Chapter Fourteen Gathering All the News The news on both radio and television comes to us now from centralized points, at lightening-like speed through the use of satellites. Fifty years ago the gathering of news and its dissem¬ ination to different radio stations was in its infancy. CFCY collected the news in a multitude of inventive ways. There was no news-gathering organization whose service we could obtain. On the "Outports Program" Dad , and later Art McDonald would ask lis¬ teners to alert the station about news-worthy events. "Flo" Fitzgerald who ran the "Home Forum" program would gather news as she went her rounds selling commercial announcements, and Bill Brown , our first reporter, would cover news on the Island and in Nova Scotia . Many items would be clipped from the newspapers and re-written and world news would be prepared from short wave broadcasts. Almost everyone who worked at the station can recall being involved in gathering news. Wild-eyed staff members or friends would rush in to tell of a fire or an accident happening not far away and ordinary citizens would drop in with a tale of local intrigue and ask to see the Colonel . It might or might not make the news. I remember once the telephone rang while we were having lunch at home. A caller from the eastern part of the province reported that the famous dirigible R-100 would be passing north of Charlottetown shortly. The ship was on its maiden trip to . The lunch was left sitting on the table as we all piled into the car and followed 115