COMMUNITY BROADCAST STATIONS – NWT&Y RS. While stationed in Edmonton (VED) for familiarization training prior to a northern posting, I was assigned to a shift, NCO i/c was WO Gordie DRINNAN, others on the shift were Ed CATTAPAN, Don WARD & Civilian Opr. Noreen ALLEN & possibly Ted ALLEN. Under the watchful eyes of Ed or Don, my duties were to send messages to some patient soul at one of the CQ stations & due to some agreement between R.C. Signals and the CBC, on the hour and every 15 minutes after, to interrupt the CBC northern radio service Broadcast Station to the North, with station identification. There was a script to follow but what it said escapes my memory after all these years. Sometimes the ident. was given a little late or even forgotten but on the whole, percentage wise, we did a reasonably good service. I don’t remember the frequency used but northerners did receive and listen to the CBC Radio Station that R.C.Signals supplied re-transmission services to.
The Broadcast station at Hay River was also manned by R.C. Signals personnel, Call Sign CFHR. Operators for the station R.C. Signal personnel and the station was usually up and running at 7:00 P.M. & until 10:00 P.M. or when we felt like shutting it down.
Programming was selected from at least 200 LP records, about 14 or more inches in diameter and had several programs on each side, from 15 minutes to 1 hour long. Some I recall were Lux Radio Theatre, Fibber MaGee & Molly, Jack Armstrong the All American Boy, The Shadow, The Green Hornet, and there were many others. At times we played requests that were phoned in and others that were unsolicited.
When Telegraph messages were received for companies doing exploration work at “Bush” stations or local citizens working out on the ice or on trap lines with radios, we transmitted the message “blind”, twice, hoping it was received. No guarantees were given and messages were passed starting at 7:00 P.M. until all messages were sent then onto normal programming.
--- Bill Rogers
