Shows
Yorkton StoriesFive Yorkton teens: the road from here to elected officeThey were typical teenage boys when they lived in Yorkton in the 1970s, 80s, and into the early 90s. They came from different backgrounds, attended school here, took part in a variety of activities, pursued different goals, and left when they completed high school, four ending up in Alberta and one in Saskatoon.A common factor for these five young men from Yorkton is that they ended up at higher levels of politics – three are now members of Parliament, one was an Alberta cabinet minister, one is an Alberta cabinet minister. All of them represent conservative parties, al...
2025-12-1657 minYorkton StoriesAbout Dan the Storyman, Poetree and Friends, and ultra runningDan Calef was, and sometimes still is, Dan the Storyman, known locally as the story-telling head of the Yorkton public library from 1983 to 1999. He looked after story time for kids, and told stories on local television in a show that ended up being shown nationally, and then also on American television.We turn the tables on him in this podcast by telling his story. Here in Yorkton, he was also regularly seen to be running on the streets of Yorkton, easily recognizable by his long-ish hair and beard and his steady gait. Dan w...
2025-11-2036 minYorkton StoriesFood security and 15 tons of potatoesIn the summer and fall of 2025, several factors came together, one of them out of the blue, to tackle and do more about hunger and food insecurity in Yorkton.The first was in early summer when the city of Yorkton hired a barriers to access co-ordinator, someone who was tasked with helping to set up local committees to address various barriers in the community. There was already a social housing committee dealing with homelessness and housing, but other needs and opportunities were identified, including food security.What was definitely not anticipated by the group as...
2025-10-1832 minYorkton StoriesYorkton Psychiatric Centre was a first (and cutting edge) in 1964Those working in the field of psychiatry and mental health treatment across Canada and the United States came to Yorkton in 1964 and 1965 in large numbers to see for themselves how a new way of treating mental health patients was being implemented at the new Yorkton Psychiatric Centre.The new facility was a radical departure from what had been standard mental health treatment facilities in Saskatchewan: large impersonal buildings at Weyburn and North Battleford that, from the outside, could easily be mistaken for jails.The new Yorkton Psychiatric Centre came about in large part to a...
2025-09-1053 minYorkton StoriesKristopher Grunert: the magic of photographyKristopher Grunert was born and raised on the family farm on Orkney Road, a short drive northwest of Yorkton. His parents, sister and he lived on land first established as the Grunert homestead in 1888. Farming, however, was not in Kris’ future. As a teenager he developed a keen interest in skateboarding, then a relatively new sport in Yorkton, and that led him to Vancouver to pursue that dream.As it turned out, the skateboarding dream clashed with reality, but it did lead to a career and wide recognition in the field of photography that now spans 25 years, in...
2025-08-2051 minYorkton StoriesSigga Houston: the purposeful life of a pioneer doctorDr. Sigridur (Sigga) Christianson Houston and her husband Dr. Clarence Joseph (CJ) Houston operated a medical practice in Yorkton for nearly 50 years, after a year in Watfort City, North Dakota. Both were graduates of the University of Manitoba College of Medicine. In their practice in Yorkton, she had a well-known and well-deserved reputation to make babies thrive, which brought mothers and children from a hundred or more miles away. What most people at the time did not know was this: when she graduated medical school in 1925, she was only the fourth woman of Icelandic descent to...
2025-06-2250 minYorkton StoriesMetro Prystai: his life in his wordsThe hockey career of Yorkton’s Metro Prystai has been well documented. He had a storied career with the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings over a span of 12 years in the 1940s and 50s, scoring the Stanley Cup winning goal for the Red Wings in the 1952 finals, back when there were only six teams and only the very best made it to the top, let alone the Stanley Cup playoffs. He won two Stanley Cups with Detroit, and was named to the NHL All-Star team three times.He was not the first with a Yorkton connection to...
2025-05-2048 minYorkton StoriesYorkton, the volleyball factory of the 1980sWhen it comes to Yorkton sports dynasties, the dominance of Yorkton volleyball teams and players in the 1980s stands out. Senior hockey had a good run with the Terriers winning three league titles and four provincial championships between 1967 and 1972. But nothing compares to the boys’ volleyball teams of the 1980s and the players, all 18 and under in age. Most were coached by Dennis Pomeroy, who became a legend in the sport. The Yorkton Regional High School Raiders boys teams won nine consecutive provincial championships in that decade, and the male club teams – the Macs -- had their share...
2025-04-141h 01Yorkton StoriesAlexa tells us about forensic pathologyWe haven't asked Siri, the Apple virtual assistant, about forensic pathology. But we did ask Alexa -- no, not Siri's counterpart at Google, but Alexa Haider, who graduates this spring after four years of studies at Trent University in Peterborough, ON.I know Alexa from her work at Deer Park Golf Course the past two summers, and when she told me what she was studying, I was, to say the least, very surprised. It's not a field of study and employment we hear a lot about. And not something I expected to hear from a bubbly outgoing y...
2025-03-1431 minYorkton StoriesThe changing face, and faces, of YorktonAlmost sixty years ago, when I first came to Yorkton, it was a very "white" community where the names were predominantly Ukrainian, German or British, reflecting the founding and early settlement of this part of the prairies. Census data from the past 15 years clearly show how things have changed. In 2011, about four percent of the population of Yorkton consisted of immigrants who were born abroad and had emigrated to Canada. Five years later, that percentage was about 10, and in the latest census of 2021, it was close to 14 per cent. It is likely to be higher still when t...
2025-02-171h 14Yorkton StoriesNot your conventional clergymanShawn Sanford Beck -- born, raised and educated in Yorkton and area -- is now a pastor with the United Church in Saskatoon with a special mission. He was an Anglican priest, a position he left due to some unresolved conflicts with that denomination.He subscribes to and has written about Christian animism, is a member of the Order or Bards, Ovates and Druids, teaches Green Priestcraft, and considers himself a Christo-pagan. He is an author, as is his wife Janice and one son, and the family lived off the grid north of North Battleford for almost...
2025-01-2236 minYorkton StoriesHamton SK: only memories and ashes remainThe village of Hamton is like many Saskatchewan communities between Yorkton and Canora… still on the map, but not really there anymore. But to say there is nothing left of Hamton is a mis-statement. It looks that way from the intersection of the grid roads to the west and south, since the triangle that was the village, between those two roads and the old rail line, is overgrown with tall weeds, shrubbery, and a few trees. Until 2018, there were buildings still standing, but abandoned and unused. Then one weekend in early May of 2018, whatever was left of the...
2024-12-1226 minYorkton StoriesTeaching sustainability and learn-by-doing in remote AfricaLesotho, a landlocked country in southern Africa, is home to about two million people, including Ivan Yaholnitsky, whose family name is familiar in the Yorkton area. The Yaholnitsky family farmed south of Mikado. Ivan went to the University of Saskatchewan, and what he is doing in Lesotho is the topic of this podcast.Lesotho is a poor country. Nearly two-thirds of the country’s income comes from farming, and a quarter of the population is unemployed, according to the government of Lesotho website. That’s where Ivan arrived in 1987, to teach at the high school in th...
2024-11-1445 minYorkton StoriesYorkton and computers: back in the early days, and nowIt's almost 50 years since the first computers started being used in Yorkton. We talked with Andy Balaberda, the first local computer teacher, and Rick Coleman; he and Warren Gamracy were very early entrants into the business of computer sales and support, with Rick also developing software. My own household also started using computers very early on. There you have it: three old guys – Andy, Rick and myself, all of us in our 70s and each with 40 to 50 years of computer use and experience behind us. We talk about when it all started in the 1970s, and share views about co...
2024-10-2341 min
Yorkton StoriesPerry Ehrlich: the lawyer who has them singing and dancingPerry Ehrlich left Yorkton in the early 1970s to attend the University of Saskatchewan. He became a successful lawyer in Vancouver, and continued to indulge in his love of music and performing; 30 years ago he founded Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! He has been called an impresario for conducting two one-month music camps each summer which attracts kids from literally around the world, and for teaching and nurturing a performing troupe of teenagers called ShowStoppers. They appear year-round in concerts, on TV and radio, and at numerous conventions, awards dinners, galas, sporting events and corporate and charitable events throughout BC.
2024-09-2021 min
Yorkton StoriesYorkton's General, judge and moreThis is the story of Alexander Ross – he had a middle name which started with the letter E, but in no sources, including when he was received an honourary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Regina, is his middle name mentioned. He was generally referred to as Brigadier-General Alexander Ross. Our story is drawn from many sources, including information compiled by Ruth Shaw and available on the Yorkton Legion website. Not all sources agree on all details, not surprising considering much of what we discuss is as much as 100 years old. But the basic facts abo...
2024-08-2142 minYorkton StoriesThe challenge: motivating youthJason Payne has taught at the Yorkton Regional High School since 2002, but his involvement with youth and sports has expanded greatly beyond the boundaries of the school. His dedication to high school sports and youth sports in Yorkton is unquestioned, yet in 2018 he nearly hung up his whistle. “I was burnt out by the demands of coaching. Instead of quitting I focused on the holistic development of my athletes and building environments based on high-performance. It has made all the difference.” He pursued a Masters of Science degree in Sport and Performance Psychology in 2021, and a newsletter he no...
2024-06-2032 minYorkton StoriesDr. Brass Academies: a turnaround for a struggling schoolIn the 2010s, Dr. Brass elementary school in Yorkton was down to under 90 students, and consideration was being given to closing the school. It is one of the older schools in Yorkton and parents in the area preferred to send their kids to other newer schools in the city. Today it is bursting at the seams, primarily due to a program that started in 2020 to attract students not only from within the school’s immediate area, but from other areas of Yorkton, and from nearby communities, including Kamsack, Melville and Saltcoats.The reason for the tur...
2024-05-3042 minYorkton StoriesAbout co-ops and CambodiaCambodia is a country of 17 million in southeast Asia, sandwiched between Vietnam to the east and Thailand to the west, with Laos bordering it to the north. Eighty percent of the population lives in rural areas, and 57 per cent of households in the country are involved in agricultural production, mainly rice. It is a poverty-stricken country.It's also a long way from Yorkton, but in 2010 and again in 2015 Warren Crossman, who farms in the Orcadia district and is a longtime activist in the co-operative movement in Saskatchewan, spent time there. In 2010 he was an advisor to a...
2024-05-0938 min
All i need is Techno! by dj Shabbydj Shabby - January 2024 Deep House Mix pt. 1 Booking and demo: yakovchenkoviacheslav@gmail.comLinks:Telegram;https://t.me/dj_shabbyMixCloud:https://www.mixcloud.com/dj-shabbyApple Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/ru/podcast/all-i-need-is-drum-and-bass-by-dj-shabby/id1455849580https://podcasts.apple.com/ru/podcast/all-i-need-is-techno-by-dj-shabby/id1646238011LinkTree:https://linktr.ee/djshabbyHelp me to buy a new laptop:https://send.monobank.ua/jar/3...
2024-05-041h 34Yorkton StoriesThe homeless: we don't know their storyIn Yorkton, where there are no homeless encampments, it would be tempting to think that it's one problem we don’t have to deal with. But that would be a mistake. Most of us may not see it every day, or at all, but homelessness happens in Yorkton just as it does in larger cities. The people who work with the homeless and deal with it on a daily basis are well aware of the issue, and have some very definite ideas about what could and should be done about it.We talked to Angela Che...
2024-04-1838 minYorkton StoriesA tale of two barbershopsBen and Tony's Barber Shop was an iconic institution in Yorkton from when the two shared a business starting in 1961 to Ben's retirement in 2008. Tony continued on his own until 2013. When he closed his shop, it provided the impetus, and inspiration, for Sean Craib-Petkau to get into barbering, and establish a men's barbershop that is reminiscent of earlier years. Two barbershops. Similar, but different.Speaking of different, yes, that is me doing the narrating. The voice is still in the process of recovering from a spring cold. I can accept that, but it would be good if...
2024-03-2845 minYorkton StoriesWhen the news was printed on paperThe history of newspapers in Yorkton now spans 132 years, starting with The Messenger, published in 1892, two years before Yorkton officially became a village. It was written by hand on notepaper, and reproduced by stencil. But we wonder, in 2024, if the writing is on the wall for newspapers printed on paper, as we explore the long history of this first, and for for several decades as Yorkton was established and grew, the only means of local mass communication.For me, this story is up close and personal, having been one of the founders and the editor o...
2024-03-0759 minYorkton StoriesRaising the curtain on community theatreFrom early travelling shows that entertained settlers in the Yorkton area, to occasional local little theatre productions, Open Lit nights at the old Yorkton Collegiate Institute starting in the post WWII years, elaborate musicals performed by students at Sacred Heart and Yorkton Regional High Schools starting in the 1960s, the founding of Paper Bag Players in 1984, Broadway musicals by Yorkton Community Theatre in the first decade of the 2000s, and the establishment of Free My Muse drama school for children and teens in 2005, Yorkton has long had live theatre, and still does. Attendance may, at times, go u...
2024-02-151h 02Yorkton StoriesClay Serby: Reflections on life in politicsClay Serby was first elected as the New Democrat member of the Saskatchewan Legislature for Yorkton in 1991. While he and Premier Roy Romanow had their differences initially, they became close friends, and Clay subsequently served in cabinet in high-profile portfolios – Health, Education, Highways, Municipal Affairs and Agriculture. It was under Romanow’s successor, Lorne Calvert, that Clay reached the highest level of any Yorkton MLA, deputy premier. He also continued in the Agriculture portfolio, and dealt with economic development and rural development specifically.It’s now just over 16 years since Clay left provincial politics, and governme...
2024-01-2453 min
Yorkton Stories4 for Fore!It is January in Yorkton, where a golf season of five months is considered a good year. We're still at least three months from teeing it up, but talk about the game seldom takes a break for golfers; it's a form of self-preservation to make it to the next season. We talked with four golfers at various stages of their game: one who played pro golf on the PGA and other tours in the 1990s, one who turned down a chance to play pro on the ladies tour, one who is now entering his third full year as a...
2024-01-101h 16Yorkton StoriesThe Balmoral Hotel... and those tunnelsThe Balmoral Hotel on Livingstone Street was a Yorkton landmark for almost 90 years. It was owned in the early 1900s by Harry Bronfman, whose family later owned the vast Seagram empire founded on the production and sale of liquor. Their booze business started primarily at the Balmoral during prohibition from 1915 to 1924, leading to stories about tunnels, Studebaker Whisky Six cars, a blending and bottling operation housed next to the Balmoral, and much more, as we talked about in the previous podcast. In 1950, the Balmoral was sold to Emanuel and Marj Balacko and friends from Winnipeg, with the B...
2023-12-1240 minYorkton StoriesYorkton, where Harry planted the money treeFrom 1928 to the early 2000s, the Seagram corporation was one of the giants in Canadian industry. Its primary business was making and selling alcoholic beverages – it owned such distinguished product lines as Crown Royal, Chivas Regal Scotch, Captain Morgan rum and many more, including the distribution rights to Absolut vodka.But that wasn’t the whole story, or the full extent of Seagram’s business assets, which spanned the globe and included investments in oil, fruit juice, entertainment and more. Not bad for a company that had its roots in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, specifically in the Balmora...
2023-11-2243 minYorkton StoriesTake what you need, leave what you canA community fridge opened in Yorkton in mid September 2023. It's a place where someone who has no food to eat, and at the time doesn’t have the means to buy it, can go anytime day or night, every day of the year, and find food for themselves and their family. It's also a place where those who would like to help people who have little or no food can drop off donations of food, also anytime.It's a mutual aid project operated by a working group of volunteers who want to help solve problems...
2023-11-0946 minYorkton StoriesWhat's in a (street) name?Most Yorkton streets are named for people who were part of our story going back to the founding of York Colony in 1882. Mayors, council members (called aldermen until about the 1980s, then councillors), prominent business owners and others who were deemed worthy of the honour have all lent their names to local roads. But that doesn't account for all streets and avenues, and some have an interesting (and sometimes surprising) history, as we explore in this podcast.Text us your comment
2023-10-2434 minYorkton StoriesA podcast about podcasts. And an ideaWe answer questions about podcasting for those who may be interested in contributing ideas, starting their own podcast, or who may just be curious about how this all works. After hosting a workshop for Yorkton Culture Days 2023, the idea of putting all that information out there for all to hear seemed like a good idea. And we conclude this podcast with another good idea -- a co-operative podcast umbrella or hub for Yorkton where we broaden our look at our community today, and places, people and events from the past.Text us your comment
2023-10-0928 minYorkton StoriesThe many sides of Stan ObodiacTo the people of Yorkton back in the late 1940s and 50s, a young man who was born and grew up here, Stan Obodiac, was a bit of a puzzle. He was a really good athlete, and a sometime-writer for the Yorkton Enterprise weekly newspaper. He played hockey, baseball, golf, softball, bowling and soccer. He wrote at least 10 books, several of them while living here as a young man, several of his later ones best sellers. But the local coffee row didn't quite know what to make of him -- did he have a real job? There is much...
2023-09-261h 00Yorkton StoriesGertrude Ingham: the quiet rebelAnna Gertrude Ingham of Yorkton was the subject of a cable television documentary called The Quiet Rebel in 1993, which told the story of why and how she developed a revolutionary program for teaching grade 1 kids to read. Why a rebel? Her methods did not always meet with the approval of education authorities, but she persisted because it worked, the kids liked it because it was fun, and the parent had high praise for it because many of their children in grade 1 were reading after only a few months of school. We talk with Shirley George, her daughter and collaborator...
2023-09-0547 minYorkton StoriesFood we loveOur years of reading about food from many cultures, collecting recipes from family, from our own time in the food business, and being graciously given recipes by other restauranteurs, allows us to explore some of them in this podcast, and tell you some of the stories behind our favourite foods. Questions or comments? Please get in touch. We'd love to hear from you.Text us your comment
2023-08-2323 min2023-08-1040 minYorkton StoriesThe flour mill: 125 years of historyIn 1898, J.J. Smith built a flour mill at the new site of Yorkton, which had moved south a few miles from the original York Colony settlement to be alongside the new rail line. The mill, built of brick where most mills of the era were wooden structures, went from a bustling village hub to a dilapidated eyesore by 2000, suitable only for the wrecker's ball, many thought. Today, 125 years later, the grounds and building are again a busy place for community activities, with more to come, due to the work of a non-profit historical society and many v...
2023-07-1044 minYorkton StoriesCurt Keilback talks to himself, and to usCurt Keilback started in radio in Yorkton, following on the heels of his father Jim who moved to Regina to continue an illustrious career that started in Manitoba and continued in Yorkton. After leaving Yorkton, Curt was the broadcast voice on both radio and television for the first edition of the Winnipeg Jets, and the Coyotes of Phoenix, Arizona, calling the play-by-play for 2,400 NHL games.Now retired and back in Winnipeg, Curt wrote a book about his hockey experiences, short vignettes where he remembers the hockey people and happenings spanning a 17-year career. The book is called...
2023-07-1042 minYorkton StoriesLife of Lai and laterThe Broadway Restaurant in Yorkton, also called the Broadway Café, was a longtime local institution serving Chinese and Canadian food. It was operated in the early days by Joe Mak, an immigrant from China who had come to Canada with his younger brother to work as cooks for the crews expanding the railroad westward. The younger brother had left his wife and three sons in China when he came to Canada. The middle son's name was Lai Foo.Lai Foo never really knew his father, who came home to China but died soon after. But he was a...
2023-06-2443 minYorkton StoriesCemeteries near a lake of good spirits... or the devil?Bill and Joyce Anaka spent part of the summer of 1996 creating an inventory of two dozen cemeteries in the RM of Good Lake, part of a project sponsored that year by the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society.It was familiar territory for both of them, having grown up near the south end of the lake. Joyce's grandfather first came there in the 1880s because of the good grazing land, and the Gunn family became well-known to the area, including Yorkton, for Gunn's Beach, and later Gunn's store, which provided goods not only for the local rural residents and nearby...
2023-06-1032 min
Yorkton StoriesTwo generations, two dome houses (and a potato farm)Fifty years ago, Elwyn Vermette with help from a lot of friends built a geodesic dome house just south of Yorkton along Highway 9. About 20 years ago his daughter Tonia, with Elwyn's guidance and assistance, built a monolithic dome house close by. This is the story of those two projects which resulted in two one-of-a-kind houses that stand alongside a seed potato farm which Elwyn also started.You can hear this podcast and see photo galleries and links related to this topic at www.yorktonstories.ca.Text us your comment
2023-05-2446 min
CRUZ FMYorkton Sports Hall of Fame 2022 InductionsAvery & Reader are joined by Dick DeRyk of the Yorkton Sports Hall of Fame to discuss the special evening they have planned for Saturday, September 24 to welcome the newest inductees into Hall of Fame and Museum.
2022-09-1506 min