Controversial program
Cotter’s Saturday Night was aired nationally
In 1928 and into1929, Nathaniel Nathanson decided that he wanted to sell more records, phonographs and radios.
His book and music store had a good selection of radios and sales were good but he felt they could be better.
The reason radio sales weren’t as good as they could have been was linked to poor reception.
On a good night local radios could pick up a few American stations but this was limited to after dark and only when the weather was just right. Nathaniel Nathanson felt that he would sell more radios if there was a regular and reliable signal for people to listen to.
So, he bought a ship’s radio that he had converted to work on land. This was the start of CJCB as it aired 14 February 1929 featuring local music.
One of the most successful early radio show with local content was a program called Cotter’s Saturday Night. The program ran on CJCB and was later picked up and run nationally by the CBC. CJCB produced the show and the CBC aired it. It was the first show to go coast to coast from Sydney. The CBC ran the Cotter’s Saturday Night every week for 76 weeks.
The Cotter’s Saturday Night was a musical show that had a story line. It featured a Scottish evening with a Scottish family. They sang, told jokes and just had a ceilidh that was broadcast.
Tena Campbell played the fiddle and Bernie MacIntosh played the piano. M.J. Ballah, the well-known baritone singer at the time, was the program’s musical director. Ballah was Lebanese, but his musical expertise made him an asset to a radio program that featured a Scottish ceilidh.
The show also featured Mrs. McKimmie, Malcolm R. MacLeod, Prof. Bernie McIntosh, Bleddyn Davies, M.J. Ballah, Mrs. Bleddyn Davies, and Hazel Matheson, John MacNeil, Mrs. C.D. Buck, Tena Campbell, Mabel Kelleher, Bob Wright, George MacDonald and Sandy MacLean.
Bernie McIntosh, who was featured on the show, had a long history of musical entertainment in Cape Breton. He began the Professor Bernie McIntosh Orchestra in the early 1920s. He played through to the 1940s. McIntosh was known as the Waltz King and his piano expertise was incredibly popular. The orchestra played at the Highland Golf Links in Dominion, and several gala balls in Glace Bay. Often they played every night at the week in communities throughout industrial Cape Breton.
There were, however, those who felt that the portrayal of Gaelic speaking people on the Cotter’s Saturday Night encouraged a negative stereotype. The St. Margaret’s Council of the Scottish Society from Glace Bay felt that the program mocked the accents and presumed mannerisms of Nova Scotia Gaels. They felt this portrayal of negative stereotypes was detrimental and disrespectful to the Gaelic community.
The society passed a resolution in protest of the “objectionable features of the broadcast.” This was forwarded to the CBC in Ottawa, which shortly thereafter cancelled the program. To celebrate their victory, the Gaelic Poet Eoghain MacCoinnich of Barra Glen wrote a satire of the show. It emphasized the stereotyping of the Gaelic people and its misrepresentation of Gaelic language culture.
For 76 weeks in the 1930s the Scottish culture of Cape Breton was broadcast nationally and the musical talents of local performers were showcased on a national stage. Whether their performance encouraged negative stereotypes might be a moot issue as very few recordings of the show remain. To date the only possible recording of the show is at the Beaton Institute. The CBC saved no copies of the show.
“The St. Margaret’s Council of the Scottish Society from Glace Bay felt that the program mocked the accents and presumed mannerisms of Nova Scotia Gaels. They felt this portrayal of negative stereotypes was detrimental and disrespectful to the Gaelic community.”