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Douglas Richard Proctor “Darby” Coats
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Radio pioneer.
Born at Gravesend, England around 1892, he came to Canada in 1910. He served for many years as a wireless operator and was on a ship that was torpedoed in the First World War. He worked for Canadian Marconi in 1920-1921, then became Manager-Announcer of the Manitoba Telephone System radio station CKY in 1923. He later managed stations in Saskatchewan. Known to many children as “Uncle Peter” from his children’s radio shows, he was responsible for the supervision of Winnipeg’s first television transmissions in 1933. He later did public relations for the Manitoba Telephone System. In 1970, he was awarded a Manitoba Centennial Medal by the Manitoba Historical Society. He died at Calgary, Alberta on 7 July 1973 and was buried in Calgary.
See also:
Memorable Manitobans: Lillian Shaw (1906-1996)
CKY Winnipeg in the 1920s: Canada’s Only Experiment in Government Monopoly Broadcasting by Mary Vipond
Manitoba History, Number 12, Autumn 1986MHS Celebrates: Manitoba 150 in the Winnipeg Free Press: The Medium was the Murky Message by Garry Moir
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 10 July 1973, page 34.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 1 July 2023
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