Two radio stations

Station OA changed its name to CNRO in February 1924 when it was acquired by the Canadian National Railways, but a few months later it was not the only station in Ottawa. In March, the Ottawa Amateur Radio Association began its own station, which is now known as CKCO. The license to CKCO was first granted to Dr. George Geldert, the president of the Ottawa Amateur Radio Association. In the early days, Dr. Geldert would broadcast from his house. The Geldert family had to have dinner by five o’clock so that Dr. Geldert could use the dinning room as a broadcast centre. In those days, CKCO’s programming was limited to the talents of enthusiastic volunteers, Church service, and public speeches. Some of the other performers included the Geldert’s canary and their cuckoo clock in the living room.

CNRO and CKCO were often criticized for interfering with broadcasts from stations in the United States. Every time these two stations were on the air, they shared the same bandwidth and they would block all other signals. Due to this and to the huge expense people would incur to own a radio, these stations were not very popular. However, by the end of the 1920s radio had matured and by 1930, CKCO moved to Geldert’s attic in his new residence at 272 Somerset.