Longtime Owl Prowl sponsor goes bankrupt

[kal]

Some may remember that Williams Moving and Storage was a longtime sponsor of Jack Cullen's Network Replay segment.

Here's a tweet from CBC News in the past few minutes:

BREAKING: Williams Moving and Storage has ceased operations. It is filing for bankruptcy after 86 years in business.

Perhaps others will weigh in with recollections of longtime sponsors of that segment.

[radiofan]

Williams Brothers was around forever and along with Restonic Sleep Centres were long time sponsors of Jack Cullen's Owl Prowl. Jack did live spots for both during the Owl Prowl for many years in the 1970s.

In the 1990's, Williams added a security division. When Jack's studio, along with Aristocart and storage for The NW Crystal Palace was down on Clipper Blvd in Coquitlam, Williams Security was the security people that patrolled most of the United Blvd industrial area.

Sad to see another old time local business disappear.

[Talker]

My immediate response to the news: "They've been around longer than I have." I remember them when I was a child. I've used their services a couple of times for city-to-city moves. They sponsored newscasts at stations I've worked. Both radio and TV. Good friends of the media. Sorry for their passing.

[jon]

Going to school in the '60s in Greater Vancouver, I and those around me would look at any company that started in the 1800s or earlier and truly believe that it was eternal. Senior Management retired or passed away, often from Father to Son, but the corporation just kept right on going and growing.

Woodward's was the one that sticks in my mind from those days as the most invincible of them all. I can still remember my father coming home after meeting with Chunky Woodward who told him that Double the Price was the magic formula for Woodward's. If my father wanted to compete with that item on the shelf for $1.50, he had to sell it to Chunky for less than 75 cents an item. Because Chunky doubled the price of everything he bought when he stuck a price tag on it.

The Death of Woodward's, first the Food Floors, then the stores themselves, put to death any notions I had had about companies that were too old to die.