The Origin of Twinning

Twinning really started in 1965 when Mr. Philip Atteck, a Trinidadian, while on a tourist promotional tour for Air Canada, was told of a Canadian radio station in a city called St. Catharines. This station, which operated on a frequency of 610 AM, was also known as CKTB Radio.

Mr. Larry Heywood, (the Voice of One) former manager of 610 AM radio in Port of Spain then living in Toronto, offered to drive Philip Atteck the 70 miles south of Toronto (and only a few minutes from Niagara Falls) to meet the folks at CKTB Radio in St. Catharines. It was soon evident that there was a group of people at CKTB, from the managing director right down to the staff, who were interested and friendly, and very keen to learn about Trinidad.

As a result of the meeting, Bill Burgoyne, the owner of CKTB radio and the St. Catharines Standard newspaper, invited Philip Atteck to return to St. Catharines two weeks later at which time a luncheon was arranged to enable him to address prominent members of the community.

Present at this meeting were the Mayor, two city councilors, representatives of the press, radio station, police and fire departments, Chamber of Commerce, several service clubs, and many local businesses. Philip Atteck’s informative talk about Trinidad & Tobago was very well received. It created such interest that he was invited to tour the city and its environment. It soon became apparent to Philip Atteck that there were many similarities between the two cities of St. Catharines and Port of Spain, especially the sincere warmth and friendliness of the people.

Both cities had a population of about 120,000, both had a university, both were surrounded by agriculture, both had radio stations operating on the same frequency, both had active chapters from the same service clubs, both were port cities and had many other similarities.

The idea to twin the two cities was born.