Letter to FRIENDS re: CBC Thunder Bay

Dear FRIENDS:

Many thanks for the efforts of FRIENDS to keep and strengthen CBC. I have been dismayed to see our local Thunder Bay station gutted.

When the station was moved into its new location from an old house it was equipped with excellent studio facilities. Reporters would travel the area for historical vignettes and other local news . The station was called CBQ with its own logo we in N-W Ontario could identify with. Doug Ward was station manager in those early days and a very capable technician had managed to keep the station on the air (Mr. Elder).

In 1972 I was appointed field staff for the CYC and "inherited" the country's first licenced mobile Native Radio station "Kenomadiwin" which broadcasted in a number of reserves in the area.  It was the cooperation we received from the technicians and staff of CBQ that we were able to continue the service for some years. I believe the efforts to have been the beginning of Wawataye communications now located in Sioux Lookout.

With programs such as Challenge for Change, interesting documentaries were made and aired. It was the beginning of a growing awareness of the crisis in the forest...alerting us to this fact came with a political price.

My dream would be to see our local station again receive the prominence it once had. The logo has disappeared, the name has been changed to CBC 1 and 2, part of the building stands empty and rumors have it that it is for sale.

N-W Ontario needs a CBQ with which we can identify in a more direct way. The listeners rating is not good as the latest figures seem to indicate...it may well be the result of the lack of sense of ownership by the people of N-W Ontario which has caused this trend. I have talked to Mr. Grant, the
present station manager, but did not get much encouragement in thinking that a different philosophy might potentially strengthen the position of CBC in this vast area of Ontario.

Thanks for your attention,

EP
Thunder Bay

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