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.
Ottawa Police are investigating an attempted break-in at the residence of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's national security adviser, the second such incident involving one of his top aides in recent months.
When two skiers collided on a beginner run at an upscale Utah ski resort in 2016, no one could foresee that seven years later, the crash would become the subject of a closely watched celebrity trial.
A Toronto man, whose neighbours vanished eight years ago and left their home completely abandoned, said he's fed up living next door to a property that is in complete disarray.
A candidate for the United Conservative Party in southern Alberta has resigned after she posted a video claiming children are being exposed to pornography in schools.
A scientist at CAMH says video games have similar addictive features to gambling which cause social isolation of the individual and dependency on the activity.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered a brief initial response to the final report from the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) into Canada's worst mass shooting, which claimed the lives of 22 people in Nova Scotia in 2020. Vowing changes will come, here's what Trudeau said in Truro, N.S.
The federal Liberals are trending downward on three key measures while Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has surpassed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when it comes to the question of who Canadians would prefer now as their prime minister, according to Nanos Research.
A Toronto man, whose neighbours vanished eight years ago and left their home completely abandoned, said he's fed up living next door to a property that is in complete disarray.
Premier Doug Ford is slamming federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault as a “real piece of work” in the wake of public remarks he made suggesting that Ontario has “no plan to fight climate change.”
A candidate for the United Conservative Party in southern Alberta has resigned after she posted a video claiming children are being exposed to pornography in schools.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has yet to answer direct questions about a growing scandal of her alleged interference with the justice system, but her deputy premier has responded the media about the issue.
Just a week after Airbnb tightened regulations for Quebec listings following a deadly fire, hosts may already be bending the rules. Airbnb now requires its hosts to provide a six-digit policy number with their listing, obtained when a tourist lodging is registered with the provincial government. But a scroll through the Airbnb website suggests users are falsifying their permit numbers to sneak past the authentication process.
A lawyer for the United States government told Quebec's highest court today that the country should be immune from prosecution for the infamous brainwashing experiments at McGill University from the 1940s to the 1960s.
It's been two weeks since a major fire ripped through a heritage building in the heart of Old Montreal, killing seven people and forever altering the lives of families across the globe. For the families of those who died, the grieving process is only starting.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has yet to answer direct questions about a growing scandal of her alleged interference with the justice system, but her deputy premier has responded the media about the issue.
There are exciting plans for Knox Presbyterian Church in downtown Sudbury. Built in 1927, the former church was sold after its congregation dwindled and will be transformed into a concert hall.
When the store manager at La Noisette Bakery arrived Thursday morning to open the small shop on Oxford Street, she discovered that one of the two large circular windows at the side of their building was shattered.
Two Manitoba hunting outfitters have been fined thousands of dollars and lost their licenses after a four-year investigation revealed numerous violations of the wildlife act.
A judge has acquitted a now-retired priest of forcing himself on a residential school student more than 50 years ago, saying she believes an assault happened but could not determine beyond a reasonable doubt who did it.
Ottawa Police are investigating an attempted break-in at the residence of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's national security adviser, the second such incident involving one of his top aides in recent months.
Students at the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine are reluctant to speak up when faculty make racist comments, according to a new report from the human rights commission.
A Mass Casualty Commission report that came out on Thursday following a mass shooting in Nova Scotia in 2020 may have a local impact on the RCMP Depot model being phased out.
Police have released video of a suspected arsonist who allegedly caused thousands of dollars in smoke and water damage to a building in Vancouver's Chinatown last weekend.
A Mass Casualty Commission report that came out on Thursday following a mass shooting in Nova Scotia in 2020 may have a local impact on the RCMP Depot model being phased out.
Riley Jolly detailed several injuries he observed on his son, Emerson Whitby, prior to the 18-month-old’s death, during testimony at Court of King’s Bench in Regina on Thursday.
A 32-year-old man from Campbell River, B.C., has been sentenced to four years in prison for the beating death of a 59-year-old homeless man in October 2020.
The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) says designated landing zones should be available for aircraft in harbours following a crash between a floatplane and a water taxi in Tofino in 2021.
