Radio Broadcasting History
by Frank Hall, former operator, Radio Station CFCL, Centennial Methodist Church, Victoria with additions from 'Centennial United Church 1885-1970'
On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1923, the first Church Service in Western Canada was broadcast from Centennial Methodist Church, Victoria, BC, using its own broadcasting station.
The following are the events that led to this historic event.
In 1922 Centennial Methodist Church, now Centennial United Church, suffered the loss of her Pastor, Rev. J. Batty, through sudden death. At that time, Rev. Dr. Clem Davies of the United States, a Welshman by birth, was on vacation in Victoria. One of the church officials, Mr. W.M. Mitchell, approached Rev. Davies and asked if he would act as 'supply' until such time as other arrangements could be made. His personality and forceful preaching so impressed the congregation that he was asked to remain as Pastor until a permanent one was appointed by the Methodist Conference.
The congregation began to increase in size. Early in 1923, Dr. Davies announced that the church would undertake a new venture, that of broadcasting the Sunday Worship Services over the radio. He had had a radio ministry in Hollywood previous to his coming to Centennial. To use his expression, "We are going to broadcast over our own radio station, and you are going to pay for it, thank you very much". He realized the far-reaching possibility of getting religion into the home via radio.
Arrangements were made with the Canadian Marconi Radio Company, Montreal, to install broadcasting apparatus, a ship-to-shore transmitter, in the church basement. The Marconi representative for Victoria and Vancouver Island was instructed to install the apparatus under the direct personal supervision of the resident Marconi Engineer, Mr. Leo Main of Vancouver, BC. On the arrival of the equipment, Mr. Jack A. MacKay, the local representative, assisted by his brother, Mr. Hugh McKay, now of Vancouver, and Mr. Frank Hall, a member of Centennial United Church, set to work installing the equipment.
The actual deadline was Good Friday. After business hours the team worked on into the early hours of the morning. The room chosen for the 'studio' or 'operations room' was the former Pastor's study and part of the equipment was installed in the former Men's Choir Gown room. One microphone came with the equipment and was suspended from a bracket on the pulpit stand. To overcome the shortage of 'mikes', three types used by telephone operators were obtained from the telephone company. These were used in the studio.
BC Telephone Company erected the aerial mast, which consisted of two pieces, bolted together, and stepped into a concrete pedestal, supported by three guy wires. This operation took place on Good Friday. The top of the mast was in line with the top of the church spire. When the aerial wires were in place, the apparatus was ready for testing. Radio receiving sets were placed in various spots throughout the city to record results. The main switch was thrown that afternoon. Reports from the receivers were "Nil" – no results, no reception. The apparatus was checked and rechecked but no fault was found. The difficulty was in the 'output' – it was decided that the signals were dissipating into the ground. It was thought that the guy wires were not insulated enough, so extra insulators were inserted and testing was resumed. Still no results. One more effort was made to overcome the loss of signals – placing a 'counterpoise' beneath the church, in line with the aerial wires, and a roll of chicken wire was stretched under the foundation of the building. It worked – we were 'on the air'.
The licence was obtained from the Department of Radio at Ottawa. Official 'Call Letters' were granted, CFCL, a Wave-length of 410 meters, and the power of the set was 500 watts. (Using the call letters, Dr. Davies coined the phrase 'Centennial First, Centennial Last'.) Only one station on the Pacific Coast of Canada and the United States equalled this power – that was the station KPO, Hales Bros., and the Chronicle, San Francisco, with similar 500 watts. Vancouver, Seattle, Portland or Los Angeles did not have this power.
There was one other radio station in Victoria operated by that pioneer in radio, the late Mr. Moffatt, owner of the Western Radio Supply Co. This little station, located on Fort Street near the present Fort Street entrance to the T. Eaton Co., operated on 5 watts power. We were concerned whether our power would interfere with Mr. Moffat's broadcasts, so we tried an experiment in which we went on the air together. We were pleased to find that neither interfered with the other. We were all set for "EASTER SUNDAY BROADCAST", the first Easter Sunday broadcast to be made in Western Canada and the first broadcast of Sunday Church Services.
The three men continued to operate the station 'gratis' every night including Sundays, sometimes until late hours. The regular broadcast hours were from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Messrs. Fletcher Bros. Music Store, Douglas Street, loaned a 'Victrola' phonograph provided that the station announced not only the name and serial of all records used but also that these records could be obtained from their Music store. Mr. J.A. MacKay was manager of the station; Mr. Hugh McKay was one of the announcers; Mr. Frank Hall operated the station under his own Commercial Radio Licence. His 'ticket' was hung on the wall. Actually the three men took turns operating and announcing.
Later, the three severed connections with the station, partly through illness of one and business reasons of the other two. Mr. George Deaville, a member of the church choir, continued with the operation of the station. When the Rev. C. Davies vacated the pulpit because the Methodist Conference of 1924 appointed another pastor in his place, he established the City Temple, first in the Royal Theatre. He removed the radio apparatus from the church to a downtown location, first to the top floor of Fletcher's Music Store, then to the Bank of Toronto building and finally to the top floor of the Central Building on View Street. Mr. Deaville carried on the broadcasting under difficulties. The power of the station was greatly reduced and the call letters changed to CFCT. (Apparently these letters signified 'Calling Friends of the Christian Temple'.) In 1941 he turned the station over to management of the Daily Colonist and the call letters changed to CJVI and moved to 900 AM. New life was injected into the station's operation and it has now become one of the most popular stations on the Pacific Coast.
There were many amusing incidents in those early months of broadcasting. Letters were received from far points in the middle Provinces and States, also from as far as the Hawaiian Islands. One letter from the middle States expressed their thanks for our broadcasts and included in the letter a US dollar bill to help pay expenses of the station.
Mrs. Bertha Parsons reported in the Colonist, April 1, 1956 of one difficult incident for Mr. Deaville. Dr. Davies had arranged for a temperance address to be broadcast. The station engineer did not favour prohibition and vowed that not a single word of the address would go over the system. To make this threat good he locked up the studio after pulling out wires, switching tubes, and creating general chaos. George Deaville was just as determined to get the message over the air. He managed to break into the station and after staying up all night to repair the damage, managed to get the speaker on the air.
THE HISTORY CONTINUES
(From Times-Colonist, February 21, 2011, Doug Obee)
When CJVI and the Colonist were sold (resulting in joint ownership of the Colonist and the Times), the radio station found a new home in 1952 in the top floor of the Imperial Optical building at 817 Fort Street where it is still located. CJVI, an AM station, wanted to appeal to a larger audience so they did a swap with Camosun College which had moved its closed-circuit campus station onto the air in 1993 using an FM frequency. The college broadcaster then had an AM frequency (Village 900) and CJVI received 103.1 FM in return, now know as JACK-FM (or CHTT).
Camosun College is still found on the old CJVI frequency, one that has been serving Victoria for almost 66 years. However, the station is planning to move online – to reach a much larger potential audience as well as cutting costs. When that occurs it will be the end of particular sector of broadcasting history starting with Centennial Methodist Church.