Bringing in the Dempsey Fight

In the meantime people who could afford their Radio Telephone Concert Receivers, as they called them, were ordering them. As the demand for sets grew so did the demand that pushed Dad into the busi- ness of selling radios in a more formal way. Coupled with this was his concern over the daytime broadcasting silences when it was difficult to tune in the larger stations broadcasting from the US. and mainland Canada. He got a brainwave. Why not do some broadcasting during these silent periods as well as sell sets?

Now one of the oldest retail businesses in Charlottetown was the Rogers Hardware Company. Established in 1852, it occupied a site on what is now called Confederation Square. The Rogers family, who are distantly related to mine, still run a smaller store in the city. The old store itself had undergone little apparent re-modelling. Its high embossed ceilings, plank floors and long wooden counters exuded an atmosphere of conservatism and sedate courtesy. The large old- fashioned windows look out defiantly at the ultra modern Confederation Center of the Arts across the street. It was from the Rogers Hardware

Company that Dad did some of his first broadcasting in the early twenties.

3mm Kq 010lld

Rogers Hardware an historic landmark.

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