Vancouver Radio, Feb. 1939

[cart_machine]

Gord Lansdell asked me the other day why I hadn't posted any radio history stuff for awhile. He should understand that being a major-market cart machine, I'm in constant demand and I have little time for research. Just the other day, I was called on to judge the Miss Fidelipac contest (as usual, the winner broke down at the end).

However, here are local radio highlights as recorded in various editions of the Vancouver Sun for February 1939. I'm presuming Bill Newell is the columnist.

When I grew up, people listened to the big stations in Vancouver. The local station was purely local and way down on the radio listening food chain. That sums up Vancouver radio through the Golden Days. Lots of attention was paid to the American networks and whatever the CBC was called at the time. The Vancouver stations were the little local ones with local people (and the occasional transcription of third-rate syndicated shows). So not a lot of attention was paid to them. The Sun only had the network shows in its quarter-hour grid, the local ones were after-thoughts at the bottom. Thus, there's very little info about local stations in the "Today's Highlights" section.

However, you will recognise some names and there's at least one historic radio event that was recorded for posterity.

Wednesday, February 1, 1939
7:45—CJOR—The Junior Board of Trade presents another in its historical dramatic series entitled “From These Beginnings.” Based on Vancouver’s growth, tonight’s play is by J. Eric Webb.
11:00—CJOR—The cast of the Kiwanis production, “Runaway Girl,” is featured on “Impressions in Wax.”

Friday, February 3, 1939
9:30—CKMO—On the local side, here’s a half-hour program featuring the music of Ole Olson’s Orchestra and Jack Short as m.c., from the annual “Sport of Kings” dance.

Saturday, February 4, 1939
8:30—CJOR—“Harbor Lights,” a program featuring choir and soloists.

Monday, February 6, 1939
7:45—CJOR—Screen actor Monte Blue is interviewed by Dick Diespecker.

Tuesday, February 7, 1939
5:45—CKWX—Reed Chapman, announcer-salesman-narrator-commentator, interviews Monte Blue, veteran screen actor.
9:00—CJOR—“This Week in History,” a laudable local effort, dramatizes this week’s news events.

Wednesday, February 8, 1939
10:00—CKWX—“Music and Poetry,” an outstanding local stanza, featuring the return of “Sonny” Richardson, gifted violinist, who has been absent from Vancouver channels for some time due to illness. Here’s relief for those who tire of dance music broadcasts on almost every other station at the same time.

Thursday, February 9, 1939
7:30—CKMO—“The Entertainment Review” highlights an interview with guest Dal Richards, new Palomar orchestra leader.
Revelstoke Skiing Broadcast
CKWX broadcasts the longest remote control job ever attempted in British Columbia, when mikes are set up at Revelstoke for descriptions of the ski championships. The broadcasts are scheduled for tomorrow at 3, Saturday at 4, and on Sunday at 4. The latter airing will originate at the banquet where prizes will be distributed by the Hon. W. Asselstine, Minister of Mines. Each program will last half-an-hour. A departure broadcast, as the Ski Train leaves the C.P.R. depot tonight at 7:15, is also being arranged. Etherites assigned to the airings are announcer Bob Tweedie and engineer Ross MacIntyre.

Wednesday, February 15, 1939
7:00—CKWX—Stars of the San Carlo Opera Company sing arias from “Barber of Seville,” “Rigoletto” and “Martha.” They will be interviewed by Bill Newell.

Friday, February 17, 1939
10:35—CJOR—Dal Richards and his orchestra will make their radio debut. This is a dance crew with excellent potentialities and features vocals by Judy Richards (no relation to the leader).

Monday, February 20, 1939
5:45—CKWX—Members of the Greater Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, now in Vancouver for a two-day engagement, are interviewed by Stanley Bligh, music editor and dramatic critic for the Vancouver Sun.

Tuesday, February 21, 1939
7:00—CKWX—A modern dance crew, minus any brass and featuring reed instruments, makes its radio debut under Len Chamberlain’s direction.

Wednesday, February 22, 1939
10:35—CJOR—The initial broadcast by Dal Richards’ Orchestra over this station last Friday night was jinxed. CJOR had an unavoidable line mix-up and the band got the worst of it. Tonight they expect to do better. . . . Over the same outlet at 11, “Impressions in Wax” features the newly released “Artie Shaw album” and an interview with Wilf Wylie.

Friday, February 24, 1939
8:30—CJOR—An hour-long dramatization of Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn,” produced by Dick Diespecker and starring Angus Young.

Sunday, February 26, 1939
9:00—CKWX—Well-known local musicians and singers, led by Fred Bass, present the first in the new series of “Song Search” programs. There will be two vocalists—Ernest Colton and Velma Marsh. Local composers of songs will be featured and all numbers aired will be submitted to publishers for consideration.

Colton seems to have been a fairly popular local radio singer at the time.
Angus Young on CJOR changed his name when he moved to the United States a few years later and is still with us. He's better known as Alan Young.

cArtie.

[J Kendrick]

That has to be probably the earliest known mention of Dal Richards ever leading an orchestra, given that he was only a month past his 21st birthday at the time.

[cart_machine]

That has to be probably the earliest known mention of Dal Richards ever leading an orchestra, given that he was only a month past his 21st birthday at the time.

I haven't checked, John. Google News is really spotty with its Sun news archive; it skips past March and April and the next Suns in the archive are for May 1939. I can't remember what's in there before February. And the News Archive search engine is a mess.

Dal's name came up in the minutes of the DeMolay Chapter. They hired him to do a dance, and he sic'd the Musicians Union on them because they didn't pay their bill. I don't recall the year but it's before 1940.

cArtie.

[J Kendrick]

Dal's name came up in the minutes of the DeMolay Chapter.

Why am I not surprised?

They hired him to do a dance, and he sic'd the Musicians Union on them because they didn't pay their bill. I don't recall the year but it's before 1940.
cArtie.

Dal and his eleven piece band... and a then unknown 13 year old singer named Juliette... first came to be noticed when they took over from Mart Kenny and his band (Western Gentlemen) at 'The Roof' at the old Hotel Vancouver in May of 1940.

It couldn't have been too much before 1939 or 40.... because prior to that time -- like many other young local musicians of that era (including Lance Harrison and a very young Jimmy Pattison) and probably most of the other members of his band -- he was just one of the many members of the late Arthur Delamont's Kitsilano Boys' Band.

[Jack Bennest]

Juliette (b Juliette Augustina Sysak, m Cavazzi). Singer, b St Vital (Winnipeg), of Polish-Ukrainian parents, 26 Aug 1927. She was taken to Vancouver at 10, sang with Dal Richards' Hotel Vancouver orchestra at 13, and made her CBC network debut on George Calangis' 'Sophisticated Strings' at 15. After a year (1943-4) in Toronto on Alan Young's CBC radio show and with Lucio Agostini's orchestra, she sang on many CBC Vancouver radio programs, including 'Burns Chuckwagon' (a country music show with the Rhythm Pals), and 'Here's Juliette'. She also appeared at TUTS. She returned to Toronto in 1954 and co-starred with Gino Silvi on CBC radio's 'Gino and Juliette'. As 'Our Pet, Juliette' she was a regular performer 1954-6 on CBC TV with Billy O'Connor's 'The Late Show'.

Juliette - The Canadian Encyclopedia