OUT OF THIN AIR

of seeing how far away the station could be heard. This same gang would move down to the studio from the restaurant and play and sing for the test until the “wee“ hours. Today, of course, this would be done using a recording, but in those days at CFCY it was an occasion for a party.

“Duck” Acorn and Billy MacEachern worked so well as a pair, and were so popular around the Island, that Dad got them to broadcast at noontime. They were merely teenagers, and because they didn’t believe they were all that good, they were reluctant to give their names out over the air. But most people knew who they were anyway. Dad gave them the team name of “Duck and Bill.”

They got into the station at noon and waited around until Dad finished waiting on a customer, or got off the phone. Between selling radios and insurance he was kept busy and did a lot of business over the telephone. Usually he’d just thumb them through to the back, and when he got a breather he’d go back to the studio and announce them. Throughout the program, Duck and Bill and whoever would be oper- ating, would be left to their own devices if Dad continued to be tied up—that is how free—wheeling things were in those days.

Apparently Billy, who was blind, rocked back and forth when he sang. It was his way of keeping time. Dad got him an old rocking chair that squeaked, or else the floor did, or both. Anyhow, the squeak went over the air and seemed to fit the act as an extra instrument, almost. That steady squeak-squeak beat gave them a great sense of timing and added an extra kick to their theme song, “The Big Rock Candy Mountain.”

Another noon—time program I remember, was The Home Forum produced by CFCY’s first woman free—lance broadcaster “Flo“ Fitzgerald. Starting in the early thirties, it ran for seventeen years. Mrs. Fitzgerald—who very early worked in sales and production—was original, inventive and creative. When she signed up a chicken canning firm, she told her sons Bill and Babs to learn how to cackle like hens and crow like roosters. There were no tape recorders then, and they were on “live” each time “The Hen Party” was broadcast. The boys were so good everyone was convinced there were real hens in the studio. Flo had a way of picking out items that would interest the communities along the north shore of Nova Scotia as well as her home province, and she would sell, announce and produce her own program.

Flora Hope Wiggins Fitzgerald was born and brought up on a farm in Darnley, P.E.I. Her manners were impeccable and she was very strict

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