OUT OF THIN AIR about tailoring the programming to suit them. One of Art's first moves was to bring in a young singing cowboy called " Tex " Cochrane, the Rider. Les Peppin was sent down to the Borden train to meet him. What a sensation he created with his magnificent black cowboy hat, his buffalo chaps, his low-slung belt, and his boots and spurs that jingle-jangled when he walked. " Tex " was tall and lean, and when he strolled along the streets of Charlottetown , guitar slung over his shoulder, people turned to stare, and children skipped along the street behind him. Gordon, " Tex " Cochrane, a handsome, wholesome boy who hailed from Sweet's Corner , near Windsor, Nova Scotia had his heart set on having a successful career as a radio and a recording singing star. He admired Wilf Carter who had a triple-type yodel, but it was a long time before he could master the technique. Tex wrote his own songs and put this difficult yodel into "Echo Yodel Lullaby" and it was his most popular recording for RCA Victor. Out of forty original songs, sixteen were recorded. I remember that Tex Cochrane joined George Chappelle and "The Merry Islanders", a six-piece band that played at concerts, followed by dances in community centres. All of their concerts were completely sold out. As well as these barn-storming tours around the Island, they played regularly on the coast-to-coast network of the CBC from CFC Y. Later , Tex toured with Don Messer for a year, but when war broke out he became one of the most enthusiastic members of Dad 's signaller's unit and from that training he decided to serve his country and join up. He went overseas with the North Nova Scotia Highlanders in 1943 and was part of the liberation of Holland. Typically he doesn't talk about the action, but he said that he and Mike McTague bought a guitar in Holland and they used to sing during lulls in the fighting. When the war was over Tex made a career in the army and retired a Major in 1963. I remember him always as a modest person, never really believing that he was good enough to become a top western singer, but lately, 46 years after he recorded his own songs, they have been re-recorded by a German company and he is getting fan letters from far away places, even East Germany. The songs he wrote always stressed family ties and I heard some of them not long ago on a CBC program. Art Mcdonald , an excellent promoter of talent, was solidly behind Art made great changes at CFCY almost overnight. It was he who gave the station its slogan, "The Friendly Voice of the ." 84