History of broadcasting in Canada

From the late 1890s until 1913 there were few regulations covering radio communication in Canada. The earliest stations were only capable of transmitting Morse code; despite this limitation as early as May 1907 the Marconi station at Camperdown, Nova Scotia began broadcasting time signals on a regular schedule.[3]

The Radiotelegraph Act of June 6, 1913 established general Canadian policies for radio communication, then commonly known as "wireless telegraphy". Similar to the law in force in Britain, this act required that operation of "any radiotelegraph apparatus" required a licence, issued by the Minister of the Naval Service.[4] This included members of the general public who only possessed a radio receiver and were not making transmissions, who were required to hold an "Amateur Experimental Station" licence,[5] as well as pass the exam needed to receive an "Amateur Experimental Certificate of Proficiency", which required the ability to send and receive Morse code at five words a minute.[6] (This policy contrasted with the United States, which only required licenses for operating transmitters, and had no restrictions or taxes on individuals only using receivers).

With its entrance into World War I in August 1914, Canada generally banned the civilian use of radio receivers and transmitters. This restriction remained in force until 1 May 1919.[7] Radio regulation remained under the oversight of the Department of Naval Service until July 1, 1922, when it was transferred to civilian control under the Department of Marine and Fisheries.[8]

During World War I, advances in vacuum tube technology made audio transmissions practical. There was no formal category of radio stations providing entertainment broadcasts intended for the general public until April 1922, so the earliest Canadian stations making broadcasts operated under a mixture of Experimental, Amateur, and governmental authorizations.

Information about the earliest experimental broadcasts is limited. One pioneer was William Walter Westover Grant,[9] who served in the British Royal Air in France during World War I, where he gained extensive experience installing and maintaining radio equipment.[10] After the war ended, he returned to Canada where reportedly in May 1919 he "constructed a small station in Halifax, Nova Scotia, over which voice and music were broadcast in probably the first scheduled programs in Canada".[11] In 1920 Grant began working for the Canadian Air Board's Forestry patrol, developing air-to-ground communication for the spotter aircraft used to report forest fires, initially using radiotelegraphy. The original base was located at Morley, Alberta, where Grant constructed station CYAA.[12] In January 1921 operations moved to the High River Air Station in southern Alberta,[13] where Grant established station VAW, which was capable of audio transmissions. In addition to the forestry work Grant began making a series of experimental entertainment broadcasts,[14] believed to be the first in western Canada. Grant left the forestry project and established the W. W. Grant Radio, Ltd. in Calgary, which on May 18, 1922 was issued the city's third commercial broadcasting station license, with the randomly assigned call letters CFCN (now CKMX).[15]

A better known example was a Montreal station, which was first licensed sometime between April 1, 1914 and March 31, 1915 as experimental station XWA to the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of Canada, Ltd. ("Canadian Marconi"),[16] and was one of the few civilian stations allowed to continue operating during World War I, when it was used to conduct military research.[17] At first it only transmitted Morse code, however during the spring of 1919 employee Arthur Runciman began a series of voice tests,[18] although initially the equipment was promoted as being useful for point-to-point communication rather than broadcasting.[19][20] In early 1919, parent company British Marconi shipped a surplus 500-watt transmitter to Montreal for evaluation.[21][22] As was common at a number of early stations, the engineers soon tired of having to repetitively speak for the test transmissions, and began to play phonograph records, which drew the attention of local amateur radio operators.[23] The first documented broadcast of entertainment by XWA to a general audience occurred on the evening of May 20, 1920, when a concert was prepared for a Royal Society of Canada audience listening 110 miles (175 kilometers) away at the Château Laurier in the capital city of Ottawa.[24][25] XWA eventually began operating on a regular schedule, at first run almost single-handedly by Douglas "Darby" Coats.[26] Sometime in 1921 the station's call sign was changed to "9AM", reflecting a policy change in the call signs issued to experimental stations, and a short notice in the November 1921 issue of QST magazine reported that it was now broadcasting once a week on Tuesdays starting at 8 p.m.[27] In April 1922, the station received a commercial broadcasting station license with the randomly assigned call letters of CFCF,[28] and it later adopted the slogan of "Canada's First".[29] This station was deleted, as CINW, in 2010.

In addition to the developing experimental broadcasts taking place in Canada, some American stations, especially at night, could easily be received in the heavily populated parts of Canada.

From 1922 to 1953 individual members of the public were required to pay for annual Private Receiving Station licences in order to legally receive broadcasting stations.

In January 1922 the government lowered the barrier for individuals merely interested in receiving broadcasts, by introducing a new licence category, Private Receiving Station, that removed the need to qualify for an amateur radio licence.[30][31] The receiving station licences initially cost $1 and had to be renewed yearly. They were issued by the Department of Marine and Fisheries in Ottawa, by Departmental Radio Inspectors, and by postmasters located in the larger towns and cities, with licence periods coinciding with the April 1-March 31 fiscal year.[32][33] As of March 31, 1923 there was a total of 9,996 Private Receiving Station licenses.[34] The licence fee eventually rose to $2.50 per year to provide revenue for both radio and television broadcasts by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, however, it was eliminated effective April 1, 1953.[35]

In 1922 two new transmitting categories were added to the regulations: "Private Commercial Broadcasting station" and "Amateur Broadcasting station".[36] The annual licence fees for these stations were set on June 30, 1922 at $50 for commercial broadcasting stations, and $5 for amateur.[36] As of March 31, 1923 there were 57 commercial, and 8 amateur, authorized broadcasting stations.[34]

In late April 1922 an initial group of twenty-three commercial broadcasting station licences was announced, which received four-letter call signs starting with "CF", "CH", "CJ" or "CK", plus one additional "C" as the third or fourth letter. These stations were assigned to a band of six wavelengths running in 10-meter steps from 400 to 450 meters (750-667 kHz).[28] Commercial broadcasting stations initially operated under the restriction that "No tolls shall be levied or collected on account of any service performed by this class of station."[37] By 1924 this provision was loosened to allow "the rental of broadcasting stations for advertising purposes" after procuring "the consent of the Minister [of Marine and Fisheries] in writing". However, "direct advertising" was prohibited between the hours of 6.30 p.m. and 11 p.m. ("Direct advertising" was generally defined as conventional advertising messages, in contrast to "indirect advertising", which consisted of more general sponsorship announcements).[38]

Amateur broadcasting stations were issued alphanumeric call signs starting with the number "10", and initially were assigned to transmit on 250 meters (1200 kHz). These stations were licensed to individual amateur associations, and were prohibited from carrying advertising. Most were expected to be established in communities which didn't have a commercial station.[39] Only a small number of Amateur Broadcasting stations would be authorized, and most were eventually converted to commercial operations. (Canada's establishment of an amateur broadcasting station classification was in sharp contrast to the United States, where, beginning in early 1922, amateur stations were explicitly prohibited from making broadcasts intended for the general public.)[40] As of the fall of 1925, there were 11 Canadian amateur broadcasting stations.[41]

At first station audiences consisted largely of young men tinkering with crystal sets, which required the use of earphones so only one person at a time could listen. In 1925 Edward Rogers invented a radio tube using Alternating Current (AC) electricity that immediately became a worldwide standard for much more powerful and easier-to-use radios. He set up the Rogers Majestic company to manufacture receivers and established several broadcasting stations, including experimental station 9RB (later CFRB, Toronto).[42] By the late 1920s easy to use radio sets using loudspeakers were widely available, although somewhat expensive, which opened up a much broader audience, attracting the middle class who could afford them, and also restaurants clubs and taverns, who wanted to attract customers. Even remote towns and localities could listen. Play-by-play sports coverage, especially of ice hockey, absorbed fans more thoroughly than newspaper accounts ever could, and rural areas were especially influenced by sports coverage.[43]

Radio signals on the AM band travel great distances at night, and Canada soon found it had few open frequencies due to the existence of its much larger American neighbor. A major reallocation of U.S. stations on November 11, 1928 informally set aside six frequencies for exclusive Canadian use, but the country complained this was insufficient. In 1941, implementation of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement gave Canada some additional exclusive assignments, and the development of the FM band eventually eased the restrictions on the number of available broadcasting slots.

The Canadian National Railway Company (CNR) became interested in radio broadcasting in 1923, due in large part to the leadership of its president, Sir Henry Thornton. That year it began equipping its trains with radio receivers to allow passengers to hear radio broadcasts. In 1924, CNR began building its own stations, and by 1928 it had created Canada's first national network, CNR Radio[44] (officially the Canadian National Railways Radio Department),[45][46] developed, owned and operated by CNR to provide en route entertainment and information for its passengers.[47] As broadcasts could be received by anyone living in the coverage area of station transmitters, the network provided radio programming to Canadians from the Pacific coast at Vancouver to the Atlantic coast at Halifax.

During its nine-year existence, CNR Radio provided music, sports, information and drama programming to Canadians. Programs were produced in English, French and occasionally in some First Nations languages, and distributed nationwide through the railway's own telegraph lines and through rented airtime on private radio stations. However, political and competitive pressure forced CNR Radio to close, with many of its assets and personnel migrating to a new government-operated agency, the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC).

Rival Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) had applied for licences in January 1930 to compete with the CNR Radio service, but the onset of the Great Depression meant that CPR did not end up pursuing these applications, but instead operated a phantom station in Toronto known as "CPRY"; the call letters standing for "Canadian Pacific Royal York"[48][49] While a network of affiliates carried the CPR radio network's broadcasts in the first half of the 1930s, the takeover of CNR's Radio service by the CRBC removed CPR's need to have a network for competitive reasons, and it was discontinued in 1935.

A number of problems arose during the 1920s, causing debates on how broadcasting should be managed. These problems included the feeling that religious radio stations had "...emerged as a new weapon with which one religious group could bludgeon another...",[50] and that U.S. stations unfairly dominated the airwaves despite an agreements to reserve some frequencies exclusively for Canadian stations.[51]

In December 1928, P.J. Arthur (Minister of Marine and Fisheries) founded the "Aird Commission", officially the Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting, to investigate options and the perceived American radio threat. Sir John Aird, Charles A. Bowman and Augustine Frigon were members of this commission. The Aird Report recommended the creation of a public broadcasting system.