Local television history remembered in Museum exhibition
A nostalgic look back at Swift Current’s television history was featured at the Swift Current Museum during their December exhibition.
The TV in Swift Current display featured details of CJFB, Shaw Community Channel, plus Southwest TV News.
“Swift Current was very lucky that for many years they had local tv, because these people were telling the local and regional stories,” explained Stephanie Kaduck, Education & Public Services for the Swift Current Museum.
“Not only were kids able to say ‘I’m on tv!’, but they shared stories that were important to local people. They made them feel part of the bigger world. And we don’t have that anymore.”
Chadic is excited that material produced by the stations has been preserved in their archives, and they can use these visual reminders of the past for a variety of reasons.
“As a museum person it’s very important because the archived film is very useful for curators now and in the future to actually get visuals and stories of the things that have been important in the community over the years.”
CJFB went off the air in 2002, but a selection of their footage has been digitally remastered, so several years of material has been archived.
“You can see what was actually going on in the community - the building facades, the types of cars - it’s just a trove of interesting documentation.”
Additional material from Southwest TV News is also now part of the museum archives.
“Southwest TV News was often called on by CTV if they had any good weather footage because they wanted to get the story of big storms here.”