Broadcast History - September 5

[jon]

In 1936, CJCB Sydney, Nova Scotia, covered the crash landing of the first woman to fly the Atlantic from East to West, Mrs. Beryl Markham. The station's interview was carried worldwide. The next year, the station launched a shortwave repeater, CJCX, with 1000 watts on the 49 metre band (6 MHz). CJCB-TV began on October 9, 1954, on Channel 4, becoming Nova Scotia's first private televison station. CJCB-FM started in 1957 on 94.9 MHz with 630 watts. But CJCX signed off forever in 1975 due to lack of interest in Shortwave stations. CJCB-AM had originally signed on February 14th, 1928, from the book and music store of owner Nathaniel Nathanson, to improve the sales of his new line of radios. Nate bought a ship's radio and had it altered for land-based use.

In 1997, CHIN-AM Toronto received CRTC approval for a 22 watt FM repeater in Toronto on 101.3 MHz. Despite its low power, it did improve night-time coverage in the Woodbridge, Mississauga and Etobicoke areas of greater Toronto.



In 1998, The Max Ferguson Show signed off for the last time on CBC Radio Two ("CBC Radio Also" as his sidekick Allan McFee had called it before his health worsened a few years earlier). It had debuted on the AM network on October 1, 1962, as a follow-up to Max's tremendously popular Rawhide show. Rawhide had begun as Max's way to deal with playing Country music, by doing the show entirely in the voice of Old Rawhide. The new show had Max in his own voice, with Allan McFee alongside, beginning at 8:35 a.m. each morning, doing two sketches in character voices, based entirely on stories Max had found in the morning paper. "And music Ferguson style" was selected across a broad range of genres, typically Folk Music from around the world, including a heavy dosage of Celtic. The sketches had long disappeared by 1998, but Max always had something interesting to say. Max came back to introduce a tribute to Allan upon his death in 2000. Allan had hosted Eclectic Circus for 17 years, 6 nights a week in the early years of the series. Max's bio is at http://broadcasting-history.ca/personal ... rguson-max and Allan's at http://broadcasting-history.ca/personal ... cfee-allan

There are lots of other Max clips around, but here is one at the end of his Rawhide days, from 1961: http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/humour ... heid-stand

Max Ferguson died on March 7, 2013 at age 89. The CBC's "In Memory of" began: "He was the CBC's first major radio star."

In 2000, CKMO Victoria switched from FM to AM, in a frequency swap with CJVI. The Camosun College station then had 10,000 watts on 900 KHz. The CKMO call letters had a long history in Vancouver, until the pioneering station became CFUN.



In 2005, CHNU-TV Fraser Valley switched its branding from NOW-TV to OMNI.10, based on its Channel 10 assignment by metro Vancouver cable companies. A Victoria repeater signed on the same day.