I was delighted to find in my disorganized storage locker last weekend a box of cassette tapes – one of which contained some radio newscasts that I had given up for lost, and previously detailed in a post about Holy Grails of local history.
Both were recorded on Oct. 24, 1999. The first is the KBS 8 a.m. cast read by Jayne Garry, who you can still hear every day on EZ Rock. I saved it because it includes a story I filed about the 75th anniversary of the train explosion that killed Doukhobor leader Peter (Lordly) Verigin and eight others.
The person I interviewed about it, historian Steve Lapshinoff, died last month. (If you have a copy of the book he compiled about the explosion they you are willing to part with, I want to buy it.)
Also making news that morning: budget cuts in the Kootenay Lake school district and a voicer by the late, great Angelo Iacobucci of CHNL Kamloops concerning a gas pricing committee chaired by Rossland-Trail MLA Ed Conroy.
The second cast is the BKR 7 a.m. news read by Mary Hombrebueno. Stories include a dispute between the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary and the City of Rossland over its regional services bill, and Canadian Regional cutting a daily flight from Castlegar to Calgary.