Story of broadcasting pioneer headlines 2025 Blyth Festival season

Broadcasting pioneer recognized by Blyth Festival A play about the founder of CKNX TV and radio will premier at the Blyth Festival. CTV London’s Scott Miller reports.

W.T ‘Doc’ Cruickshank was a Canadian broadcasting pioneer. In 1935, the Wingham native turned his own homemade radio transmitter into CKNX Radio. By 1955, he added CKNX TV, putting Wingham on the map as the smallest community in all of Canada to have a commercial TV station.

“Suddenly, you have this wellspring of talent, of connection. Of everybody all in the community who are able to dial in their own hometown and hear incredible music, amazing stories, local news, as well as national news. And over the course of the next 40 years, he builds a national broadcaster right here in in Wingham, Ontario,” said Gil Garratt, the Blyth Festival’s Artistic Director.

Cruickshank’s story about building a small-town broadcasting empire will soon be a theatrical presentation. “Radio Town - The Doc Cruickshank Story” is one of five plays that will mark the 51st season of the Blyth Festival next year.

“He put local people and local voices on that station. And I do wonder whether we would have a Blyth Festival without him. The mission of the festival is to tell local stories. I think we were very much inspired by the kind of culture that somebody like Doc was trying to build,” said Garratt.

In his own words, while still at the helm of CKNX, Cruickshank said sharing local stories, was really why he started the stations in the first place.

“We had a sort of an arrangement with our newscasters to bring every little neighborhood in the news, at least for some reason, at some time. Didn't matter if they only took a pig to market. Let's get it on. Because we feel that the listeners in that area will know that we were following them up and we'll have an interview that does happen,” he said during a 1960s broadcast.

CKNX still exists today. Three radio stations operate out of the CKNX building in Wingham. CKNX-TV was taken off the air in 2009, but there remains a TV reporter based in Wingham, covering midwestern Ontario.

None of that would have happened without Doc Cruickshank’s vision, nearly 100 years ago.

After welcoming more than 25,000 patrons last summer, Garratt believes stories like Doc’s will resonate with Blyth Festival audiences next summer too and will add to the 156 world premieres that have graced Blyth’s stage over the past 50 years.

“There have been a couple of difficult years. And so to be able to actually welcome that kind of audience back is amazing. We’re thrilled,” said Garratt.

You can learn more about the Doc Cruickshank story, and the four other plays on the outdoor Harvest and indoor Blyth Memorial Hall stages, by visiting their website.