OUT OF THIN AIR

I found the letterhead my father used. It proclaims:

KEITH S. ROGERS Dealer in Experimental Radio Apparatus Station, Canadian 9AK

Written below the letterhead is an order signed by Ivan J. Reddin to purchase a Radio Telephone Concert Receiver. The building and complete installation came to $310.00—a large sum at that time.

By 1922 Rogers Hardware was already 70 odd years old and was a hardware store in the real sense of the word—dealing in the no—nonsense business of selling anvils, tools, steel chain, fencing and horse harness. It must, therefore, have been with a sense of misgiving that the elder Mr. Rogers agreed to enter into something as new-fangled as the radio business.

Keep in mind that young men like Dad, as are all young men in every age who are ahead of their time, were generally regarded as being a bit odd. For example, Walter Hyndman recalled overhearing a woman say as he walked past her, “There’s that young fellow who says he hears angel’s voices in the air.” However, Mr. Rogers agreed to open a radio department in the hardware store on a sharing arrangement with Dad.

Under the baleful eye of the senior hardware man, an appropriate display was set up. In the store window by a small five watt transmitter~the one originally built by Walter Hyndman—a micro- phone, and a wind—up gramaphone were installed. And to catch the attention of passers-by, he put up a loudspeaker-horn over the outside door. Another speaker was mounted on a shelf above the new Radio Department.

These storefront broadcasts, primitive as they were, were picked up and well-received in Wood Islands, Murray Harbour, Summerside, and even as far away as Pictou and New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. He broadcast daily, excepting Sunday, for about an hour at noon and later for a spell in the afternoon. He later sold radios that were installed by Angus MacMasters and two helpers, young Bill Hunt and Reg Jenkins. If there was something of special interest, he would do his best to receive and broadcast it—like the famous Dempsey vs. Firpos fight. Apparently as the word got around, Queen Street was lined with horses and wagons and the boardwalk outside Rogers Hardware was crowded with men.

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