Broadcast History - May 26

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In 1916, Douglas "Darby" Coats was the marine wireless operator aboard the S.S. Morwenna when it was torpedoed and sunk during World War I. He wisely chose to leave the sea later that year and became manager and chief instructor at Canadian Marconi's first wireless school in Montreal. Marconi engineers began airing records in 1919 while testing circuits on XWA, the station that would be commercially licensed as CFCF in 1922. In May 1920, Coats and Max Smith began regularly scheduled radio broadcasts consisting of recorded music, rip and read News and weather forecasts. This led to the (mostly undisputed) claim that XWA was the first radio station in the world. Coats became editor of Canada's first radio magazine, Canadian Wireless, in 1921. Beginning in 1923, he spent almost all of the remainder of his career with Manitoba Government Telephones, many of those years as CKY's manager and announcer. In between, he managed CJRM Moose Jaw and CJRW Fleming (Saskatchewan) for James Richardson and Sons. Darby was born in Gravesend, England, in 1892, and died in Calgary on July 7, 1973. His CCF bio can be found at http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/pers ... glas-darby

In 1932, the federal government passes the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Act, which creates the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC). The CRBC has a dual role. It is Canada's first broadcasting regulatory body. But it is also directed to create a national public radio service. Reorganized and stripped of a few of its regulatory powers, the CRBC becomes the CBC on June 23, 1936.

In 1999, Cactus Jack Wells dies in Winnipeg following surgery, at age 88. Jack was born in Moose Jaw on May 13, 1911. He began at CFQC Saskatoon in 1936, because he felt that he could do better hockey play-by-play than the announcer he heard on the air. In 1939, he moved to CJAT Trail (B.C.). But, in 1941, he joined CJRC (which became CKRC) and spent the rest of his career in Winnipeg, where he was famous for his radio and television play-by-play style, honoured in 1991 for 50 years of Blue Bombers football.

In 2000, CFEX-FM Victoria signed on at 3 p.m. on 107.3 MHz with 20,000 watts, having previously been broadcasting on the Internet and cable FM. As you might guess from the call letters, it was the FM sister station of top-rated CFAX-AM. The call letters lasted little more than two years, switching to CHBE-FM on August 23, 2002. Both stations were bought by CHUM.