CKWO Signs On

[cart_machine]

TUNING IN
By CHARLES M. DEFIEUX
[Vancouver Sun, Saturday, June 23, 1928]
CFCQ has passed into oblivion so far as the veteran call-letters are concerned. The housewives were startled one morning recently to hear the letters CKWO boomed out at the time CFCQ was supposed to be on the air.
There is a possibility of confusion over the new call-letters, however, for they clash with CKWX and both stations are on the same wave-length.
--

cArtie note: The first CKWO listings in the Sun are on Monday, June 18, 1928.

[Jack Bennest]

I find no record for CKWO so my interpid reporter at the library will continue to pursue this item.

That brings up the story of the early Vancouver stations which I think we might have had one conversation before and it can become contentious as all the reference material conflicts at certain points.

Here is my take:

Three stations started up within days in March of 1922 - each one supported by a newspaper

The Sun - CJCE - later became CKMO/CFUN
The Province - CKCD/CHLS closed in 1940
Vancouver Daily World - CFYC closed in 1928

In 1923

CFXC started in New Westminster and became CJOR
CFDC started in Nanaimo moved to Van and became CKWX
CFCQ was licensed but quickly taken by owners of CJCE

In 1924

CKFC started in Vancouver and closed in 1936

In 1925

CNRV began broadcasting in Vancouver and became CBU(CBC)

CKNW, CKLG, CHQM followed in the forties and fifties with more to
come

[cart_machine]

I find no record for CKWO so my interpid reporter at the library will continue to pursue this item.

Somewhere, I put up a short piece on CKWO disappearing and gave the date. The station was there one day, then all its programming was attached to another set of call letters the next day. It wasn't around very long.

I think there's a brief mention of the station in Duffy's book.

Billy Hassell sold CKCD to Taylor, Pearson and Carson in 1940 for a small share in CKWX.

cArtie.

[Jack Bennest]

I cant find anything on the phantom station in da book...look further.

This is your commander.

[cart_machine]

I find no record for CKWO so my interpid reporter at the library will continue to pursue this item.

Well, TD, here’s your answer…

TUNING IN
By CHARLES M. DEFIEUX
[Vancouver Sun, July 21, 1928]
The radio branch of the department of Marine and Fisheries at Ottawa has assigned the new call letters CKMO to the local station formerly known as CKWO and CFCQ. The reason for the change is declared to be the similarity between the old letters and CKWX.

The last CKWO listings I can find are in the Sun for Wednesday, July 18. CKMO picks up the same programming the following day.

And while I’m typing from this column, let’s see what else Charlie has to say about non-American radio. There's word about an early announcer long lost to obscurity..

Radions learn with regret the unfortunate account that befell Alf Laird, member of the Greater Vancouver Radio association, and the staff of the United Church station CKFC. He sustained a triple fracture of the left leg while motorcycling near Bellingham last week. Hospital authorities state he is improving but it will be some time before he is able to be moved. Alf Laird was a popular member of the association and his voice was familiar over the air as alternate announcer with Cyril Trott, director of CKFC.
--
The stage is all set for the great annual picnic of the Greater Vancouver Radio association to be held at Selma park, near Sechelt, tomorrow, Sunday. The boat leaves the Union S.S. Co. dock a little after 9 o’clock and the program starts immediately. Loud speakers have been installed in all parts of the boat and good programs will be provided both en route to and from the picnic site.

Among the artists expected to be in attendance are the Midnight Harmony sons, CNRV favorites: Francis Wade, popular vocalist from CKWX; Jack Hamilton, well known basso from CJOR; staff artists from CKWO; Sid Hollis, popular tenor; Miss Wilbee, soprano; Miss Elsie North, pianist who has entertained so capably at past G.V.R.A. picnics and others. Excellent prizes have been secured for the sports and the grab-bag again holds wonderful promises.
--
Harold Paulson, director and chief announcer of CKWX, states that he is completing arrangements for many excellent programs in the near future.
--
The interference truck and crew of the radio branch was reported during the latter part of this week to be at Revelstoke. Word from them indicates that with their excellent equipment they have cleared many sources of interference in the districts they have already visited on their tour of the province.
--
Morning programs from CNRV are recognized by radions for their exceptionally high standard of entertainment and variety. They are consistently good and ably handled in every way.
--
CKMO will present an original novelty program from its studios Monday evening commencing at 10:30.

Laird seems to have bitten by the radio bug early; he was born July 10, 1909 in Lipton, Saskatchewan. Like many of those pioneers, the technical side interested him rather than programming. At the time this was written, he and Trott both worked for a place called The Battery House. He is listed in the city directory as a "stockman" and Trott as a "mechanic." Laird was gone from Vancouver by the mid-30s and spent his life as a radio repairman. He died in Kamloops nursing home on April 10, 1982.

cArtie.

[cart_machine]

I cant find anything on the phantom station in da book...look further.

Uh, I told you to put away the bleach. It's in your eyes. Top of page 17.

Now, a short squib on the founder of CFCQ (later CKWO, later CKMO). This is about all I can find on-line about him:

Major John Charles Dufresne was born in Dublin, Ireland on June 30, 1874 and arrived in Canada in 1905, though his daughter was born in England in 1908 and came to Canada the following year (it appears his wife and daughter spent time on both sides of the Atlantic, residing in Hayward's Heath, Sussex during the war).

He was a civil engineer and spent the 1910 decade in the Similkameen area with a survey crew. He enlisted as a Lieutenant with the Rocky Mountain Rangers during the war.

How he got hooked up with radio in Vancouver in the 20s remains a mystery.

He died in Victoria on Dec. 7, 1961, age 86.

No doubt his obit in the Colonist will reveal more.

cArtie

[Jack Bennest]

My hair is in curlers, I have turned around not to be seen. You have exposed me for what I truly am.

Good to clear up the CKWO mystery. Details Details.

added to post

Major J.C. Dufresne was oft mentioned in the early history of Vancouver radio. He owned a retail radio parts store at Dunsmuir and Howe.

April 20, 1922, Major J.C. Dufresne of Radio Specialties Ltd. opened CFCQ with its studios at 791 Dunsmuir Avenue using a 40 watt transmitter on 450 meters

The license was transferred to Sprott-Shaw 2 years later and became CKMO1928/CFUN1955. Prior to this move by Sprott Shaw - their station CJCE was shut down.

John Charles Dufresne died in 1961 at age 86

[Victoriaradio]

CKWO was a basement radio station in Victoria in the late 40's operated by Wayne O'Brien. It was located at the corner of Quadra and Inverness Streets. The sound could be heard in three neighbours houses hardwired for the purpose.

[radiofan]

My hair is in curlers, I have turned around not to be seen. You have exposed me for what I truly am.

Too late Doggie Breath ... our intrepid photographer snapped this pic of you and one of your companions.

[cart_machine]

I find no record for CKWO so my interpid reporter at the library will continue to pursue this item.

TD, here is the reference in Dennis Duffy's book (pg. 17 for those of you reading along at home):

The role of Roy R. Brown in the latter half of CFYC's history is not clear. He worked briefly for two other early Vancouver stations, CNRV and CFDC. His own firm, Commercial Radio Ltd., is listed in the 1928 city directory as operating CKWO, an otherwise unknown station. Milton Stark later encountered Brown running the radio repair service of a Seattle department store.

Duffy got his information from various city directories. I decided to try to see what I could find out about Roy Brown to add to what Duffy revealed elsewhere and ran into some confusion.

First, the easy stuff.

Roy R. Brown first surfaces in the city directory in 1918 as an apprentice at the Vancouver Province. He is not to be confused with Roy W. Brown, who was an executive with the same paper. In 1919, he is in the circulation department at the Sun and in 1920-21 is a district manager. At this time, he is living at the southwest corner of 10th and Ash at the home of Ronald Laurie Brown, a travelling salesman.

Brown's radio career begins in 1922. He is the secretary of Pacific Radio Co. at 662 Seymour. The following year sees him with Northern Radio Co., and then starting in 1924 as president of Commercial Radio Ltd. 1926 lists him as a radio operator at CNRV, in 1927, he is the broadcast manager of CFDC and in 1928, the manager of CKWO, owned by Commercial Radio Ltd. Brown vanishes from the city directory after that (Ron Brown remained in Vancouver and remarried in 1929 after his wife died the previous year).

Here's where things get a bit confusing.

Ron Brown died in October 1940 and his obit reveals his son Roy was living in Pocatello, Idaho (Ron had surviving sisters in the U.S. as well). The older Brown was a Nova Scotian who arrived in B.C. in 1900 (he was in Cranbrook the following year) and was working in Nelson when he married Maude Moffatt in 1908. This being the case, if the mores of the day were followed, Roy would have been, at most, nine when he started at the Province.

The 1911 census clears that up a bit. It shows Roy Brown as Ron's nephew. However, it also states Roy was born in B.C. LDS records show that's not the case. They say he was born in Portland on 24 August 1900 and died in Oakland on 2 October 1978. The Oakland Tribune is only on-line until the end of 1977 so I can't find out more about him.

So there's a little biographical info on the owner of CKWO (aka CKMO).

cArtie.