I’m not expecting this to be published …. just wanted to “feedback” Stephen Thorning on his piece about the Guelph EMO. However, couldn’t find a means of sending it to him, so please pass this on.
Mr. Thorning’s recent EMO item was sent to me by a Guelph friend … I enjoyed very much, and here are a couple of my reflections:
I remember when they put the 100′ pole (at least it seemed that tall) at the top of Memorial Crescent on Paisley Road with the huge air raid siren on top. There were a few strategically erected around the city that would cover Guelph with their wail. As I remember one was also near the Cutten Club, one atop the Eramosa Road hill, and I remember them testing the sirens a couple of times … very LOUD.
One of my favorite recollections was, while working in my early broadcast days at CJOY, on a beauitiful spring Saturday aft in ’63 about six months after the Cuba missile crisis, there was an unannounced test of the CD-1 receiver in our downtown master control room. The CD-1 was a warning devise to tell all radio stations that an attack was imminent, and to switch over to a broadcast network that would then inform the populace what to do. When it went off, the shrill alarm would make your ears bleed (so to speak). Mike Cranston was on the air at the time, and I was talking to him when it sounded. He turned white and ran to a window overlooking St George’s Square, flung it open, and stuck his head out to look for the missiles going over. hahaha. He will never live that one down.
I began my media career by writing a high school sports column for the Guelph Guardian and stringing for the Mercury and the Record, prior to decades of on air, marketing and management in radio & television. I’m now a senior faculty Professor of Broadcast Studies in the School of Media, Seneca @ York U. I appreciate wonderfully penned trips down Guelph memory lane. Thanks, Stephen, for that “jog” about the EMO.
Slainte mhaith,
Jim Craig
James Craig