Bringing in the Dempsey Fight

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Rogers Hardware circa 1900. Minstrel

parade foreground.

We take radio so much for granted today it is difficult to imagine the impact it made on those who were hearing it for the first time. Mrs. Ellie Grant, a ninety-four year old resident of James River, Antigonish County, Nova Scotia remembers very clearly what broadcasting was like fifty years ago:

The first time I ever heard radio was on a receiver owned by Jack MacGregor, who was the wireless operator at the James River Railway Station. My father loved the boxing. He was get- ting on and he heard that Jack Dempsey, his great idol, was boxing Firpos and he also heard that they were going to try to broadcast it. So I went down with him to the Railway Station and sure enough, the fight was on, and it was coming through Charlottetown. That was the first time, now, I ever heard radio and my father too. Well you can imagine how excited he was. Up to that time the only contact he ever had with Jack Dempsey was reading about him in the newspapers.

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