Larry Delaney is a builder, but don’t think bricks and mortar house construction. For over 32 years, the long-time New Edinburgh resident has been instrumental in helping to “build” the careers of hundreds of Canadian country musicians as the former editor/publisher of Country Music News . Launched on a shoestring budget (with local musician Neville Wells) in 1980, the CMM was the only country music publication with a national focus, ceasing publication in 2012. Delaney’s incalculable contribution to the country music industry was most recently recognized in May 2022 when he was awarded the “Impact Award” from the Country Music Association of Ontario as a “Builder”.

But that represents only a fraction of the numerous accolades he’s acquired over the years. Larry is an 11-time recipient of the CCMA’s Country Music Person of the Year award, an inductee into the Canadian County Music Hall of Fame in 1989, and the Hall of Honour in 1996. For a guy who never played an instrument, (“other than a turntable” he jokes), these are impressive accomplishments for the long-time resident of New Edinburgh.

Enjoy this episode of the HSO/Rogers TV series Time Travelling with Steve Rennie - Play Ball! The History of Baseball in Early Ottawa.

Enjoy this episode of the HSO/Rogers TV series Time Travelling with Glenn Crawford - The History of Ottawa’s 2SLGBTQ+ Community.

Many thanks to CTV Ottawa and CFRA iHeart radio for highlighting our bicentennial celebrations planned for 2026.

Watch HSO spokesperson Ben Weiss on CTV Ottawa Morning discuss the Historical Society's bicentennial plans. And stay tuned to the end of the clip to see a 100-year old relic from the centennial celebrations in 1926 to compare civic festivities of yesteryear!  Link to Ottawa turns 200 this year video. 

Check out our Bytown 200 story collection: www.historicalsocietyottawa.ca/resources/bytown-200

Dave Watts has had a long career on the Ottawa radio scene. In addition to being an on-air announcer, his career at CFRA included Music Director (CFRA) and Assistant to the Program Director (1976-1989) and Promotion Director (CFRA, CFMO and later KOOL FM).1989 to 1996.

In January 2025, John Leefe of the HSO’s Memory Project interviewed Dave about his career at CFRA, with a focus on the various well-known personalities he worked with and his observations on the transformations in the radio industry over the past 60 years. Below is an edited transcript of the interview.

1. How did your involvement in Ottawa radio begin?

To go right back to the beginning, in the fall of 1963 we had a high school project in our business class to find a company and learn about it to do a report. So I thought, I like radio and CFRA is the station I listen to, so I’ll write to them. I explained the project in a letter to the managers and they invited me down for a tour of the station. It was a great idea so I went down with a buddy of mine and in that tour, we met Gord Atkinson, who was probably my earliest connection to the radio station. Just before he was to go on air with his “Showbill” program that afternoon, we chatted a bit and subsequently stayed in touch from that point forward. In the coming days Gord invited me to join him on his “Campus Club” show to report on the latest Ottawa high school activities.

When we acknowledge that, here in the Ottawa Valley, we are on the “unceded” and “unsurrendered” land of the Anishinaabe Algonquin people, what does that really mean?

A preliminary understanding of the history behind the land claims of the Anishinaabe Algonquin peopleis offered in a “Report on the Algonquins of Golden Lake Claim” prepared for the Ontario Native Affairs Secretariat in 1993.

The following is the text of the report’s “Executive Summary”. 

Here is a link to the full report, residing on the Government of Canada website: https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2018/aanc-inac/R32-492-1993-1-eng.pdf.

This report was authored by Joan Holmes & Associates, Inc. Joan Holmes has a Master’s Degree in Northern and Native Issues from the Institute of Indigenous and Canadian Studies at Carleton University (1983) and over the past 40 years has been widely called upon as an expert in the field of Indigenous land claims and litigation.

REPORT ON THE ALGONQUINS OF GOLDEN LAKE CLAIM

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Prepared by Joan Holmes & Associates, Inc. for Ontario Native Affairs Secretariat October 30, 1993

William Pittman Lett, who was 13 years old when the Rideau Canal opened, went on to witness and, through his poetry, chronicle the evolution of rough and tumble Bytown into the capital of a nation.

Now, for the first time ever, HSO member Bryan D. Cook’s biography of William Pittman Lett can be accessed digitally: Introducing William Pitman Lett : Ottawa's First City Clerk and Bard 1819-1892 along with Lett’s prolific collection of poetry spanning most of the nineteenth century, including Lett’s iconic “Recollections of Bytown and Its Old Inhabitants”.

Resources about Bytown and the Rideau Canal

It is amazing what we can discover in our many Archives about Bytown and the Rideau Valley as they were before 1855. Archivists Signe Jeppesen (City of Ottawa) and Pam Cooper (Ontario Ancestors) have worked hard to provide selected listings of their holdings which you can explore in the documents linked below.

The City of Ottawa Archives houses the collections of the City of Ottawa and the Historical Society of Ottawa.

Ontario Ancestors of the Ontario Genealogical Society has some great ancestral and geographical holdings, with much of relevance housed in the same building as the City of Ottawa Archives, so you can explore both on either a single trip.

The Ontario Archives houses deep collections of texts, library and art including gems such as the Thomas Burrowes sketch above.

The Ottawa Public Library and its Ottawa Reading Room have long been invaluable to researchers of Bytown and the Rideau Valley with many out-of-print holdings to delve into.

We at the Historical Society of Ottawa wish you good luck in your sleuthing!

How To Search the Archives

The City of Ottawa Archives (COA)

Identify the titles and call number (s) from this Bytown 200 reading list compiled by the City of Ottawa Archives.

Telephone 613-580-2857 to have the relevant file boxes pulled to be viewed in the reference room at 100 Tallwood Dr., Nepean Ontario K2G 4R7.

The Historical Society Of Ottawa (HSO)

For the Historical Society of Ottawa pamphlets and much more, see the following links:

• Bytown Pamphlets
• Ottawa Stories
• Bicentennial Storytelling Collection

Ontario Ancestors: The Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS)

Identify the titles and call number (s) from this Bytown 200 and the Rideau Canal selected resources in the OGS Ottawa Branch library.

Telephone 613-580-2857 to have the relevant file boxes pulled to be viewed in the reference room at 100 Tallwood Dr., Nepean Ontario K2G 4R7.

The Archives of Ontario (AO)

Go to this link to Search the Archives of Ontario.

Select which Collection to Search (All, Art, Archival, Library, Immigration, Legal Case). Try and be as specific as possible before broadening your search.

Follow instructions to download files to your computer or to view them (whichever is available) in the reading room at 134 Ian MacDonald Blvd, Toronto, Ontario M7A 2C5.

The Ottawa Public Library

Go to the Ottawa Public Library website  and search the catalogue on that page. Try to be as specific as possible before broadening your search. The results will show whether the file/book is available for inter-library loan or for in-house reading only at 120 Metcalfe St, Ottawa, ON K1P 5M2.

Bytown’s taverns were notoriously abundant in number – but the Chateau Lafayette (“The Laff”) boasts the distinction of being the only of those Bytown era drinking houses to still remain in operation today. Founded in 1849 as “Grant’s Hotel”, Reformers took refuge inside during Bytown’s infamous Stony Monday Riot of that year.

Ashley Newall takes us back to when the tavern known today as the Chateau Lafayette was in the “thick of things” when our city was known as “brawling, rioting, lusting, wenching Bytown”.

Ashley Newall is an Ottawa singer-songwriter-musician and history writer, whose stories can be found his Capital History (CapHistOttawa) social media pages, his ashleynewall.ca website and on Apt613.ca. 

Chateau Lafayette Pre-History, Part 1: 1849-1863

Enjoy this episode of the HSO/Rogers TV series Time Travelling with Michael McBane: John Egan: Pine & Politics in the Ottawa Valley.