Orillia will be front and centre when the new season of a popular History Channel show premieres next month.
Season three of Salvage Kings will once again follow Orillia-based salvage expert Ted Finch, who owns and operates his business Flash Back Salvage out of Orillia’s former train station at 150 Front St. S.
For 30 years, Finch has made a living out of salvaging antiques while discovering and restoring rare and unique objects of all kinds from all over North America.
Before an old building is demolished, the Mississauga native goes into the aged structures to save as many items as possible from going into the landfill. Finch is recognized around the world as being the leader in his field.
“Since I was a little kid, I’ve been into this,” he said. “My parents were both farmers, so we saved everything. If I wanted to do something with my bicycle, I would take it apart, find another one in the garbage, drag it home, then patch it together.”
While dealing with set and prop buyers a few years ago, Finch was approached about being featured in a television show for the History Channel.
“I said 'Sure, you can follow me along if you can keep up,'” he quipped.
Salvage Kings follows Finch as he hunts for treasures. Then, he brings the items back to his Orillia shop and, ultimately, looks to find a buyer.
“I find the perfect home for stuff,” he said. “I like to find somebody who is as passionate as I am about an item and will pass it forward.”
Finch, 60, says Orillia is the perfect spot for his business and the ideal setting for his show.
“It’s the corridor between Barrie and the Muskoka area,” he said. “I’m back and forth from this area a lot, I do a lot of jobs here, so when I saw the posting for the train station, I thought this is it.”
Finch says the show features a lot of aerial shots of Orillia.
“The little town of Orillia has been shown all over the world,” he said. “I get people from all over the world saying they are going to come to visit.”
Finch says it “boggles his mind” that Salvage Kings has been such a success that it is on to its third season.
“I get messages from people who are from all over the world,” he said. “A lot of them are great and say thank you for saving history, and I learned something from you.”
While Finch says he can’t give away many secrets from what viewers will see in the new season, he says the first episode features a couple of 1930s race cars.
“These ones were pretty well ready to go,” he said. “It took us a bit of work to get them going, but they were really fun. I wish I would have kept them.”
The new season of Salvage Kings premieres on March 1 at 9 p.m. on the History Channel and StackTV.
