Sixty years ago, in a small spot out of the old Risteen building in downtown Fredericton, Ross Ingram was the first person to speak live on air at CBZ — the CBC station established in Fredericton in 1964.

"I remember that up until 10 minutes before we went on the air for the first time, we didn't know [if] we were going to go on the air or not," he recalled, citing a problem surrounding permission to broadcast that he and his manager, Harold Hatheway, were waiting on.

Ingram said it was about 6:57 a.m. before Hatheway got the green light to go to air at 7 a.m. 

He said the whole operation was different than the CBC people knew at that time.

"We were pioneers," Ingram said.

"I mean, we were doing things here that CBC had never done before."

Ross Ingram, left, Harold Hatheway are seen here in a March 1965 photo taken at CBZ. (Provincial Archives of New Brunswick/P14-2-8817)

Ingram said he worked 28 years with the public broadcaster, starting in Halifax in 1958. 

The Fredericton station opened out of a temporary space on Queen Street while the permanent headquarters on Regent Street were being built, which the team moved into three years later.

In the beginning, the station was staffed with about 20 people, including two news reporters, six on-air announcers and four technicians.

Ingram said at first, there were some audio interference issues from another station on the dial, which had people calling the CBC for help tuning their radios.

"Some of these radios were vintage 1930, you know, and really you couldn't do much with them ... That went on for a whole year," said Ingram, until the signal was shifted. 

 

60 years on: 2 men who broadcast 1st words on CBC Radio in Fredericton return

On March 4, 1964, Ross Ingram and Joe Wood launched CBC Radio in the capital city. They dropped by the Regent Street studios recently to see how times have changed.

Joe Wood was another of the first voices to air on the new station, which had the call letters CBZ.

Just 22 at the time, he hosted the local afternoon show for a while, which was only about 15 minutes long — just enough for a small newscast and two pieces of music. 

When he wasn't doing that, he was out in the field with a technician and a portable tape recorder, looking for people to talk to.

Ingram, seen here seated behind a microphone in an undated photo, worked at the CBC for 28 years, starting in Halifax in 1958. (Aniekan Ehutube/CBC)

In those days, Wood said, they were on the air 24 hours a day.

"You'd start a shift at 11 o'clock at night, finish at six o'clock in the morning, go home, go to sleep, get up the next day. You do that for seven days straight, have a couple of days off, work the weekend, do a morning show on Saturday, so on and so forth. And then it was like a three-week rotation."

In 1970, Wood said Information Morning started, and there was a full team covering what was happening in the community and around the province. 

'Oh, by the way, the premier hates you'

Wood said everyone who worked at the station had the desire to do the best they could, and considering the feedback they received, he believes they made an impact.

Wood said his team would sometimes interview the sitting premier, which wasn't a regular tradition at the time.

One time, after doing an interview with a political scientist, Wood was told, "Oh, by the way, the premier hates you."

Surprised, he asked why and was told the premier wasn't happy that he kept asking questions, not taking "the words of his cabinet ministers as gospel."

Wood remembers an interview he did with the minister of highways one time. He asked a question and received a response that had nothing to do with what he asked.

   An article from the Daily Gleaner in 1964 shows the new staff for CBZ ahead of its debut. (CBC Archives)

"So I asked the question again. Did the same thing with a different answer. I asked the question the third time. There was dead silence," Wood said.

"He said, 'Mr. Wood, are you looking for a fight?' And I said, 'No, sir, I'm looking for an answer.' And he finally answered the question on the third time around."

The future of radio

Ingram said he's watched over the years as broadcast technology has advanced. He can remember when the CBC hired an aircraft for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth and developed the film on the way back to Halifax. 

At that time, he said that was as close to live TV as possible, but now, there is around-the-clock live coverage of major events, he said, pointing to CNN's coverage of the recent hurricane in Florida. 

Still, he said despite advancements, radio "is always going to be with us."

"It really doesn't take a lot of participation to listen to the radio. You can be doing your house work, you can be out in the yard mowing the lawn — you can be wherever you are now," said Ingram.

   An ad in the Daily Gleaner explained how to tune into the new station and included best wishes from local companies. (CBC Archives)

Wood agrees. He retired at 55 but looking at the radio industry now, he said there is a lot of competition with the ease of getting information online and on social media.

But, he said the question is — is that information the right information?

"One thing I know about radio and television from our history, is that if it's not right, it's not getting on the air, and if it does, we apologize later," said Wood.

"So I think that radio as we know it, it may change, but I think it will go on.

"I think the future is pretty good."