When you turned it on, a yellow bulb lit up he dial in the big old Stromberg-Carlson radio that sat in a corner of our front parlour. It was a beacon which lit up my childhood.

It brought the world into our living rooms with an ingenuity few listeners were aware of. Although we always took the newspaper in my home, we also depended on the radio for the special blend of news, entertainment and just plain enchantment, in those days throught the Great Depression and the Second World War.

Among my earlist memories is the absolute fascination of hearing voices coming out of that handsome old four-legged box with messages that seemed directed personally at me. I can hear the mellifulous voice of an announcer named de Be. Holly (his first name was Leslie) conveying birthday wishes to kids of my generationa nd telling them to "look behind the radio for a special gift from your parents."

How did he know there'd be a gift behind the radio in our house? It was magic. And it worked. I remember my mother, scurring with paper and pencil to write down the recipes dictated by a lady named Maud Crisp Estey. That was heyday of radio in Saint John - and indeed in eastern Canada.

This was Saint John's pioneering radio station - at first CFBO, broadcasting from an upper floor of Imperial Theatre, before moving to the Admiral Beatty Hotel and later becoming CHSJ in an adjunct to the old Telegraph-Journal building at Canterbuy and Church streets.

All of this was brought to mind last week by the launch of a remarkable book called On Air in the Maritimes since 1928, an account of 80 years of historic broadcasting in New Brunswick. The occasion was a reception on the third floor of the New Brunswick Museum, where John F. Irving, president of Acadia Broadcasting Limited, gave a lively and light-hearted review of how this particular broadcasting operation originated and developed.

It's quite a story. As Irving said: "We didn't have a true felling of how profound and significant this history was until we looked into it. To know where you're going, it's important to know where you've been." He's right about that.

In an introductory preamble, Jim MacMullin, general manager of Acadia Broadcasting, explained that it now comprises four major Maritime radio stations - CHSJ Country 94.1 and The Wave, 97.3 in Saint John; The Tide 98.1 in St. Sstephen and CKBW, serving Nova Scotia's south shore from Bridgewater, Liverpool and Shelburne.

This colourful and attractive book tells how the broadcasting operation began, grew, branched out into the region's first television station and now embraces four radio operations serving distinctive audiences in the Maritimes. The history of what is now Acadia is an important success story of local entrepreneurship and talent.

It all began when Saint John businessman Charles A. Munro set up Saint John's first commerical radio station in 1928. One of its early achievements was a live play-by-play broadcast of a hockey game from Truro, Nova Scotia, between the Saint John Fusillers and the Truro Bearcats.

By 1934, CFBO was purchased by the publishers of The Telegraph-Journal, then directed by Howard P. Robinson, J.D. McKenna, T.F. Drummie and L.W. Bewick. The Broadcasting business never looked back.

You can read the technical history of early transmitters and pioneer broadcasters, including the ongoing tradition of The Empty Stocking Fund. Television came along in 1954, with a succession of brilliant local broadcasters in the days when Ralph Costello was at the helm of the newspaper and broadcasting companies.

Written by Jo Anne Claus and edited by Jonathan Franklin, the book is available for $12.95 at the N.B. Museum Gift Store, Coles and Trinity Bookshop. As we used to say in the newspaper business: "Read All About It!"

Fred Hazel is a retired editor-in-chief of this newspaper (The Telegraph Journal). His column appears on Friday.