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People will gather around their computers to enjoy CKNX Tales from Wingham as they once gathered around their radios to share stories of the remarkable man who made this small Ontario town of 3,500 the smallest community in North America to boast both a radio and a television station.
W.T. “Doc” Cruickshank started dreaming of his own radio station when he was a young man in the earliest days of the broadcasting industry in Canada. He dreamed of a community-based radio station that would bring stories of the Wingham region into the homes of people who were able to access only fuzzy, intermittent broadcasts from Michigan or places even more distant. When it went on the air, CKNX came in loud and clear with familiar voices and stories from familiar places. Doc’s dream flourished, expanding to three radio stations, two FM and one AM, and a television station, all still broadcasting.
Radio and later television drew together this farming and town community. Through CKNX bank robbers were caught, fires reported and lives celebrated. Church services and daily agricultural market prices served the soul and the farm. At one point, CKNX employed over 25 musicians and artists, many of whom went on to fame as Canadian country music stars. For 80 years CKNX was also the training ground for the best of Canadian broadcasters like the legendary Harry J. Boyle.
This Community Memories exhibit features some of the CKNX personalities and their stories, allowing visitors a peek behind the cameras and microphones that were CKNX during Doc’s days, from 1928 to 1970.
