Looking Ahead to Television

got them, but they were there all the time. It did change com- munity life. In Cape Traverse where I lived we learned about places that we’d never heard of perhaps, or just read about. Pittsburg was KDKA and WBZ in Springfield, Mass. They became cities that we knew really well or thought we did.”

Some years stand out in memory more than others, and the year 1950 stands out as a sad one at CFCY. It was the year that Art McDonald died at the early age of forty-seven. He had been seriously ill for five years. It was Art who created the slogan, “Friendly Voice of the Maritime” and it was Art who brought Don Messer to the station and with Don created a program that meant so much to so many people across Canada. He never forgot the sick and the shut-in listeners and when he was on the air he would always play special selections for them. He was buried in his birthplace in Souris, a place that he loved so well.

When Art died CFCY was in a period of upheaval. It was expanding again. Dad had been advised that we would be able to use 5,000 watts in the evening hours if he put in a new antenna system. Higher towers would be needed and a wide area for a ground system. For weeks he combed Queen’s County for a suitable site, finally deciding on about fifty acres at North River. It was a fortunate decision as later he found out that the Trans—Canada Highway would go right past the front door of the transmitter building.

Bob Large was Chief Engineer at that point, and the technical details were left to him. It was a happy coincidence that he had as Technical Supervisor Lorne Finley who carried the main work load, as Bob was also Station Manager at the time.

It was the end of an era of the station building its own equipment. My father was planning for the future and he decided to put the profits of the company back into equipment. A new General Electric 5,000 watt transmitter was ordered and two towers just under three hundred feet high were erected. George Morrison had gathered a crew once again and was putting up a new transmitter building. Lorne Finley remembers it as a “milestone”. “We finally had an antenna that was directionally controlled and we didn’t have to go back to 1,000 watts at night”. Bob remembers it was mainly hard work. But finally as well as having a spanking new transmitter, CFCY had a complete back-up transmitter and a new diesel electric generator to give the listeners uninterrupted

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