Radio pioneer.
Born at Elgin, Ontario on 14 May 1897, son of Rev. George Fletcher Salton and Annie Madeline Gordon (1854-1943), he came to western Canada when his father was posted to a church at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. His family moved to Winnipeg in 1913 where he attended Wesley College and was first exposed to amateur radio. In the closing days of the First World War, he joined the Royal Canadian Navy as a wireless operator then returned to Winnipeg and his education, receiving the Gold Medal in the Arts upon graduation.
After being named Radio License Inspector for western Canada, he formed the Salton-Foster Radio Engineering Limited with another amateur radio colleague named Ralph Foster. He established Winnipeg’s first radio station, with the call letters CKCZ, in his parents’ home at 1164 Grosvenor Avenue. He later rigged a radio transmitter in an automobile and drove around the city to make the first transmission from a moving vehicle. He set up a radio department for the T. Eaton Company in Winnipeg and was later transferred to Toronto, where he set up radio and television sales for stores across the country. On 8 July 1933, he married Florence Annie Verrinder (1904-1997) at Winnipeg and they had one son, Roger Lynn Salton (1938-1944). They lived at 124 Grenfell Boulevard, Tuxedo until their move to Toronto.
He died suddenly at the St. Bonface Hospital on 24 August 1956 and was buried in the Elmwood Cemetery.
See also:
Extra! Extra! Hear All About It! by Garry Moir
Manitoba 150 in the Winnipeg Free Press, 16 May 2020
Ontario birth registration, Ancestry.
1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
Marriage registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“Mrs. G. F. Salton dies at the age of 89,” Winnipeg Free Press, 7 December 1943, page 2.
Obituary [Roger L. Salton], Winnipeg Tribune, 19 August 1944, page 12.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 27 August 1956, page 22.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Garry Moir.
Page revised: 16 May 2020
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