As work continues on switching over New Country 910 to New Country 92.5 FM, we would be remiss if we didn’t share memories of AM radio in the Drumheller Valley.
We thought we would reach out to a couple of veterans in the radio industry that have connections to 910 and the Drumheller Valley. Former Midland resident, former station manager in Drumheller and Brooks, and current Mayor of Brooks, John Petrie shares some memories from back in the CJDV days. “When we were growing up, and I grew up in Midlandvale, 910 was standard in our house. I can even remember some of the broadcasters you know from when I was knee high to a grasshopper. I remember George Walters doing the morning show. George Walters, that wasn’t his real name, it was George Komarniski. Some of the other names from the past, of course. Jim Fisher. Jim, Fish as we know him around Drumheller, still around there. One thing I remember about Jim Fisher is him doing the Drumheller Miners played by play. That’s when the Miners won the Allen Cup in 1966. Some of the other names I remember growing up, Bill Cameron, lived in Midland too, so I kind of knew the family quite well. He did the Ag news and the rodeo report. And he also did a little feature in the morning. Another name I remember quite well is Dennis Seibel. He’s in Brooks now. But Dennis Siebel did news and sports. I was back in junior high when the Falcons came along and he would do play by play for the Drumheller Falcons.”
Petrie also shares what got him interested in radio. “People often ask me what got you interested in radio. For some reason, I must have been about six or seven years old, my Mom took me to that old Drumheller CJDV building. It was the two-story, yellow at the time, and she took me there on a Saturday morning. We went upstairs and there was a band playing in there. As a kid, I thought all the music was live, not realizing a lot of it was on records at that time, but that was sort of my first initial initiation into radio.”
There were quite a few radio names that spent some time at 910 according to Petrie. “They played mostly country music during the daytime, but after 9:00 at night, they would have a rock feature and I remember listening to Gerry Thom. Gerry Thom went on to bigger and better things. He went on to CKXL in Calgary and then I think was out in Vancouver.”
Below is the full interview with John Petrie:
In the early 80’s Q91 on location in Three Hills
Another one of those names that was mentioned by John Petrie, is Jim Fisher. Fisher has and continues to be on the radio on New Country 910 and New Country 92.5. “it will be 66 years November 1st that 910 went on the air with 1000 Watt signal and a little transmitter just south of Drumheller. I had the first rock’n’roll show and it was considered to be so wild that they took me off the air. There was no station in Alberta that had the rock’n’roll. My show was called Jim’s joint and at 7:00 every Saturday night, the five lines would light up until 1:00 in the morning. I guess you could say it was quite popular, but the powers that be at CJDV said no, this is way out of step. People don’t like rock’n’roll and we shouldn’t be playing it. Now rock’n’roll is very norm.”
Fisher remembers that so much had to be done live as there wasn’t much for technology back then. “In those days ,when I think of it, a commercial had to be read live because there was no technology other than that, except the reel to reel tapes. That was too onerous on the staff, so everything was live. In those days when you turned the microphone on, you didn’t really know what you’re going to say, but you started to talk and it was, I guess, good radio because people were listening to find out what what we’re going to say. We didn’t know what we’re going to say ourselves.”
One of Fisher’s greatest memories was being able to cover John Diefenbaker’s whistle-stop train tour in 1958. “We weren’t on the air for very long and the Prime Minister of Canada, John Diefenbaker, invited me as the news director, to join him on his train trip. I went on the train with the the Prime Minister and his wife. Only last week, I went back to see that rail car, which is at Mossleigh (at Aspen Crossing) and has been turned into a restaurant That was a fond memory.”
Back in the beginning, CJDV at that time was only 1000 watts, so it was a very local station according to Fisher. “We emphasized local so much, it was something that we had to practice and do. On the sports side. the very same thing. I remember not knowing anything about basketball, but I had to go to Hanna to do a play by play of high school basketball. That was something brand new for me.Then, of course, any kind of hockey or any sports, basically local, it went on the air.”
Fisher was the play by play voice for the Allan Cup Champion Drumheller Miners and he remembers they had listeners doing what they could to get the game. “I remember people calling in from British Columbia. They would drive their car up to the top of a mountain to pick up the signal when when the Miners played.
Below is the full interview with Jim Fisher:
https://youtu.be/PkVYSwFdcBk
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