OUT OF THIN AIR

My father’s radio station had gained momentum during a time when the world was polarizing. Nazi Germany was on the rise. In Spain it was Franco. My father was a small town businessman in Canada’s small- est province; but he was more than this. He was a true patriot—not in the narrow redneck sense—but in the sense of his being a son of the Island and of Canada. He believed that the smaller parts had to be healthy in order to have a wholesome Canada.

One aspect of his ham radio set was his powerful short wave receiver. I remember the hateful, frenetic voice of Hitler and the fright— ening choruses of Seig Heil! Seig Heil! filling our home. Everything in that voice of hate was the direct opposite of my father’s voice.

All his life he would lay stress on freedom. Freedom of speech. freedom to express creativity. . .freedom from the Hitlers of the world. As a boy, he had a dream, as a man he accomplished that dream although it was never easy. He truly believed that radio and later television could be harnessed for good. While “communicating with the world” he believed in freedom of expression; and that the voice of the people should always be heard loud and clear. I quote directly from a speech he gave to the Canadian Author’s Association in 1942.

“Broadcasting, the press, and moving pictures... reach with equal power into the homes of the wealthy and most humble citizens...capable of immense force for good or evil...if free speech in radio is curtailed so likewise will freedom of speech or the written word be curtailed. . .The H itlers, the Mussolinis and the Father Coughlins of every country are only too eager and anxious to capture the imagination of the world. . . radio has the means to perpetuate their power, or if used wisely it can create the vision of a world of beauty and peace; a world where spiritual values can take their rightful place; a world in which little children can again laugh and sing, a world where their parents may rest with reasonable security in the hope they will not wake up some morning to find it shattered in rubble around them.”

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