Village Squire, 1978-12, Page 12shop for sheet music supplies. Other shops have perhaps as
large a selection of instruments and perhaps teach as many
students but he also offers a repair service for instruments.
something that will be expanded in the new location. We're
doing repairs, I mean extensive repairs, even to custom building
if they want to."
The repair service is something he has picked up over the last
five years since he opened his first shop. He has always had an
interest in woodworking and worked as a carpenter for a time.
When he went into selling musical instruments people were
always coming with broken instruments so he began to think
about repairs. He talked to an old Toronto family firm of musical
instrument makers which he dealt with and asked if he could
apprentice. They said no they couldn't start apprenticing but
they welcomed him to come and ask questions and after about six
months, they opened their shop to him and he could wander
around, ask questions, get answers to problems he had
encountered and pick up knowledge of the whole business. He's
been reading widely on the basic knowledge of instruments to
pick up knowledge. He already knew woods so he's becoming
accomplished at repairs and construction.
Ernie's desire to work with and help the younger generation of
musicians in the area follows a tradition in a way of the man who
brought him to Wingham in the first place. A native of the
Ivlldland-Penatanguishene area he came to Wingham in 1948 to
join the CKNX Ranchboys, one of three bands employed full time
by Doc Cruickshank, the legendary founder of CKNX Radio and
television and of the CKNX barndance which gave a helping
hand to the careers of such people as Tommy Hunter and Al
Cherney.
"They had Wally Scott, The Golden Prairie Cowboys and The
Ranch Boys. Everyone of them worked the Barndance on
Saturday night. The other bands played radio quite a bit during
the week but we played dances mostly. I joined them in 1948 and
quit fulltime in 1955. I worked part time and worked at CKNX
television when they signed on. Then at the beginning of 1955 we
started a television show, Circle 8." During those years he
worked in the station as a photographer and photo -lab
technician.
In later years he worked as a carpenter including a stint at the
Bruce Nuclear power project but a back injury halted that. That
led finally to his opening his music shop and the chain of the
events that led to the present location and the new studio. Nearly
all the work was done by Ernie, Harry Busby and Ken
Ducharme. "We couldn't hire anyone because we weren't that
certain of exactly what we wanted. We were familiar with sound
and the bouncing characteristics of sound and I started reading
about it about a year ago and got the basic idea. I knew that when
we started we'd have to have rubber mounted walls and so on."
The result is a room that has double walls all the way around
with the exception of one wall which is concrete. Inside this is
another wall comprised of rubber -backed shag rug, loosely
suspended one inch away from the wall to kill outside noise. The
ceiling is lined with egg cartons which Ernie bought five years
ago when he first dreamed of starting a studio. The ceiling is
suspended in such a way that it won't carry vibrations.
The one short coming of the studio is that noise can still filter
down from the store above but that is no problem, Ernie says
because the studio is a part time one anyway. The three men
operating it all have daytime jobs and so can only record at night.
In the day time, three days a week the studio becomes a
classroom for dancers and musicians working with their
teachers.
Inside the control room, the little glass walled -booth off the
side of the studio a mass of electronic equipment takes up most
of the room. Ernie gives a simplified guided tour, admitting he's
no expert on handling the equipment himself. He leaves that end
of thing to the other two helpers in the studio. Instead he does
the dreaming, dreaming of using the studio to help young
performers perfect their work to perhaps someday provide them
with an opportunity for more exposure with a good quality sound
to back them up. He talks about how there is so much talent
10 Village Squire, December 1978
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