On the 25th of January 1925, a new era arrived for those who were unable to attend church services, with radio broadcasting of a Sunday service from First Methodist (Trinity United) in Charlottetown. It was a first for the province through the efforts of Walter E. Burke operating from his home at 36 Upper Hillsborough St. and Walter Hyndman who helped build him a 30-watt transmitter. The Island Telephone Co. provided a connecting line between the church and the transmitter, which broadcast over a club license shared by young radio enthusiasts.
One author has indicated that it was the first church
service broadcast east of Manitoba, in what was then Canada. Newfoundland had
already seen the launch six months before of radio station 8WMC on July 20,
1924, operated by Wesley United Church in St. John's, which still operates as
VOWR, (Voice of Wesley Radio) and is staffed by volunteers.
With the growth of radio on PEI, CFCY as the first
commercial station under the leadership of Keith Rogers, added church services
to its ongoing programming schedule. Church broadcasting on PEI saw growth with
Christian Communications formed towards the end of the century to take on the
role of co-ordinating a Sunday morning service on CFCY radio originating from a
rotating list of Charlottetown churches until 2006 when CFCY underwent a format
shift and dropped church services.
By that time, cable television had already established a
strong presence in church broadcasting when
Island Cablevision established an ongoing arrangement with Trinity in
Charlottetown, to broadcast Sunday services starting in 1976. Simon Compton, a member of Trinity United
Church Session, had assembled a business team consisted of Howard Douglas,
Harry MacLauchlan, Dr. Lorne Bonnell and himself, which successfully brought
cable television to the Island. Licensing required a certain number of hours of
local programming, and Simon and his partners were keen to see their new
service provide regular church programming within their local time slots. That
service continues today under the Eastlink ownership group.
Fast forward a few years, and all churches found themselves
shuttered during the early months of COVID-19 when live-streaming was becoming
an easy way of broadcasting over the internet. A legacy for many of those
churches is that they have continued to use YouTube and other methods to
provide both a live stream as well as video copies on their YouTube channel or
church website for later viewing. As one Islander who was unable to be home for
the holidays stated, “tuning in to the Christmas Eve service was the next best
thing to being there.”
Ian Scott
Charlottetown
