Why this Book
"The Story of the Birth of Broadcasting in Sudbury - Local Visionaries, Canadian Pioneers of Broadcasting" started off as a website in 2004! The project picked up significant momentum in 2011. By 2018 it was decided that all the research and stories within the website could be turned into an ebook. This led to more research and writing and in the spring of 2021 it was decided that a print version would be published in addition to an electronic version.I was so excited and grateful to be working at CKSO in radio from 1975 to 1980, having started as an operator. CKSO proved to be pivotal grounds for many broadcasters who would become well known. CKSO carried weight on a resume! I believe people had fun, believed in what they were doing, and knew that it was important work. CKSO, from radio to television, rendered several firsts, especially TV being the first privately owned in Canada and only the fourth station on the air! Both radio and television operations played significant roles in their respective golden age.
Ultimately, the goal and the website was to create a historical retrospect of the broadcaster in celebration of the many Canadian firsts achieved by the broadcast visionaries back in the first half of the 20th century in the city of Sudbury. The website and especially the book will serve as an ongoing historical resource of how early 20th- century mining led to the affluence of a city which spurred the birth and growth of print and electronic media. Through the CKSO doors came many personalities who would go on to national and even international fame, whether in broadcast circles, business or even politics. In recognition of all those who were connected to CKSO, its unprecedented accomplishments and in consideration that CKSO is woven into the fabric of the area’s history, I believed very much that this was a story worth writing.From the visionaries to the personalities, to management and from the cleaning folks to clerical, sales, writers, producers, technicians, engineers and the office messenger, what better way than with digital technology in these advanced years to create an online tribute to them by means of a website loaded with nostalgia, memories, memorabilia and history. This would be an online depository, a museum, a multimedia stage where former staff, listeners and the people of the Sudbury area could easily access and share a road down memory lane to an era long gone.