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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1992-04-29, Page 6PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29,1992. Area Liberals gear up The Other Side By Keith Roulston 2 • W : " 77' ' z An era comes to an end Whenever people lose jobs through a closing there is pain and hardship, but the announcement last week that 36 full-time and 10 part-time employees at CKNX tele­ vision will lose their jobs sends the pain much farther than just the indi­ viduals involved. Residents across a whole part of the province will be affected. It's the end of an era as CKNX television ceases to be an indepen­ dent facility and becomes a repeater station for CFPL in Lon­ don. Given the current economic crisis which has hit television, radio, newspapers and magazines hard, the closure of the station isn’t surprising but it is sad. It's the end of one part of the ambitious dreams of the late Doc Cruickshank, the small-town entrepreneurs who built a stormy-day experiment in which he put together a tiny radio trans­ mitter, into a business that included two radio stations and a TV station, all in a town of only 3000 people and serving a mostly-rural audi­ ence. But serving was the key word in Doc Cruickshank's vocabulary. There were plenty of radio stations in small towns across Canada but few that had as much impact on their community as CKNX. Grow­ ing up in Bruce county, I remember CKNX as a centre of my universe. The radio was tuned in first thing in the morning to hear Bob Carbert give the farm news, then most of the day to listen to the music, or hear the scores of all the local teams when they mattered a lot more to us than what the Maple Leafs or the Brooklyn Dodgers were doing. Saturday night it was Bam Dance time, a time made even more thrilling when the Barn Dance came to play in our own town hall. That same concept of keeping the community involved in the station was transferred by Doc to televi­ sion when he set up the TV station in the mid-fifties. The same musi­ cal groups he'd hired to play on radio and at the bam dances, now had their own weekly television shows. People you knew from your own community were likely to show up playing alongside Al Chemey or Don Robertson. There were other local shows. I remember being really impressed when my mother was asked to demonstrate some skill (making hats, I think) on the daily afternoon home-making show. Those were the days when CKNX television was most alive. Between 20 and 30 hours of live television a week was produced by the little station. By today's stan­ dards it would have been pretty laughable in quality but in those early days when just the idea of television was magic, people tuned in in rapt attention. Hosts of those show became local celebrities, as famous in their own way as Johnny Carson or Peter Mansbridge today. Those were the days when you didn't need a TV guide: we only got one station. We were a captive audience. But far away pastures looked veiy green and when we'd visit city relatives and see they had three or four stations, we wanted more selection. Regulatory officials start­ ed letting distant stations put repeater stations in the area. First we'd have two, then three and four stations to chose from, meaning fewer people were likely to watch our local station. But by now our city cousins had cable TV, pulling in American channels. We had to have that too. Soon we had a dozen channels, maybe more. We were willing to pay for what we once had free. The audience was further split. What's more, now that we could see shows that cost $1.5 million an hour to produce, those little amateur shows on our local station looked too silly for words. The trouble was all those Ameri­ can channels we pulled in on cable, all those city-stations that got repeated from lonely TV towers high on the hill, didn't give a dam about us the way Doc Cruickshank did. They took from us but gave nothing back other than the thrill of watching some piece of mass enter­ tainment. They didn't tell our story on the news. They didn't let us establish our own local musical stars. They counted us in their number to sell to their advertisers but that was about all we mattered to them. We had to have more, and now we'll have less because of it. Now there won't be any television station to care about our little comer of the world. There's the fable about the dog that's coming home with a bone in its mouth and runs along a log fall­ en over a river. The dog looks down and sees his reflection and thinks it's another dog. Jealously seizes the dog: he must have that bone, even though he already has one in his mouth. He growls, then barks at the other dog, and the bone falls out and into the water. Now he has no bone at all. We're so envious of others we end up risking what we have. Small town people just can't get along without the variety of the cities and COMPOSTER OFFER The Walton Landfill Committee Is now offering the popular Soilsaver® Classic Composter to the residents of Grey and McKillop Townships. Composting is an effective way to further enhance our successful recycling program. Composting can recycle up to 30% of household waste Including fruit and vegetable wastes, leaves, dry grass clippings, etc. Composting will produce a rich, dark humus for fertilizing and soil conditioning In 6 to 8 weeks. The composters are available at a subsidized price of $20.00 from the municipal offices. Your participation Is Important to the operation of our landfill site. Please continue to REDUCE. REUSE and RECYCLE. Township of GreyTownship of McKillop R.R. #1 Seaforth, Ontario N0K 1W0 527-1916 in taking their shopping dollars out of town, help ensure they'll have even less variety by driving local stores out of business. Cross-border shoppers risk the health of things we hold dear like medicare because they must save a few cents on this or that product they can get cheaper in the U.S. Joni Mitchell has a song in which she says "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." I thought of that when I heard the news about CKNX. I thought of all the good things we lose while we're reaching out for something else we think is better. OMAF hosts new member night for 4H BY MEG PENSTONE RURAL ORGANIZATION SPECIALIST FOR HURON COUNTY Are you a new Huron County 4-H member? Interested in learning more about the 4-H program and having some fun? There will be a Huron County New Member Night on Tuesday, May 5. This is an excellent chance to meet fellow new members and learn about the many opportunities 4-H offers. The meeting will beheld May 5 at the “new” Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food office at 100 Don Sl, Clinton and will begin at 7:30 p.m. sharp. The 4-H program is offered to youth between the ages of 10-21 before January 1 of the club year. The primary purpose of the 4-H program is the personal develop­ ment of youth. For more informa­ tion, contact a Rural Organization Specialist at (519) 482-3428 or 1- 800-265-5170. R.R. #3 Brussels, Ontario NOG 1 HO 887-6268 Members of the Huron-Bruce Federal Liberal Association met Thursday at the Blyth Community Centre to gear up for the next fed­ eral election. "We expect a federal election to be called within the next six to 12 months," said Graeme Craig, presi­ dent of the association. In preparation, the association talked about holding a nomination meeting this fall. However, a date couldn't be set for this event since a nomination-freeze put on by the federal government hasn't been lift­ ed explained Mr. Craig. The guest speaker of the evening was Murray Elston, the MPP for Bruce who ran a close race in the RELIEF IS AT HAND! Reduce your bills with a consolidation loan from Clinton Community Credit Union 48 Ontario St. CLINTON EXETER 482-3467 235-0640 NAME ADDRESS: POSTAL CODE THE NATIONAL RED SHIELD APPEAL P.O. Box 610 Wingham, Ont. NOG 2W0 God knows you can make a difference Enclosed please find $________ I would like someone to call □ Phone No---------------------- If you'd like more information about us □ Monday night is Red Shield Appeal Night Your generosity can shed light into someone's life. Please give generously when the Red Shield volunteer canvasser calls. Or if you'd like to give, but aren't canvassed, please send your donation along with the coupon. past provincial Liberal party leader­ ship. He spoke on federal-provincial relations and the type of coopera­ tion needed between all levels of government, said Mr. Craig. "Mr. Elston said cooperation is needed between all levels of gov­ ernment to provide the kind of ser­ vices that make Canada unique," said Mr. Craig. "He also said people make a dif­ ference and that this isn't the time for people to be sitting on their tush and blaming the government. Instead, they should oe taking the time to help make change," contin­ ued Mr. Craig.