SENATORS’ STATEMENTS — Radio in Newfoundland

Honourable senators, today I’m pleased to present Chapter 89 of “Telling Our Story.”

As many of you are aware, my home province of Newfoundland and Labrador is unique and special in many ways. Even when it comes to the field of broadcasting, we stand alone in Canada.

The great majority of radio stations throughout Canada are allocated call signs beginning with the letter “C.” CB is used specifically for stations of the national broadcaster — the CBC — and then we have CF, CH, CI, CJ and CK for various other independent and commercial networks throughout the country.

But only in Newfoundland and Labrador will you find the unusual call signs that start with the letter “V.”

Newfoundland’s association with radio goes all the way back to Marconi’s experiment in December 1901 when the first-ever transatlantic wireless message was received at Signal Hill in St. John’s from Poldhu, Cornwall, England.

The first radio broadcast station in Newfoundland was VOWR, the voice of weekly radio owned and operated by the Wesley United Church of Canada. VOWR first signed on the air on July 20, 1924, just over 100 years ago and it is still going strong today.

Reverend Joseph G. Joyce started this station to provide an avenue for those people unable to attend their Sunday service in person.

The ITV prefix issued to what was then the Dominion of Newfoundland was VO and was changed to VOWR in 1932. The second station in Newfoundland was VOAR — the “Voice of the Adventist Radio” — which went on the air in St. John’s in the fall of 1929. It is continuing today as VOAR-FM, airing a Christian radio format and it is owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The most well-known “V” station in Newfoundland is probably VOCM, which began broadcasting in 1936. Walter Banks William III and his father began VOCM in their family home at 80 Circular Road in St. John’s. Walter was trained at the Radio Training Schools in the United States and then set up a company called the Atlantic Broadcasting Company. On December 22, 1933, the company was issued a licence to operate a station from the second floor of the family home.

The call sign granted for the new radio station was VOCM, chosen to mean the “Voice of the Common Man.” The station’s antenna was built in the backyard and the station first went on the air on October 19, 1936.

Today, VOCM 590 is a full-service talk and music station and is now owned by the Stingray Group.

I should also mention that immediately following the Second World War, the United States set up bases in Newfoundland that also used VO call signs. The last of these was VOUS in Argentia, which closed down in the late 1960s.

The VO prefix was assigned to the Dominion of Newfoundland before our province joined Confederation and therefore was grandfathered in when Canada joined Newfoundland in 1949, making us the only province in Canada that is licensed to use the radio station call letters VO.

This is just another unique fact about Newfoundland and Labrador. Thank you.