It’s a  sad moment, when a elderly friend passes away from a different generation, but nice to know they have left a footprint behind, Joel Aldred, he was 91 and once was the broadcasting giant in radio from 1940′s and then from the 50′s to the 70′s  a TV broadcaster with his deep voice.  Joel led a very fascinating life with having Hollywood as his second home in the early 60′s and being the best friend of one of our former prime ministers of Canada Diefenbaker as his travelling companion. I love listening to stories from elders especially who are older than my parents and ones who have influenced and help shaped our history, no matter how often they may have repeated themselves.  I have always come away learning something new through some one else’s eyes.

Today it is amazing, how advanced we are now in communicating mobile with apps on devices and with mobile phones that fit  in our purse or back pocket, it is really hard to imagine what the world was like when we didn’t have cell phones or visuals such as digital TVs, CD players, Labtops and computers. I know that I can’t live without my gadgets especially my smartphone and Ipad and my many apps.

Joel was in his early 20′s when radio was the only method of  broadcast communication,  he had just come back from world word II after he led a flight  of 20 Lancasters home to Canada. At 28 as a decorated war hero, he landed his first real job at the CBC based on a wager that he couldn’t get  a job there.  He did  live air commercials on radio shows that were broadcast across Canada when TV was not yet mainstream. He was in demand in  the American networks, and moved onto to becoming a popular TV pitchman of live commercials of various shows like Dana Shore, Bob Hope and Perry Como show and  being one of the highest paid broadcast pitchman in Canada.

In the late 50′s, Aldred was instrumental in being one of the founding directors for the two of today’s Canadian media giants Rogers Communications and CTV.   The TV and broadcast community was controlled tightly at time and there were no private broadcast communication companies until a corporation was formed in 1958 called Baton- Aldred – Rogers Braodcasting Ltd. to start CFTO- TV which is now CTV the largest privately held media company in Canada, the original shareholders were the Telegram, Aldred Rogers, Foster Hewitt, Sovereign and Heathcourt.  Now the media giants are known as CTV and Rogers Communications. It is interesting to look at some history to see where we are today with mobile technology and where we came from.  Visit Joel Aldred’s website as it has some of his commercials and history, he was a very interesting man and will be missed, but his footprint will remain with all of us and his voice in cloud technology and Utube for all of us to hear again.

Sincerely,

Betty