OUT OF THIN AIR

Most sports events were broadcast. As early as 1928 Dad would pickup WGY from New York and re-broadcast the baseball scores in the World Series. In the early thirties when the Maritime Hockey League was being played, direct broadcasting from the rinks was banned. It was a matter of using your wits to get the information about the games out to fans. As a substitute service, a continuous stream of messages written by an alert reporter were telegraphed to a local newspaper and sent out over the air by CFCY. The commentator in 1931 was J. Buller Murley who handled our earliest sports broadcasts and he was assisted ably by Ed Acorn. The fans even contributed small amounts to cover the costs of the telephone lines and the telegrams in the early days. They’d collect a nickle here, a dime there and sometimes twenty-five cents—a handsome donation at that time. Frank Acorn, Ed’s son, col— lected some of this money and was at The Guardian Office to witness the broadcasts that took place beside a telephone in the hall. He said that Buller would try to make them sound real, as if he was actually in the Halifax rink and when he told about the puck missing the net. one of them would hit the wall with their fists to indicate a dull thud.

Bill Brown, Loman McAulay Ira Stewart, announcers. Circa, 1940

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