A Picture by Christmas: Early CBC Television in Nova Scotia

Julie Rekai Rickerd is a Toronto-based broadcaster and public-relations
consultant.

The beginning of producer/director Bill Harper’s 30-year career at
CBC-TV’s Halifax station coincided with the birth of the magical new
medium in 1954. His book is a firsthand account of the challenges of
making the transition from radio to television broadcasting in the
Maritimes with “one camera, a stunted transmission tower and a
makeshift studio in an almost abandoned school.” Among the beloved
personalities to emerge from the Halifax station were Max Ferguson,
Catherine McKinnon, and Anne Murray, the latter two appearing on the
ever-popular Don Messer’s Jubilee and Singalong Jubilee. Harper’s
well-written, detailed book offers a fine “glimpse of the greatest
media revolution in history, as seen through a Maritime lens.” The
initial mishaps and disasters it recounts are as relevant and
interesting as the eventual successes.