Book tunes into history of Flin Flon, northern Manitoba radio

With the flick of a switch, Flin Flon changed forever on November 14, 1937.

The birth of CFAR radio ushered in a new era of entertainment, information and communication for the community and the broader area.

“It probably brought the entire region closer together, no question about it,” says Garry Moir, a veteran Manitoba broadcaster and journalist.

Moir dedicates a chapter to northern Manitoba in his new book, On the Air: The Golden Age of Manitoba Radio.

Broadcasting in the region originated with CFAR, the brainchild of a radio-loving entrepreneur named Monty Bridgman.

“He decided that he would try to get this radio station going in Flin Flon in the 1930s, which was not a very good time because there was a Depression going on and it took them a long time to get it off the ground,” says Moir.

Bridgman and two partners promoted the idea of a Flin Flon radio station as early as 1934, but they didn’t secure a license until May 1937.

Hit airwaves

After several months of devising and testing the necessary infrastructure, CFAR hit the airwaves from a studio near the rear of the long-defunct Northern Café on Main Street.

“It was so important in that there obviously had never been anything like it before,” Moir says. “Radio had been going in southern Manitoba since the early 1920s [but] the North never really had any radio until CFAR came along.”

Though CFAR was born some two years before the end of the Great Depression, Moir believes the station made sense as a business investment.

“Flin Flon had established itself as a fairly important mining community, and it had the potential for some significant growth,” he says. “Clearly there was a population big enough to probably support a radio station, in good times anyway.”

CFAR’s early days were dominated by local content, such as Bert Wilson calling barn dances and the band Welcome Morris and His Oldtimers performing from the old Elks Hall.

More famously, CFAR became the first radio station in Canada, and most certainly the world, to broadcast in Cree.

The show was called Teepee Tidings, also known as Teepee Chitchat, hosted by the English- and Cree-speaking Rev. Ray Horsefield.

Teepee Tidings grew into a key source of communication for Aboriginal people in the region.

Cree-speaking patients staying at Flin Flon General Hospital could now relay messages – “My surgery went well” and the like – to family back home.

Anglers and trappers in the middle of the wilderness could receive messages from family.

Perhaps just as importantly, Aboriginal people could feel a greater sense of inclusion as industry reshaped the region’s identity.

“[CFAR was] a leader in Aboriginal broadcasting and that’s pretty significant,” says Moir.

Everyone in the region – Cree-speaking or not – would benefit from other important messages relayed by CFAR, be it news of a forest fire or a mining development.

New career

The station also helped launch the prestigious political career of former Flin Flon MLA Buck Witney.

Witney spent a decade as a manager-announcer at CFAR before being elected to the legislature in 1959. He was in office for a decade.

“I’d say his recognition factor was a huge factor for his political success,” says Moir.

Whereas the arrival of television years later would spawn fears of lazy children and social dysfunction, Moir never found much evidence of such concerns around radio.

Moir, a semi-retired broadcaster known for his 40-plus years on Winnipeg airwaves, wrote On the Air to counter the lack of recorded history around Manitoba’s radio industry.

The 208-page book follows that history from the early 1920s until the early 1970s.

“Radio touched virtually everybody and it had an impact on all sorts of different segments of Manitoba society,” says Moir.

But in a world with so many entertainment and information options, has radio lost its importance? Moir doesn’t think so.

On the Air: The Golden Age of Manitoba Radio is available in bookstores around the province and online at Mcnallyrobinson.com. The book is published by Winnipeg’s Great Plains Publications.