Vinyl fans eager for first pick at 98-year-old Newfoundland radio station's sale
Vinyl fans eager for first pick at 98-year-old Newfoundland radio station's sale
Record collectors in Newfoundland will have a chance Saturday to paw through selections from the vast vinyl library belonging to 98-year-old radio station VOWR.
Elaine Pond said she planned to be among the first people through the door at the St. John's Lions Club Vinyl Record Fair, where the station will have a table set up. It's the first time VOWR has sold any of its records, and Pond said she'll be digging through crates for country and gospel hits from Hank Williams, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash.
"It's a dream for collectors," Pond said in an interview Friday. "This will be my vinyl event of the year. I've seen their collection. I know what they have. I love many of their shows."
VOWR launched in July of 1924 as a way to transmit church services to those who couldn't attend in person. Station manager Ron LeDrew said its library is now home to about 50,000 vinyl records. Among the stacks are albums of banjo covers, obscure Anne Murray bangers and rare recordings from Newfoundland musicians that are likely impossible to find anywhere else.
LeDrew was quick to emphasize that Saturday's sale will be of duplicates or "surplus" records, noting that the station receives many donations of record collections and duplicates pile up. VOWR's library will remain intact, and much of the easy-listening music on its airwaves will still come from those LPs, he said.
"We're dedicated keeping that going," LeDrew said in an interview. "We have country-request programs on the weekends and people call up, and you're not going to get them digitized; you're going to get them off the records."
VOWR is on the air 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and it's run entirely by volunteers, many of whom have been there for decades. LeDrew, 75, has been volunteering for 55 years, he said.
The station has a dedicated listener base of mostly seniors and people over 50, though younger people are tuning in as they become more interested in older music, LeDrew said. "A lot of the commercials now they're using old music, old songs," he said. "It's good stuff. It's got great stories, all put together with music. You don't hear that anymore."
In August 2021, the station's transmission tower went down in a lightning storm and people of all ages stepped up to raise or donate money so it could be replaced.
Pond, 41, said VOWR is special to a lot of people, her family included. When her mother died in April of 2014, VOWR was playing in the background.
"She was able to go peacefully," Pond said. "And when it came to decide where we wanted to ask for donations in her memory, we asked that people donate to VOWR."
Some people from the local vinyl collecting community have been volunteering to help the station sort through its record piles to get ready for Saturday's sale.
"There's community support ... to push them ahead and give them the help they need for their first time doing this," Pond said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 28, 2022.
The parents of young Ontario hockey player Ben Teague have been searching for answers since he died while at a team retreat in 2019. The mystery about what happened and the code of silence in hockey culture is explored in CTV W5's 'What Happened to Ben,' on CTVNews.ca and W5's official YouTube channel.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's calls for protests ahead of his anticipated indictment in New York have generated mostly muted reactions from supporters, with even some of his most ardent loyalists dismissing the idea as a waste of time or a law enforcement trap.
Officials are still looking for victims after a fire ripped through a building in Old Montreal last week, killing at least one person. At a press conference Monday morning, spokespersons for the Montreal police and Montreal fire department said six people are still missing. They come from various locations in Quebec, Ontario and the U.S.
An Ontario woman has launched a lawsuit seeking $500,000 from Tim Hortons after she suffered major burns from an alleged ‘superheated’ tea. The company has denied all allegations and said she was ‘the author of her own misfortune.'
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is due to meet with Vladimir Putin in a political boost for the isolated Russian president after the International Criminal Court charged him with war crimes in Ukraine.
Even at one of the tallest natural peaks on Earth, humans have left their mark in a trail of bacteria as researchers have found germs from coughing and sneezing that have been potentially preserved for centuries on Mount Everest.
Shares of Credit Suisse plunged 60.5 per cent on Monday after banking giant UBS said it would buy its troubled Swiss rival for almost US$3.25 billion in a deal orchestrated by regulators to try to stave off further turmoil in the global banking system.
March 20 marks the first day of Spring in the northern hemisphere, and, after a long, grey winter, Torontonians can soon look forward to warmer temperatures and sunnier days.
An Ontario woman has launched a lawsuit seeking $500,000 from Tim Hortons after she suffered major burns from an alleged ‘superheated’ tea. The company has denied all allegations and said she was ‘the author of her own misfortune.'
The Town of Strathmore and Siksika Nation hosted the first Lead By Example Powwow this weekend in honour of a young Indigenous man who was shot to death four years ago.
Autopsies confirmed gunshot wounds as the cause of death for two constables responding to a domestic dispute Thursday, the Edmonton Police Service says.
Officials are still looking for victims after a fire ripped through a building in Old Montreal last week, killing at least one person. At a press conference Monday morning, spokespersons for the Montreal police and Montreal fire department said six people are still missing. They come from various locations in Quebec, Ontario and the U.S.
Two families were displaced early Monday morning after a fire ripped through a building in Montreal's Quartier Latin. No one was injured, according to the Montreal fire department (SIM).
Autopsies confirmed gunshot wounds as the cause of death for two constables responding to a domestic dispute Thursday, the Edmonton Police Service says.
The parents of young Ontario hockey player Ben Teague have been searching for answers since he died while at a team retreat in 2019. The mystery about what happened and the code of silence in hockey culture is explored in 'What Happened to Ben' on CTV W5.
An Ontario woman has launched a lawsuit seeking $500,000 from Tim Hortons after she suffered major burns from an alleged ‘superheated’ tea. The company has denied all allegations and said she was ‘the author of her own misfortune.'
Lane restrictions are now in place on Wellington Street as construction gets underway on Phase 1 of the Wellington Gateway and Municipal Infrastructure Improvements project.
The first day of spring in the London region will be a beautiful one. The daytime high is forecast to be 6 C, slightly warmer than the average high for this time of year.
One person has been confirmed dead and six people remain missing as police continue to search for victims after a fire swept through a building in Old Montreal on Thursday.
The Rideau McDonald's Farewell March brought people from across the city, some dressed in costumes, who wanted to say goodbye to a part of what they say makes Ottawa Ottawa.
If you are yearning to walk the trails around Mud Lake in the Britannia Conservation Area, be aware there are wild turkeys looking for mates. A gang of three have been chasing and pecking at visitors to the nature trail for weeks.
Vancouver firefighters were called to the Downtown Eastside Sunday evening after a fire destroyed multiple tents in an encampment and spread to a building near Main and East Hastings streets.
An international student was swarmed and beaten by a group of people who ripped off his turban and dragged him across the sidewalk by his hair in Kelowna, B.C., Friday evening, according to a local politician.
Travel nurses go from place to place, all over the world, filling in wherever help is needed. To assist with current shortages, some are in Saskatchewan.
Pile O Bones hosted their 18th annual tattoo convention at the Turvey Centre on the weekend where artists from around the country were able to highlight their talent.
Some residents of Saskatchewan's capital city have been vocal with their disapproval of Tourism Regina's latest rebrand, prompting an apology from the organization.
Mounties in Port McNeill violated a suspect's Charter rights by failing to allow him to contact a lawyer promptly after his 2019 drug trafficking arrest, a judge has ruled.
