William Coates Borrett (April 24, 1894 – 1983) was an author,

radio broadcasting Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

pioneer, and member of the

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. On June 7, 1917, he married at the age of 23 to 28-year-old Muriel Hazel Bauld in

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

. His marriage certificate lists him as a member of the

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and his occupation as a

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. He founded Nova Scotia's first radio station,

CHNS-FM CHNS-FM (89.9 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The station airs a classic hits radio format branded as ''89.9 The Wave''. CHNS is owned and operated by the Maritime Broadcasting System which also owns sist ...

on May 12, 1926, which was broadcast from the Carleton Hotel in Halifax. For more than 18 years his station aired a series called "Tales Told Under the Old Town Clock" which featured stories about Nova Scotia's history. In 1942, he published these stories through

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under the same name. On August 14, 1950, at a reception to mark 201 years since the founding of Halifax, Borrett was awarded a medallion for his historical books and radio program that preserved Nova Scotia and Halifax history.

Relationship with Hank Snow

In 1933 while Borrett was the managing director of CHNS-FM, a young

Hank Snow Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow (May 9, 1914 – December 20, 1999) was a Canadian-American country music artist. Most popular in the 1950s, he had a career that spanned more than 50 years, he recorded 140 albums and charted more than 85 singles on t ...

sent a letter to the radio station seeking an

audition An audition is a sample performance by an actor, singer, musician, dancer or other performer. It typically involves the performer displaying their talent through a previously memorized and rehearsed solo piece or by performing a work or piece giv ...

. On March 14, 1933, Borrett responded to Snow in a letter, informing the singer that the artists who performed on his station were paid by the sponsors of the station's programs and that he would not be able to offer Snow an audition unless a sponsor requested him. Reluctant to accept this response, Snow gathered savings and traveled to Halifax, contacting the station while there. He was given an appointment to meet Borrett, but was instead met by Cecil Landry, the station

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and announcer for CHNS, who gave him an audition on the spot. Borrett later claimed that Snow was the first musician he paid, giving Hank $15 a week to come on air.

Bibliography

Borrett authored a number of books in his lifetime. The following is a list of his published works. * ''Tales Told Under the Old Town Clock'' (1942) * ''More Tales Told Under the Old Town Clock'' (1943)

Notes

References

External links

Grave site of Major William Coates Borrett

Borrett in the 1921 Canadian Census
1894 births 1983 deaths People from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia Writers from Halifax, Nova Scotia 20th-century Canadian writers {{Canada-writer-stub