Radio
I am reorganizing the website. You can check out the tribute to the late Jim Paulson at the new page. Click here.
Memories of FM 108 can be found here.
The Grand Ole Opry material has been moved to a sub-page of the Canadian Ranch Boys page.
As part of the re-organization, I’m grouping similar themed items on this page together.
Some photos of CJRN in 2000.
Some days its just a joy to open my inbox. Thanks so much to my friend Russ Horton who passed on these neat photographs from Rockin’ Robin McMillan. Russ and Robin are alumni of FM 108, perhaps the best station I have ever heard. Someone much smarter than me once said “Radio was the soundtrack of my life”. I discovered CING, FM108 in 1979 and was glued to it for years afterward. It WAS the soundtrack of my life for many years. It wasn’t just the music, but the people who presented it, who made the station. I’ve never felt the same loyalty to a station since, although…AM 740 comes awfully close (see below).
CHFI Studio in 1961
CHWO Studio 1960
CKEY News Studio 1961
CKFH News 1961
Frank Taylor CHWO 1960-61
Jim Junkin, CHWO Operator 1960
Norm Perry, CKEY 1961
The Brady Line Studio
Mike Filey is looking for information about this photo. Any clues out there? Click to enlarge (Photo via Brian Smith)
A couple of shots of the front of the CKTB (610) building in St. Catharines. It also houses 97.7 HTZ-FM.
Craig Smith
Craig, I am pleased to say, is a friend of mine. He recently attended the 1050 CHUM open house in Toronto, where this photo was taken. Craig is a wealth of information on music and radio in Southern Ontario. Check out his website here.
Bob “Sparky” SherwinJuly 7th 1954 - May 16th 2007
All of us here at CKNS, along with his many friends in Hamilton radio are deeply saddened to report the passing of our morning show host, Bob “Sparky” Sherwin. Bob passed away peacefully 3:00 p.m. today (May 16th, 2007) at the Hamilton General Hospital, where he had been in “intensive care” since suffering a very severe heart attack last Sunday.
Bob Sherwin has been a fixture on Hamilton radio since the early 1970s. He began his career in British Columbia in the early 70s, and then, after a stop in St Catharines, he returned home to Hamilton and joined the staff of CKOC and stayed with that station for a quarter-century. From CKOC, Bob moved to CHML, and most recently to our station. He was our morning host on CKNS since we went on the air one year ago.
Those who knew Bob Sherwin know of the two great passions of his life (aside from his family of course). They were baseball (especially the Detroit Tigers) and oldies. Bob was always an enthusiastic participant in countless fun baseball games, always for the benefit of the community. Anytime you happen to hear a song from “way back when” on CKNS, you’re hearing it on our station because of Bob Sherwin.
In addition to his legions of listeners and personal friends, Bob leaves behind his wife Dawn, their young daughter Lauren, son Chris and daughter Pamela, and both his mother and his father.
Bob Sherwin was only 52 years old.
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Cool photo taken outside Clarksville, TN (Best viewed while listening to The Monkees singing “Last Train to Clarksville”).
Hamilton, Ontario (Wartime?) CKOC 1150 was there. But what was going on? A plant seems to be falling over noticed by the guy standing on the left and one of the military guys in the background. (Click to enlarge)
Harold Sellers, Listening In Managing Editor, one of the founders and longtime board member of the Ontario DX Association, and more importantly, friend.
My friend Brian Smith, ODXA Chairman. (see Links)
AM 740 Toronto, Ontario
Mike Filey, Mary Feely and the late Tom “The Big Kahuna” Fulton circa 2002
The Big Kahuna
The Late Earl Warren
Don Andrews, host of All Night Live (see Links)
Check out Russ Horton’s Mr Aircheck website, linked on the right.
David Marsden of The Rock in Oshawa…such a fantastic program. Photo courtesy of Sistah Mar (see “Other Stuff” page for a pic of her)
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Humboldt 101 also carries Don Andrews Saturday show. It’s the place to “gopher” great music. (Ken had an issue a year or so ago with gophers. This was my response 
)
Treasure Island Oldies is hosted by Michael Godin, Sunday nights at 9pm Eastern, 6pm Pacific (see Links)
My first QSL card from HCJB Quito, Ecuador for reception heard August 2, 1978
Also note, its a bad idea to use masking tape to put stuff up on your wall 
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Radio Slovakia Returns
“The Upside Down Pyramid” in Bratislava, Slovakia
Radio Slovakia International recently returned to the shortwave bands, becoming a rare case of a station that shut down, but later returned. I wish them great success.
You can check out their website
Pete Miller, genial host on Radio Slovakia International
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Radio Fiji - “And now the coups…”
Thanks to a tip from Brian Smith about this…
Fiji was reportedly in the midst of a military coup (not unprecedented there). Thanks to the internet, on December 5 (2006) I was listening to Radio Fiji Gold (mainly because the other streams were wonky).
It was a bit surreal…one minute they were interviewing the Prime Minister who seemed for all intents and purposes powerless…then playing Oh Little Town of Bethlehem by Elvis or Radio Gaga by Queen.
The Navy reportedly seized all the police boats…the army seized all the police armouries. Instead of traffic reports, they reported where roadblocks were.
One DJ was reading the latest headlines he grabbed off the internet, from BBC and Google…
Interesting radio indeed.
Joan Chao Mei Yee (Voice of Free China, Taiwan) and myself at the 1987 ANARC Conference in Mississauga, Ontario
Winter Scene in Norway, from an NRK QSL card
Kathy Fitch and Shirley Veal…the apartheidt era hosts of Radio RSA’s Mailbag Show from Johannesburg, South Africa
WWL New Orleans
Radio Canada International 50th Anniversary
In the 1930s and 1940s you needed a Radio License to listen
Inauguration of the NHK relay via Sackville, Canada
Special co-production between NHK and Radio Australia 1987
Radio Moscow anniversary 1979
Berlin radio tower 1934
AM 740 QSL card
Radio Moscow QSL I received in 1979
Card from Radio Earth, early 80s..
Straight from the workers paradise of Albania. Marxist leader Enver Hoxha proudly proclaimed from Radio Tirana that Albania was the worlds first completely atheist state, all traces of religion had been erased.
Just a few years after his death and the collapse of the regime, Trans World Radio was using those very same powerful transmitters to broadcast Gospel programming to the world. How’s that for irony.
The late Joe Adamov of Radio Moscow/The Voice of Russia. One of the all time characters of shortwave radio!
Radiostantsiya Rodina QSL from the Soviet Union. Within days of the transmission which I heard and had verified, Andropov was dead and the new Soviet leader Gorbachev was in power. Who knew then where that would lead.
Radio Station “Peace and Progress”, the voice of “Soviet Public Opinion”. The Soviet government was SO in tune with public opinion that the party line never strayed from public opinion.
Deutsche Welle (literally The German Waves) The Voice of Germany
HCJB’s Musical Mailbag crew in the mid-80s…a really fun show.
New Years Greetings from Radio Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
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Radio Moscow QSL from 1988. The Soviet era building towers over the old Church, yet the Church outlasted the Soviet era. Everything old is new again.
Radio Bucharest (Romania) QSL card from the Soviet era.
Pennant from Radio Baghdad International. I heard them in 1985 on shortwave. Who knew that a few years later, they would invade Kuwait.
25 Years Since the Falklands War
QSL Card from Radiodiffusion Argentina al Exterior with Propaganda Message
