CANADIAN BROADCASTING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 36, 12 February 1931, Page 9

CANADIAN BROADCASTING.

NATIONALISATION DEMAND. BRITISH SYSTEM PREFERRED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) VANCOUVER, January 21. A- powerful "impetus has been given the movement for nationalisation of radio broadcasting in Canada by the formation of a nation'wide organisation with important backing, whtbh will be satisfied with ho otlier solution of the problem. This new body is known as the Canadian Radio League, and it is P ro " posted to form a network of local branches out of the half million owneis of licensed receiving sets to the end that a strong and, its sponsors hope, an ii Resistible current of public opinion will be turned on the Federal Government in favour of public ownership and operation. . The Radio League, in essentials, supports the recommendations of the Royal Commission, headed by Sir John Aird, which reported more, than a year ago in favour of nationalisation, reserving the right to propose alternative for financing the project. The league finds that there are only two possible systems of broadcasting, the American plan, followed so far in tlie Dominion, with the power of the station and the quality of its programme based on advertising revenue, and the British plan of a national service, "with the powers of a private enterprise and the functions of a public utility." The league frankly prefers the latter. It dislikes the advertising basis, which places radio development in the hands of "irresponsible authorities however public-spirited," and public opinion, in so far as it may be influenced by the radio, "at the mercy of the American chains." Canada, in the opinion of the league, in its radio policy must choose between nationalisation or Americanization.