Early Growth and Regulation

     As in other countries, wireless telegraphy and telephony (radio) developed in Canada in the early 20th century as an experimental technology for ship-to-shore and other point-to­-point communications. Guglielmo Marconi's first wireless transmission across the Atlantic Ocean was received in St. John's, Newfoundland, in late 1901. The first broadcast of music by wireless was originated by Canadian-born Reginald Fessenden, an employee of the National Electric Signalling Company, from Brant Rock, Massachusetts, in December 1906. As these milestones indicate, the evolution of radio in Canada was part of an international undertaking, instituted mainly by electrical companies, that progressed rapidly in the first two decades of the 20th century. By the beginning of World War I, there were also in Canada, as in other countries, a number of amateurs ("hams"), mainly boys and young men, experimenting with home-built crystal sets and transmitters. During the war, the technology was further developed for military purposes, and many soldiers and aviators, in Canada as elsewhere, learned how to use radio equipment.

     The first broadcast in Canada, on 20 May 1920, was an experiment conducted by the Marconi Company of Canada, sending a concert by a soprano soloist from the company's Montreal laboratory to a listening audience of distinguished members of the Royal Society of Canada over 100 miles away in Ottawa. Subsequently, Marconi engineers demonstrated their equipment at exhibitions and trade shows, and by the winter of 1920-21, the company was broadcasting two hours a week of musical programming under their experimental license XWA (later CFCF) Montreal. As interest mounted and other companies began marketing their radio equipment this way, more experimental licenses were issued, until in April 1922 the federal government began licensing stations dedicated specifically to private commercial broadcasting.

     Canadian radio was regulated from 1905 by the Radio Branch of the Department of Marine and Fisheries, for reasons of national security and to prevent interference between transmitters. Once broadcasting began, the Branch's policy was to encourage private enterprises to build radio stations, in the belief that this was the only way to provide service quickly to Canada's large territory and scattered population. Moreover, as in the United States, other predecessor technologies such as the telegraph, telephone, and undersea cable systems were privately owned. Canada thus opted for competition in radio development, choosing not to follow the British model of monopoly.

     About 50 radio stations were set up in Canada in the 1920s, mainly by electrical companies, newspapers, and retailers. Most of the stations were small and struggled to survive on the still-meager income from advertising (which was allowed after 1923). Two national networks created in the late 1920s, one operated by the government-owned Canadian National Railways and the other privately owned (the Trans-Canada Broadcasting Company), also struggled to make a go of providing service to such a far-flung territory.

     The financial difficulties of the early broadcasters were exacerbated by the fact that Canada lacked large electrical manufacturing companies; its electrical industry since the late 19th century had largely been a branch-plant operation of American firms. Companies such as General Electric and Westinghouse set up factories in Canada to circumvent Canadian tariff walls, but they did not set up radio stations because Canadians could hear their powerful flagship stations in the northern United States. As Canadian listeners became more demanding of high-quality programming (partly because of their familiarity with American offerings), Canadian stations fell further behind in their ability to offer comparable service profitably.

     By 1931 approximately one in three Canadian homes had radio receivers. Radio ownership tended to cluster in cities and in the more prosperous areas. The largely French-speaking province of Quebec lagged in radio ownership, partly because of poverty but more importantly because there were few French-language stations of quality (the exception being CKAC Montreal, owned by La Presse newspaper). Although musical programs from English-language and American stations held some appeal, the reluctance of the Quebecois to purchase radios is understandable from this perspective.

     Like broadcasting stations, radio receivers were also licensed by the Radio Branch. Owners were required to purchase a license annually, the cost of which ranged from $1 in the early years to $2.50 in the 1940s. This policy, instituted to enable officials to track down sets causing interference, also provided the Radio Branch with most of its income. Many radio owners evaded paying the license fee, however, complaining that it was unfair that they had to pay this tariff when their American neighbors got their radio "free."

Creating a Public Broadcasting Body

      By 1930 four Canadian stations had become affiliates of the U.S. networks, because affiliation provided them with popular programs that attracted lucrative advertising. This situation raised alarm bells in some nationalist cultural and political circles in Canada. Although Canadians have for the most part accepted the liberal and free-speech assumptions on which private-enterprise media ownership is based, by the end of the 1920s the case of radio began to be considered unique. Not only did radio penetrate into homes, but its coverage, simultaneity, and emotional impact offered important opportunities for nation building.

     The worries of the English-Canadian cultural nationalists were given an airing when in 1928 the Liberal government of Mackenzie King set up a Royal Commission on Broadcasting headed by retired banker Sir John Aird. Although the origins of the Commission lay in a controversy over the nonrenewal of the licenses of some religious stations owned by the Jeho­vah's Witnesses, its deliberations opened up for the public the debate about the "Canadianness" of radio. The Aird Commis­sion's principal recommendation was that all broadcasting stations in Canada should come under the ownership of the federal government. This idea of course met with opposition from many of the private station owners, but they did admit to wanting the government to subsidize their operations, either by supplying them with programs or by financing network hookups.

     Although the recommendations of many Canadian Royal Commissions languish unfulfilled, in this case intense lobbying by a group of cultural activists called the Canadian Radio League kept the issue of public radio alive. The two young leaders of the Radio League, Alan Plaunt and Graham Spry, organized individuals and voluntary associations across the country to support the concept of a Canadian radio network that would be national, noncommercial, and public service­ oriented. In Spry's famous phrase, Canada's choice lay between "the State and the United States." Finally, in 19 32 the government of Conservative Prime Minister R.B. Bennett acceded to the argument that Canadian radio must not be allowed to fall into American hands, as it was likely to do if it remained underfinanced by Canadian private enterprise. The Bennett government passed the Radio Broadcasting Act establishing the government-owned Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC) in May 1932. The Act was a compromise: although the CRBC was to be the government broadcasting body, it would not be a monopoly. Private stations would continue to exist, at least in the medium term. Nor would the CRBC be completely noncommercial; to supplement its income and provide outlets for Canadian businesses, a certain amount of advertising was allowed on local CRBC stations.

     The CRBC had two main functions. First, it was a network (the only national network) financed by the fees collected from radio owners, providing programming in both English and French and network connections for a few government-owned and many affiliated private stations from coast to coast. (Affiliated stations either reserved some of their time for CRBC programs or aired them on a discretionary ad hoc basis. This arrangement provided inexpensive programming for needy private stations and coverage for the CRBC.) Second, the CRBC became the regulatory body for all Canadian broadcasters.

     In its brief existence, the CRBC ran into many organizational, financial, and political problems. But it was successful enough in regulating and enhancing the national distribution of Canadian programming that in 1936, rather than killing it, the newly elected Liberal government of Mackenzie King replaced it with a structurally sounder successor, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). The CBC remains Canada's public broadcaster, still operating alongside a strong private sector.

     Although Canadian radio began exclusively in the private sector, the system set up in 1932, which continues to this day, is a mixed public/private one. Through the affiliate system, the public and private elements have been intertwined and interdependent. They have also, inevitably perhaps, been competitors, both for advertising dollars and for audiences.

The Balance Shifts

     Just before World War II, an internal reorganization of the CBC separated the French and English language services, and the Societe Radio-Canada grew alongside the English language network, providing significant indigenous French-language programming to Quebec and, to some extent, to French speakers outside Quebec. During the war, both the CBC and the private broadcasters came into their own, and receiving set ownership became almost universal. The CBC established a news service in 1941 that played a very important role in informing Canadians about the war effort; the CBC also established many successful and celebrated talks, drama, and musical programs. Network advertising time on the CBC (about 15 percent of its income came from advertising) was in such demand that the Corporation set up a second national English­ language network in 1944.

     Meanwhile, as advertising income enriched the private broadcasters, especially in large cities such as Toronto, Mont­ real, and Vancouver, they became more aggressive in seeking increases in power and better frequencies and began to chal­lenge the CBC's dual role as their competitor and regulator. By 1948 total operating revenues of the private stations were twice those of the CBC. As of 1956 there were 20 CBC-owned and -operated stations in Canada, almost 100 privately owned stations affiliated with the CBC, and another 70 private independent (nonaffiliated) stations, the latter group including some of the wealthiest and most powerful stations in the country.

     In 1949 the federal government appointed a Royal Commission (known as the Massey Commission after its chairman, Vincent Massey) to examine the state of Canadian cultural and intellectual life. Broadcasting was one of the Commission's major focuses, especially given the imminent arrival of television. The commissioners concluded that the CBC played an essential role in Canadian society, that it needed greater financial support, and that it should be given priority jurisdiction over the development of television in Canada. However, the 1950s brought changes that in the end moved Canadian broadcasting in almost the opposite direction. The Conservative government that was elected in the late 1950s, much less sympathetic to the CBC than previous Liberal administrations had been, acceded to various long-standing demands of the private broadcasters, most importantly the ending of the CBC's regulatory authority in favor of an independent body, first the Board of Broadcast Governors and now the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications· Commission (CRTC). The "balance" built into the mixed broadcasting system in the early 1930s, a balance that gave predominance to the CBC, began to shift toward the private broadcasters, and the CBC gradually became a smaller player in the system. Today CBC radio attracts only ro percent of the listening audience.

     During the 1950s, as television wooed away sponsors and programs, all of Canadian radio changed dramatically. As in the United States, the principal dramas, comedies, and variety shows moved to television, and radio quickly lost much of its evening audience. Radio stations changed their formats, first to music and then in some cases to talk, with prime time becoming the drive times in the morning and late afternoon.

     Historically, both private and public radio in Canada have aired a mixture of Canadian and American material. Responding to listener demand, popular American shows such as Fibber McGee and Molly were picked up from the U.S. networks and broadcast across Canada on the CBC national network in the late 1930s and 1940s. Much of the popular music on Canadian stations has been American, although content rules introduced in the 1970s have increased the percentage of Canadian music. Today, a growing amount of other kinds of American content is heard on Canadian private radio, especially syndicated talk shows. CBC radio's content is, on the other hand, mostly Canadian in origin.

     In the early 1950s the government decided to cancel the unpopular receiving-license fee, partly because enforcement for television set owners was deemed too difficult. The early years of television development by the CBC were financed by a special tax on the purchase of TV sets, but subsequently the CBC has been dependent on annual parliamentary grants supplemented by advertising income from the TV network (CBC radio has been commercial-free since 1975). This dependence has made the public broadcaster peculiarly vulnerable to political criticism and to the effects of budgetary ups and downs. In the 1990s the budget for the radio service of the CBC and Radio-Canada has been slashed dramatically.

     Meanwhile, private radio stations, especially AM stations, have been exposed to economic fluctuations as well. The competition for advertising dollars has been intense, and many stations have experimented with innumerable format changes in desperate survival ploys. In the late 1990s the CRTC eased some ownership and advertising rules and allowed more private station networks in order to enable private stations to regain their profitability.

     Probably the most significant factor in explaining the development of Canadian radio is the country's proximity to the United States, the world leader in broadcasting technology and programming. There is little doubt, for example, that the principal motive for the creation of the public broadcaster in the 1930s was to provide an alternative to the previously purely private commercial broadcasting system that was destined for financial reasons to become increasingly American owned and Americanized. Similarly, whether listening directly to United States stations beaming across the border or to American network programs picked up for transmission by Canadian outlets, Canadian audiences have always been captivated by American radio. Canadian governments would not-indeed could not-prevent Canadians from listening to their favorite American shows. They have, however, attempted various positive measures, such as the creation of the CRBC/CBC and the introduction of content regulations, to make room for some Canadian programming on Canada's airwaves. Thus, although the historical development of Canadian radio paralleled and imitated that of the United States in many ways, it also possessed a number of unique features, the most important of which has been the nationalistically inspired desire to use the medium of radio to foster Canadian cultural identity, and the consequent activism of the federal government in the radio field. Whether this unique mixed system can prevail in a climate of government retreat and commercialized globalization remains a key question for the future.