1939–1958 · CBH Halifax and CBL Toronto, the Trans-Canada Network

Don Messer and His Islanders

Three nights a week, tens of thousands of sets, and a fiddle from Prince Edward Island

Messer started on CFCY in Charlottetown, a private station on an island of ninety thousand people, and ended up with a national audience three nights a week for nineteen years. The music is old-time fiddle played absolutely straight — no showmanship, no arrangement to speak of, tempi you could dance to in a hall with a plank floor. When the CBC finally cancelled the television successor in 1969 there were questions in the House of Commons.

1 recording · Charlottetown and Halifax

Broadcast of December 1957 from CBH Halifax and CBL Toronto over the Trans-Canada Network. Recording held by the Internet Archive.