travel well and there'd be a call from radio owners saying they couldn't get the signal Doc %could load up the little transmitter and take it up to his house located upon this hill, and start broadcasting again and would be greeted IDN telephone callers saying that was much better. Thursday nights saw a special program in the early days that featured music, news and often reports on hockey games completed moments earlier. In fact Doc recalled the story once of doing an "on -the -spot" broadcast of a ball game in Teeswater using his car as a studio. During the game an errant drive sent the baseball through the car window and into the makeshift radio The Thursday night programs included all the local talent ,Doc could round up. For a long time it was a highlight of the week for people to jam into the small broadcasting studio to watch these programs. Contests were conducted to determine how far away the programs could be heard. With a power of only 10 watts in those days before the proliferation of radio stations the signal was actually picked up as far away as Detroit. And with its connections with DX Programs, headquartered at Newark New Jersey, 10 BP went on air one day monthly at 4-5 a.m. in the morning when the airwaves were comparitively free and was heard through freak conditions in Australia. But by 1935 something had to be done. The hobby could be a hobby no longer. Doc applied for a commercial licence. Commercial licences for towns the size of Wingham were unheard of. Colonel Steele was in charge of broadcasting in Canada at the time and it appeared that Doc wouldn't be successful. But the local Member. of Parliament threatened to filibuster unless a licence was granted and finally Steele relented and agreed to give "the tiny farm community their own radio station." It was the beginning of the real growth of the station. Not that things were an immediate success. It was the Depression remember. Advertising was sold at 50 cents a spot and revenue in the first month was $65.50, just over $2.00 per day. John Langridge recalls Doc coming into the station one day, years later, and looking over the comparatively large staff and saying to him, "You know I remember the day when I didn't need all you guys." With the staff egging him on, Doc pulled out a little book that he'd kept as his log in those early days. It showed that in the morning he went out and went up and down the street selling advertising then came back to the station and read the ads over the air while he performed the rest of the programming duties. "Look there", he said, pointing to the book proudly, "I made two dollars that day." But slow as it may have been the growth .had begun. By 1941 there was a full time staff of 13 persons. One of the early staff members 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 327,000 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 S30,000 transmitter. A piece of land was purchased a few miles south of town for the transmitter site. 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 b, VILLAGE SQUIRE/MARCH 1976 Natural Foods K itchen Paraphernalia What is the difference between food for sale in our shop and food which one can purchase elsewhere? The food we sell preserves as far as possible the whole nutritional value of a particular food. AN APPLE A DAY keeps the doctor away. APPLE CIDER VINEGAR: The valuable elements found in apples are not lost in cider vinegar. They are phosphorus, chlorine, potasium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, sulpher, iron, fluorine, and silicon. Apple cider vinegar helps prevent loss of blood from he body, helps improve metabolism; that is it helps the kidneys to drive out poisons and infections. Apple cider vinegar helps in the assimilation of carbohydrates, so they will give energy instead of simply producing fat thus making ,it a corrective for obesity. LECITHIN: Lecithin is a specific antidote for cholesterol keeping it in a state of emulsion. Also it insures increased use of vitamins A, D, & E and helps the body use calcium. It helps quiet the nerves. BREWERS YEAST: is one of the best iron foods there is. Taken daily it will contribute B complex, vitamins, and amino acids plus about 20% of the daily protein quantity suggested for an adult. 38 Hamilton St. Goderich 524-7181 Open daily 10 - 6 Closed Wed. 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