Does Anyone Know Where Saskatchewan Is?

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Category: Reader Feedback Reader Feedback
Created: 12 December 2021 12 December 2021

To Doug Schneider,

I’m a longtime reader and a big-time fan. I just watched your recent video on the Bowers & Wilkins 805 D4 loudspeaker and I couldn’t help but notice the shirt you were wearing; I had to reach out. I’ve lived in Saskatchewan my whole life and I always thought the rest of the world didn’t know we existed. Were you here to visit? If so, where did you go?

Cheers,
[Name withheld upon request]


Hello, fellow Saskatchewanian,

I recently bought that Saskatchewan T-shirt at a Sunrise Records location in Ottawa, Canada—the city where I live. I knew that if I wore it in a video, it would only be a matter of time before someone from Saskatchewan would write in—and it only took about a day before your email arrived.

I agree that most people probably won’t know where Saskatchewan is—they might not even know what it is. But I do know, because I lived in a couple of different cities in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan over a span of 12 years as I was growing up. That was because my father’s job got him transferred around the country fairly often.

I lived in Regina for the first four years, from age six to ten. The next four years were spent in Moose Jaw, a city with a strange name that I’m sure very few people have heard of (although it’s gained some fame because of the mysterious tunnels under the city that may have been used by Prohibition-era gangster Al Capone). My final four years in Saskatchewan, from age 14 to 18, were spent back in Regina. From there, I moved to Calgary, Alberta, where I lived until I was 30. Finally, I ended up here in Ottawa.

When you heard that I got started in audio in 1980, that was when I was in Regina for the second time. I bought my first stereo at Custom Stereo, which was an amazing place that occupied all three floors of an older three-story bank building. From what I recall, the first floor of the building had most of the home hi-fi equipment, two listening rooms, and, where the bank’s old vault used to be, the car-audio gear. The second floor had higher-end equipment, one larger listening room, and a Bang & Olufsen display. The top floor had a recording studio. It was one of the best stereo stores I’ve been to, but from what I understand, it went out of business sometime in the 1980s, though I’m not sure exactly when or why.

All in all, those were good memories, so that’s the main reason I picked out the shirt and wore it for the video.

Doug Schneider