14

Sports ...
Thursday nights saw a special program in the early days that featured music, news and often reports on hockey games completed moments earlier. In fact Doc recalled the story once of doing an "on-the-spot" broadcast of a ball game in Teeswater using his car as a studio. During the game an errant drive sent the baseball through the car window and into the makeshift radio (studio)." (VS-1, 1976) (50 years, 1976, p.6)

In the early, early days of 10BP the town of Wingham had some very good baseball teams and in some instances the local talent was supplemented by the use of a couple of imports, usually pitchers and catchers, who were given jobs in local industries to make it worth their while to spend the summer in Wingham. Some of the early radio stations in the US had begun to carry 'play-by-play' commentaries of games, and Doc decided to try it as well. Some of the stories about Doc and the station are legend, and like most such stories they tended to become embellished over time, especially after the principal in the story has been deceased. However, most locals swear to the veracity of this one. The story goes that Doc was sitting in his car behind home plate at the local ball park, his simple amplifier in the back seat, and a microphone in his hand, doing a play-by-play of the game that was carried back to the station transmitter by telephone line. One of the visiting players was at bat and the commentary is said to be thus: "He hits a towering drive to deep center field - Bill (the outfielder) has turned his back to the plate, and is running to the fence, -- he is circling under it, he haaa, Oh Shit he dropped it." (Carbert essay, 1995) p.6-7

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Early Wingham hockey team-like the ones Doc covered with his play-by-play commentary
1900-1930
Wingham, Ontario


Credits:
Family of William Haines, Wingham, Ontario
North Huron Museum, Wingham, Ontario

16

Music ...
The Thursday night programs included all the local talent Doc could round up. For a long time it was a highlight of the week for people to jam into the small broadcasting studio to watch these programs. Contests were conducted to determine how far away the programs could be heard. With a power of only 10 watts in those days before the proliferation of radio stations the signal was actually picked up as far away as Detroit. And with its connection with DX Programs, headquartered at Newark, New Jersey, 10BP, went on air one day monthly at 4-5 am in the morning when the airwaves were comparatively free and was heard through freak conditions in Australia. (VS-1, 1976) (50 years, 1976, p.6)

The early programs that Doc Cruickshank organized were "live" because he didn't have the turntables to play records. There in the backroom behind the Radio shop, he gathered together local amateur musicians and entertainers who were delighted to be a part of this new "fad". People like Wilf Arthur, Gord Davidson, Clarence Adlum, Alex Robertson, Fred Templeman and a host of others performed free on that early low power transmitter. Their reward - to have their friends and their neighbours say, "I heard you on the radio last night."

Doc built his elementary transmitter during that February in 1926 and later got a better microphone, commercially built, from Detroit. "I went to Detroit to get it but I won't tell you how I got it back," said Doc. From then on he went on the air sporadically and unannounced. Thursday nights was a regular musical night, however, when a group of the boys, including Scotty Ross playing the mouth organ or his accordian, got together to broadcast what might be known as a jam session. (LFP5-1970, p.1)

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Scotty Ross, early Wingham Radio Club supporter
1920-1935
Wingham, Ontario


Credits:
Wingham Library, Wingham, Ontario
Wingham Professional Businesswomen's Association

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Scotty Ross' story about the first music played over Cruickshank's hand-built microphone
1926
Cruickshank's Radio Shop, Josephine Street, Wingham, Ontario


Credits:
Wingham Library, Wingham, Ontario
Wingham Professional Businesswomen's Association

19

Rau family - regular performers on CKNX
1935-1960s
CKNX Radio and Television, Wingham, Ontario


Credits:
Barn Dance Museum, Wingham, Ontario