MARY'S GENEALOGY TREASURES
Bell had carried out all its promises and made some
praiseworthy efforts to give and improve services. But big
interests were not popular in the West and there was
evidence of a growing antagonism toward Bell Telephone.
People were more in favor of public or cooperative ownership
and there was a feeling that Bell was withholding the
telephone from farmers. Rural service had been started by
the Edmonton District Telephone Company in 1904 but it
proved more of a headache than city service. It seems that
some rural customers took quite a shine to the idea of listening
in on other people's calls. Party-line eavesdroppers were
known as "rubbernecks" and the act of listening was known
as "rubbering-in". The telephone company took a dim view
of the practice, but the only recorded case of the company
catching up with anyone was that of an unhappy gentleman
who owned the only cuckoo clock in the district and had
the misforttme to have his cuckoo clock "cuckoo" when he
just happened to be listening in on a call.
In 1906 the Alberta Government took a look at the telephone
service in the province and decided that it was just too
chaotic. The province offered to buy Bell out but Bell would
not sell. When Ottawa declined to give the province the
right to expropriate, Alberta approved the establishment of
a government telephone system. The Lethbridge Herald said:
"rhe government is not only providing telephones for the
towns, cities and villages - but every farmer in Alberta will be
in a position to possess a phone in his home." But it couldn't
move fast enough to suit everybody. Some municipalities
decided to build their own systems and some farmers set up
systems of "barb-wire" telephones and the custom of
neighbors "talking over the fence" took on a second meaning.
Bell was losing money and finally agreed to sell. The sale
took place April lst, 1908. To raise money to acquire the
Bell properties and extend the provincial telephone system
under the Alberta Provincial Telephone (A.P.T.) the
government of Alberta went into debt for the first time.
In eight years Alberta built a telephone system and made
it work. The telephone had been brought to 9,000 farm homes.
Farmers were connected to the towns by 8,345 miles of line.
There were 37,000 phones in the province, of which the city
of Edmonton operated 9,000. Four thousand miles of long
distance lines connected 550 communities. The system,
now Alberta Government Telephones, was up and it was working
every way but financially. The first full year of World War I,
1915, had a mixed effect on the telephone system in Alberta.
The cities slumped and in Calgary 2,000 phones were taken out.
But there was a record wheat crop that summer, prices were high
and the demand for rural phones was so great that new rural
subscribers cancelled the loss in the cities, However the rural
construction dropped off in 1916 and 1917. Farm districts
were encouraged to build their own lines. Standards for
construction were lowered and the farm built lines were
allowed to connect to long distance if they met A.G.T. standards.
The idea was that as soon as the government had the money it
would buy the cheap temporary systems and replace them with
genuine A.G.T. construction. However, it would be half a
century before the province would be that rich. In the great
depression of the 1930's the province would be so poor it
abandoned the rural lines entirely and left them to the Mutual
Telephone Companies.
Radios were quickly perfected. A new miracle had come to
entertain the family in their home with an exciting mix of
music, comedy, drama, and news. The possibility of radio
was recognized by some preachers by the mid '20's. As
many can remember, Wm. Aberhart became a household name.
Palmer obtained a licence for radio station, CJOC in 1926,
which quickly expanded and in 1928 moved to its new
studios on top of the Marquis Hotel. Ernie Snowden
remembers a battery operated radio, a "Kolster" set,
being brought out to the farm and installed in 1928 or 29.
He recalls listening to CJOC's sports announcer, Henry
Viney.
Henry Viney was a frequent visitor to the penthouse
station. He had his heart set on a career in sport
broadcasting. To improve diction and pronunciation,
the station manager made him read aloud from the
dictionary for hours on end. Eventually he became
sports announcer for CJOC, later moving to Calgary CFCN
where he became Alberta's top sportscaster on both radio
and later television.
Miscellaneous Histories