CKWX at the PNE in the late 30s & early 40s

[Greg]

[radiofan]

Great pieces of PNEand Vancouver Radio history Greg. Thanks for posting!

[Neumann Sennheiser]

Person on the right in picture 2; man, woman or Chico Marx?

[Jack Bennest]

Thank you Mr. P. two great pictures - one I have for sure.

Curly headed gent is the sound technician carrying a radio repeater to broadcast.

First picture is probably the Rhythm Pals or some other western group in the early fifties.

[jon]

What hit me about the first picture is the low percentage of hats on the 30+ year old men in the audience.

I don't remember the exact year that they began to disappear, but until at least 1957, hats were still the fashion for men in Vancouver. I'm sure that ironworkers on the Second Narrows Bridge project picked up their coat and hat from the job site lockers before leaving each day. My point being: hats seemed to be in fashion for all men, regardless of their line of work.

This picture, to me, looks like it came from the exact time when hats suddenly were no longer fashionable, and the last few had yet to put their hat in the closet for good.

As I say, just my impression.

[YesterDaze]

Greg, your dating is about 15 years too early. I don't believe CKWX was at the PNE until the mid 50's or later. It was certainly after the Rhythm Pals left CKNW & joined CKWX, because the Pals were the station's feature live act broadcast from the PNE.

Until about 1953 'WX was still carrying a lot of soap operas in the daytime and transcribed & Mutual feature shows at night. In other words, Old Time Radio. The era of doing remotes, actually broadcasting on location, didn't begin until sometime in the 50's. Except of course for sports playbyplay, and the occasional special event, such as a Royal Visit or the Fraser Valley floods of 1948.

[jon]

I can't be sure, but the sign attached to the roof of the building might say "Show Home". I knew that the roof reminded me of something, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Until now.

It reminds me of the original Show Home in Tomorrowland at Disneyland.

[Jack Bennest]

Interesting to note the branding of CKWX - most of it all on the same eye level + plus the WX tower.

Seems to be an operator inside the glass gazebo - with a stage out front for the group and the announcer.

Also a lot of suits being worn. Thank god we have passed that stage into a casual lifestyle. This would have been at a time when NW and WX were in heavy competition and the owners were pulling out all the stops. Would have been neat to see the NW show as well in that same year.

Yesterdaze is most likely the most knowledgeable as he lived that era. Most of the rest of us were not even in our teens.

[cart_machine]

What hit me about the first picture is the low percentage of hats on the 30+ year old men in the audience.

Brylcreem goos them. (Actually, guys using stuff like that in the '50s probably resulted in the hatastrophic decline in the number of hats worn).

cArtie.

[radiofan]

In the 60's, they would have had the Burrard Street answer to NW's Crystal Palace on site ... the CKWX Golden Palace.

Two of the finest mobile broadcast facilities this city ever knew!