The situation is further complicated in Canada by a broadcasting system that includes four public networks (all operated by rhe Canadian Broadcasting Corporation [CBC] and some 700 private radio stations. Although rhe CBC is committed, in its mandate and ongoing programming strategies, to the promotion of Canadian culture, music occu·pies a much less important place within its schedule than is the case for private broadcasters. Indeed, the prominence accorded to such commercially marginal forms as classical, jazz, and blues music within the programming of the CBC has, throughout much of its history, reduced its usefulness to a domestic recording industry that is oriented toward rock and other commercial forms. Although private radio has a much greater impact on the dissemination of music, it has no commitment or stimulating rhe sales of Canadian recordings beyond those measures imposed upon the industry by government regulators (discussed later).

Throughout most of the 20th century, the growth of the private radio industry in Canada has been intimately bound up with developments occurring in the United States. From the 1920s through the 1940s, connections between radio in the two countries were formal, as the most important English Canadian private radio stations (such as CFCF in Monrreal and CFRB in Toronto) affiliated themselves with the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) or the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and carried their programming. Although French­ language radio, during this same period, broadcast concerts by francophone folk singers or country musicians (such as La Bolduc),  music programming  on  English-language radio included large numbers of music and variety shows originating in the United States. In the 1950s, Canadian radio program­ ming was transformed along lines similar to those observable in the United States, away from network-based block programming and toward local station formats based on recorded music and on-air announcers. Although this development ended the direct affiliation of Canadian radio stations with U.S. networks, it also led to their adoption of music programming formats that were often identical to those developed in rhe United States and to playlists dominated by music from elsewhere.

In the 1960s private radio broadcasting in Canada came under increased criticism as musical performers and owners of Canadian-based recording companies blamed radio for the flight of Canadian musicians to the United States. Informal surveys made public during that decade showed alarmingly low levels of Canadian recordings on the playlists of Canadian radio stations. Among rhe journalists urging the Canadian government to take action to support Canadian music was Walter Greely, editor of rhe music industry trade magazine RPM, who pushed for rhe establishment of Canadian quotas for radio station playlists. Although many radio stations undertook voluntary campaigns to promote Canadian music during the late 1960s and early 1970s, the pressure to enact regulations to support a domestic recording industry mounted.

When implemented in 1971 by the Canadian Radio and Television Commission, Canadian content regulations required of radio stations that a significant percentage of their musical selections be Canadian. The Canadian character of recordings is determined by a point system, which assigns up ro four points to selections depending on whether the artist, music composer, lyricist, or producer is Canadian. To qualify under Canadian content regulations, a musical selection must be accredited two points. Although the percentages of Canadian music programming required of broadcasters have increased several times since 1971 (by 1999 the required level for commercial broadcasters was 35 percent), these regulations have generated ongoing controversy over their fairness and effectiveness. For example, although certain recordings by the Canadian artist Bryan Adams have been disqualified (because their producer and composer or lyricist were not Canadian), others, such as U.S. singer Jennifer Warnes' renditions of Leonard Cohen compositions, have been deemed to have Canadian content (because rhe lyrics and music were by Cohen, a Canadian.) To many observers, this seems an unjust fixation on technical criteria at the expense of the obviously greater "Canadian" quality of one national celebrity over another.

Throughout the 1970s, radio stations complained that a shortage of high-quality Canadian recordings limited their ability to meet these quotas while maintaining the interest of listeners. Nevertheless, this same period was one that saw a significant growth in the Canadian-owned sector of the domestic recording industry, as important record companies (such as Attic and Anthem) produced hit recordings and developed back catalogs. Although a causal link between radio quotas and the growth of a domestic recording industry has never been demonstrated in convincing statistical fashion, both are seen as having laid the groundwork for the enormous world­ wide success of Canadian music in the 1990s, when Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Bryan Adams, and Alanis Morissette became among the world's best-selling recording artists.

As in the United States, relationships between the recording and radio industries have been marked by tension over conflicting objectives. Whereas record companies typically wish for radio stations to play new, youth-oriented music, Canadian radio stations since the 1970s have moved away from such music in an effort to reach older, more affluent audiences. A 1998 survey by Statistics Canada suggested that the most popular format on Canadian private radio stations was adult contemporary (at 25 percent of the total audience), followed by oldies, all-talk, and country formats, at approximately 12 percent each. Indeed, adult contemporary is even more popular in the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec, where record companies often complain that the only forms of French-language music likely to receive airplay are those involving solo vocalists. Although long-term analyses of the Quebec music industries have stressed the need to develop a greater variety of musical genres in order to ensure that younger generations maintain an interest in francophone music, the homogeneity of radio formats in the province is seen as a significant barrier to such variety.

More specific tensions between the radio and recording industries have to do with the effects of repeated airplay on the sales of records. Here, there are significant differences between language groups. French-language record companies frequently complain that their recordings are overexposed on radio stations, played in high rotations that dissuade potential buyers from purchasing them. This overexposure is the result of government regulations that insist on a high level of French­ language content for stations designated as French, and of audience tastes that favor locally produced French-language music over music from France or other francophone companies. English-language record companies, in contrast, complain about low levels of rotation for new recordings, making it difficult for songs to "take off" and acquire hit status.

Because the allocation of frequencies to new radio stations in Canada is determined by a federal regulatory agency, following competitive public hearings, public debate over the musical needs of particular communities is often heated. A well-known (and unsuccessful) attempt to license a A·dance music station in Toronto, for example, involved lobbying on the part of African-Canadian community groups, associations of nightclub disc jockeys, and small record companies. Government regulators awarded the frequency to those proposing a country music format, citing the greater commercial viability of a country station and responding to a well-organized campaign on the part of the local country music industry. Nevertheless, radio stations, once licensed for a particular format, may usually shift formats in response to changing market conditions with relative ease. Since the late 1990s, the Toronto area has had dance-oriented formats as a result of strategic format changes by stations licensed for other purposes. This tension between a public service conception of radio broadcasting and market competition will likely become more acute with the introduction of digital radio. As radio-based music services become more specialized, it is difficult to imagine how tormats devoted to tightly defined niches (such as Broadway musicals or cool jazz) will meet Canadian content quotas or other regulatory objectives intended to support local music industries.