A Secret Visit from Princess Juliana

I remember that at that time, I was in charge of three programs: “Women at Home”, “The Sleepy Town Express” for children, and a talent show, and I also remember how my Dad kept constant watch on the station. Wherever he went, he would tune in to see that everything was in order. He would catch us doing all sorts of unauthorized things as most of us were young and irrepressible and sometimes we would utter unwise statements on the air. A gentle word from him was all that was needed. He had a genuine feeling for his staff and I remember one bitterly cold night he tuned in after the station had signed off and hadn’t been turned off. He was worried when he couldn’t get anyone there on the telephone, and he could still hear the carrier signal. Finally he jumped in his car and drove out of town through drifting snow to the transmitter site. There he found his Chief Engineer, John Q. Adams asleep on the couch. He liked the scrappy little engineer and he covered him gently with a blanket, turned off the transmitter, shut the door and went home to bed.

One very popular person who used to broadcast from our Brace Block studio was an exquisite, dark-haired, young woman who became known as the Veiled Lady of Mystery. Listeners were invited to send in a question about something they had lost-keys, a pet, or perhaps even a sweetheart. As long as their letter was accompanied by a Gastronox boxtop—Gastronox was a patent medicine designed to aid indigestion, flatulence, and constipation—she would use her psychic powers to tell them were to find it. Les Peppin worked with her. He would open the letters, rattling the paper in front of the mike to reassure listeners that no hockus-pockus was going on. She was so beautiful and dressed so smartly that she gave the young men palpitations. Keith Morrow recalls how one steamy, summer’s night he was varnishing the studio floor. Believing himself to be the only person in the building, he stripped down to his shorts. A knock came at the door, and thinking it was one of the guys, he flung it open only to confront the lovely Veiled Lady of Mystery. His embarrassment was so acute he slammed the door Shut in her face. A short time later, a letter came from the national net- work advising caution in the use of clairvoyants and psychics, and the Veiled Lady eventually vanished from the airwaves.

Local interest and public service programs were considered to be 0f the utmost importance at CFCY. It was a firm belief of Dad’s that if a community broadcasting station was truly servicing its people, it Was bound to have the character of the people it served. He had very

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