Early in our marriage; when we lived in Trail, BC. I found myself conscripted by the Library to choose books for the Children’s Section. Always passionate about books for children, I accepted the position with alacrity. Having two small boys of my own at that time, I was kept up-to-date on the subject. Then the local radio (CBC) asked me to give a weekly chat on Children’s Books. That was easy, and fun, too. Oddly enough, my then pre-schoolers still remember those broadcasts. “I even remember the classical music you used for an introduction,” one told me not long ago.

While still in Trail, I wrote a humorous story of a car trip we had taken to pick huckleberries in the nearby hills. It happened that the CBC was having a competition for stories with a local flavour, to be read on a morning program. I entered my story, and to my delight, it won a prize and was read aloud –actually by my father, on the Vancouver CBC. (It had to be read by a man, not a woman, as it started out, “My wife is after me every year to go huckleberry picking….”) I remember being paid the princely sum of $ 35.00 for my efforts.

When we later moved us to Yellowknife, T.V. there was still in its infancy. In fact, it did not come on until six in the evening, when we were treated to TV broadcast the night before in Edmonton. This struck me as a golden opportunity. Kids were not rushing home after school in the long winters to turn on a set. I suggested to the local manager of CBC Radio that a Children’s Program at four o’clock might prove very popular.

He had never thought of such a revolutionary idea, and was doubtful. I urged him to give the idea a month’s trial. He rather grudgingly agreed. I set to work, determined to addict the local kids to my program, which I called “Favorite Things” after a popular song of the day—one which I also used as my entrance music.
Determined to make my idea work, I plunged into every gimmick I could think of. I told old stories. I read from books many of the adults, as well as their offspring, had not heard of. (“Winnie the Pooh”, rather to my surprise, was a great favorite.) Not only did the kids rush home after school to turn on their radios at four o’clock, but apparently many adults listened too.

However, when I ended my month’s probation, the station Manager was not impressed. He did not think what I was doing had merit, and he doubted if the Yellowknife population would be warming up to it, either. He cancelled the program.

But he had reckoned without the radio audience. He certainly was not prepared for an uproar of support. He had to back down. The daily four o’clock program was re-instated and it lasted till we left Yellowknife five years later.

What fun we had! School choirs came to perform. We held poetry and story contests, and read entries on the air. We held Art Contests and displayed the students’ efforts in local church halls. On this program, everyone was a winner. Adults came up to me on the street to beg for more of the “ Just so Stories” of Rudyard Kipling. There were many delightful recordings for children at that time, and we played all we could. (I think “Puff, the Magic Dragon” was most requested.) Of course, such a program would never happen today. Once TV entered Yellowknife full time, it was gone.

After we returned south, and finally moved to Penticton, it seemed time to retire. Then one day I had a call from the Kelowna CBC. They were planning to start a weekly seniors’ Comment, and wondered if I would like to audition? Then started the monthly drive to Kelowna to tape another five programs. This, too, was great fun. I was constantly amazed at the number of active, admirable seniors still hard at work volunteering in their seventies, eighties—even nineties! They were a delight to interview. I also enjoyed the challenge of fitting what I wanted to tell about them into a three-minute slot. That project lasted for three years. A good ending to the several sessions I’d enjoyed with Canada’s CBC Radio.

October 2007 Dodi Morrison