The Year Cablevision was born in Oliver

In the fall of 1958, Dad had purchased a rather large antenna from a trip to Spokane and he and Vic Tribbick mounted it on our roof.  Vic’s house was at the bottom of our hill but they could not find a signal there.

I remember how hard we laughed as Dad and Vic walked around the roof looking for a signal.  There was Highway Patrol from a Mexican channel and Broderick Crawford was speaking a very fast Spanish!  Finally they found KXLY, KHQ, KREM (out of Spokane) and CBC!  STOP, Mom yelled and at this point they anchored the antenna and down they came.

Most Saturday nights our front room was full of people all watching Hockey Night in Canada.  I guess that is where my love of hockey was born.  I loved hearing Foster Hewitt say:  “Hello,Canada, and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland.”  Even after Newfoundland became a province, he still announced the beginning of the broadcast that way.

Well…one night as they were all having lunch, the men started talking about how they could get television into their homes without each using an antenna.  Some of their homes were in low lying areas hence no signal.  It was decided that they would build a tower above John Vanderburgh’s house just up the street and take Dad’s big antenna and see what they could find.

Now, to be very clear, there was television in Oliver but no CABLE company as yet.  Just individual homes with tv’s.

Before the next weekend, Bill Grant, Dad, Vic Tribbick, Blaine Francis and John Vanderburgh all got together and bought a bunch of 2×4’s and whatever else they needed and drove up onto a flat area above Johnny’s house.  They built a tower that was about 20 feet tall and anchored it from all angles with taut wire so it would not sway. They had also built a ladder on it so the antenna could be carried up to the top of the tower.

And so on that next Sunday morning, the men assembled on top of the mountain and Dad and Vic climbed the tower and put the antenna in place.  Dad had about large spool of lead line and he and Vic had fashioned some kind of a metal loop that could be pounded into the rock coming down the mountain.

Hmmm….now who is going to go down that rock face and bring the lead line down?  Strange that their eyes all turned to me!  I was 12 years old at the time and not very scared of much so they tied a rope around me and lowered me and the lead wire down the rock face.  I had a little hammer and pounded a loop into the rock every so many feet and threaded the lead wire through it until I reached the bottom.

Cam Parker had gathered a truck load of miniature telephone poles, from where I do not know, but at this point all the men came down and the poles were dug in.  The lead line was spliced and sent in all directions to the different houses in the neighbourhood.  The only one to not get cable was Blaine Francis because he lived on Rockcliffe Road but he was there helping anyway!

Now it was time for the test.  Would it work?  Could more than one house see television from this tower?  Everyone hooked up their sets and got…SNOW!!! Back to the top of the mountain they went with Mom in our house and Doreen Vanderburgh in hers and the both of them on the phone with each other.  Dad and Vic unhooked the antenna and turned it slowly until they heard a scream from both Mom and Doreen…STOP!! YOU HAVE A SIGNAL!!!  Mom and Doreen checked through the tv and sure enough, there were the three American channels and CBC.

Cablevision was born in Oliver on that cold October morning.  Several more families hooked onto our cable system and for those who couldn’t get TV, our house was always full on the weekends.

There were many trips made to the top of the mountain, fixing the line, tightening the anchor wires…so many trips that a certain fellow who worked for the Telephone company (one very kind Mike Thomas) put in a telephone at the base of the tower so the guys wouldn’t have to run up and down the mountain so often!!!  He even got one of the girls in the telephone office to give it a number…wonder what the address was?

I remember one particular trip to the top very well.  It was December, with lots of snow and Dad, Vic, Paul and I had to go up to fix a break on the line.  It was pretty treacherous going, but we managed.  We had to walk the entire length of the line to find the break and once again I found myself hanging over the rock face to where the break in the line was…cutting it and letting Dad pull up both ends so he could splice a piece to each end and restore service…LOL

In 1964, Charlie Stephens came to town looking to set up a cable system.  He bought the equipment from Dad and Vic and the rest is history.  Oliver Tele-Vue became an outlet for everyone to have cable.

But the Shaw’s, Tribbick’s, Grant’s, Vanderburgh’s, Brown’s, Parker’s and Brown’s were the first cable viewers in Oliver.