In honour of Country 93.1 hitting the airwaves a little over a week ago, our Timmins history feature for the next couple of weeks will look at country music.
Museum director-curator Karen Bachmann says people have been playing country music since they first started arriving in Timmins. It really took off when CKGB Radio went on the air in 1933.
“And we have the big opening ceremonies, and the Northern Lights Country group, which was a group of local guys, they played for the opening,” she recounts. “And we also had something else called the Northern Ranger Country Boys Old Time Orchestra, which came up and performed at the radio station – live, of course – and then at the Pavilion afterwards for the big celebration.”
That reference to “the pavilion” is, of course, The Riverside Pavilion.
Next week: A country performer whose fame was kindled in Timmins.