My biggest birthday surprise

By Rev. C.J. Barry Kentner

You might say my  31^st  Birthday ended in a BANG!

I was born on July 1st, l935…which means this Canada Day I will turn 88.

I have had many birthday surprises, but the 31st. birthday had to be the biggest surprise

of them all.  I doubt I shall see anything quite as booming as the fireworks display on the

Detroit River that year of l966.

I was in the midst of a talk-show on CKWW Windsor,  and our studios were only two blocks 

from the riverfront.  There were not one, but several barges in the river on which the 

fireworks were lit.

You can tell the rest of the story….Fireworks went off at the hour of ten or maybe a bit before.

They lasted for almost an hour.   They were noisy and even though the windows in our studio were

closed,  the volume levels on our equipment exceeded all expectation.

No one had   told me about the fireworks display , and I was completely unprepared for it.

I was in the middle of a call when the first boom was heard and before I could disconnect there

were three more cracks, and then another boom.   Thankfully I turned the volume down before

the console was dissolved into oblivion, but then l was stuck with the unthinkable…”dead air”.

 I’d like to say that  “in a flash” but it was more like a minute and a half before I was able to turn

 on a microphone  in the adjacent studio, and with   careful monitoring I managed a play by play 

of the spectacular scene.

I was told by the staff who heard it,  that I did a good job…and the manager said nothing about

it at all.   Then I learned that he was out of town for the weekend.  Nothing was said, until he returned

 and then he apologized.   He said that in past years they had cancelled the talk show for the evening and

rolled music instead.

I continued in the roll of news and talk for another twelve years…then I moved on.

Looking back on a 62 year career…I think the coverage of the first High School shooting in Canada was by

far the  high and low of my days….and the night of my 31^st  Birthday was second;