Chapter Five

Hitting the High Notes

y introduction to broadcasting was somewhat catastrophic. Mln the fall of 1922, as I said before, Dad decided to demon-

strate radios at a booth at the annual Charlottetown Exhibition and Agricultural Fair. Most people had never listened to a radio receiver and they thronged around the booth in great numbers. In addition to displaying the radio sets he had assembled, Dad had built a small trans— mitter so that he could broadcast music from Bayfield Street to the Exhibition about three miles away. Mother manned the booth while Dad, at home with us, played records on the Victrola placed in front of an old carbon mike. Early microphones would not adjust up and down like later models, so Dad brought the Victrola up to meet the mike by setting it on top of a pile of books and boxes. There it stood in the centre of my sister Marianne’s bedroom, teetering amidst a spaghetti-like web of criss-crossing wires.

While Dad was playing records, word got to him that quite a crowd had gathered around the booth out at the Exhibition. Curiosity got the better of him, and he decided to go out there and see for himself. Marianne and I had been having a grand time watching Dad all morning—we were helping out. “Girls,” he said, “how would you like to run the gramaphone here while I go to the exhibition to see Mother?” Of course we would. I was just nine years old. My sister was five. He Went through the procedure of changing the records a couple of times more. Then, satisfied we could handle it, he left.

When Mum learned what we were doing, she was very concerned

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