“The words and music from previous nights’ performance of HMS Pinafore performed at Nelson Opera House was carried from receivers at the theatre over the wires of the Kootenay Lake Telephone Company to subscribers across Nelson and much further afield. Residents in Rossland, Boundary towns and as far away as Spokane and Portland were also given the opportunity to hear the opera in their homes.” - Nelson Daily Miner, April 29, 1900
From the Pinafore to Radio Avenue, Nelsonites have been on the airwaves since the turn of the 20th century. A short-lived Nelson radio station aired in 1922, and in 1924 a newly formed Nelson Radio Club produced a few broadcasts; however, it took many years for a radio station to be established in the city. Topography, newspaper competition and a limited market hindered efforts to make a station commercially viable in the city. It also did not help matters that prior to 1953 listeners across Canada were required to pay a small license fee to receive radio broadcasts.
The Nelson Daily News built the city’s first radio station and began broadcasting under the call sign CKLN in 1939 in Fairview on a street soon named Radio Avenue. Alan Ramsden, who went on to have a long career in communications, joined CKLN Nelson as an announcer in 1945 at just 19 years old, and then managed the station from 1950 to 1967.
In a 1982 interview with museum archivist David Duffy, Alan recalled making the station’s first national broadcast of the Nelson Summer Curling Bonspiel and weekly radio plays. “One of the challenges of broadcasting from the old CKLN studio was the train going by several times a day,” he explained. “I remember one night we had a [detective play] going on. There was a sound of rain on the roof, and a shoebox full of buckshot rolling back and forth as the surf, and there was occasional thunder – a sheet of metal [being shaken]. So here they were, obviously out on the moor somewhere by the sea – and suddenly the train whistled! It was rather devastating.”
In 1979 the Shaw Cable 10 community TV channel was launched, broadcasting from studios in Nelson and Castlegar. Filmmaker Michael McMann worked for the channel from the start until 2002. He told us that one of his proudest moments was his work on “The New Breed” recruitment film for the station, which won a national television award in the promotions category in 1991.
Shaw 10 programming included live telephone talk shows on local issues, Capitol Theatre productions, sporting events, TV bingo, and music from the David Thompson Student Society Sub-Pub and Kaslo Jazz Festival. Heather Hutchinson, who was involved with Shaw 10 from 1988 to around 1995, told us she does not remember any training but there was freedom to develop ideas. One program that Heather fondly remembers is the Nelson Tonite: Wild and Crazy Show where she was part of a group of local artists performing comedy theatre skits playing the character Priscilla, opposite Angus the psychic dog. Many of the programs of Shaw 10 are now available to view on the Nelson Museum YouTube Channel.
Nelson is now home to three radio stations – commercial stations Bounce 106.9FM and The Bridge 103.5FM, joined by community station Kootenay Co-op Radio 93.5FM, known locally as KCR. Zoë Creighton, one of KCR’s founding members, remembers when the station started broadcasting in 1999 from The Avalon Nightclub (now Bloom Nightclub). In 2006, 13 anonymous donors pooled money to buy the location of KCR’s current home on Hall Street. Over 1,000 programmers have volunteered for station, which is celebrating 25 years of broadcasting this year.
Another legendary KCR personality, Judy Wapp, used her interest and experience in the radio industry and mass media as a muse for her collage and photomontage work, which is currently featured in the retrospective exhibition VisuAlchemy, on display at the Nelson Museum until June 22. Wapp served as a board member in 2007 and co-hosted the popular jazz program Straight No Chaser for many years.
Creighton told us much has changed since the early days of Nelson broadcasting; moving from CDs and log sheets to phones and a digital catalogue, but the need for local information, entertainment, and discussion is stronger than ever.
Jean-Philippe Stienne is the archivist and collections manager at the Nelson Museum Archives and Gallery. History Buff runs monthly.