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Broadcaster

Broadcasting pioneer Fred Arenburg dead at 79

4/24/2003

Bridgewater, N.S. - One of the pioneers in Maritime broadcasting has passed away. Fred Arenburg was 79 when he passed away on Monday in the South Shore Regional Hospital in Bridgewater.

Born in Broad Cove, he started his media career when he was 16 by delivering the Chronicle Herald on his bicycle. After returning from overseas, he was employeed by the Herald's South Shore bureau and worked with CKBW as a part-time announced when the station went on the air in 1948. He left to work at CHNS in Halifax where he started the province's first radio talk show. In 1970 he went to Amherst where he became one of the owners of CKDH.

In 1975, the station won the Canadian Association of Broadcaster's Station of the Year Award and its news department won a Dan McArthur Award for Excellence in Radio News from the Radio and Television News Directors Association of Canada. The Town of Springhill paid tribute to him by presenting him with an Honorary Citizenship Award. Shortly following his retirement, the Amherst Rotary Club honored him with a Testimonial Dinner. On this occasion he was acknowledged with many accolades from his peers, presented with plaques by the town and municipal council and named a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International. Until recently, he operated Arenburg's Bed and Breakfast, in a home and cottage that was his boyhood residence.

He is survived by his daughters, Linda (Bob Veniott), Amherst; Susan (Lee Fleming), Pugwash; son, David (Elizabeth), Yarmouth; grandchildren, Michael, Mark, Mia, Margaret, and Hilary. He is also survived by his aunt, Ida Jane Himmelman, Broad Cove; a lifelong friend considered a sister, Belle Bush, Petite Riviere.

Online condolences to the family at www.sweenysfuneralhome.com .

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