RADIO IN CANADA

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 141, 16 June 1932, Page 18

RADIO IN CANADA

PEOPLE GIVEN CHARGE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVER, 26th May.

Canada is retracing her steps, back over the wrong road she took, in company with the United States, when radio broadcasting was inaugurated ten years ago. Both North American countries, in their wisdom, decided to hand over broadcasting to Big Business, while the rest of the British Empire and tho Continent decided that it should, be owned and operated by the State. ■ In ten years ii has become, more and more, the plaything of the cheap-jack, high-pressure salesman, whose mouthings in tho ether would not be tolerated in print—oven in tho United States.. The selection and quality of the programme were subordinated to the sale of this or that commodity.. To such a pitch has this abuso of the greatest invention of' our time reached that De Forest, the inventor of the radio tube, bitterly regrets he did not destroy his invention, rather than see it so prostituted- : Now all these things are over. Radio broadcasting in Canada will, in future, be in the hands of the people. Not so in the United States, where Big. Business has a stranglehold on the industry. But, though they are powerless, the people of the United States are just as resentful as those of Canada, and it is likely that the Canadian departure will be closely watched over the border. If it be adopted, it will help greatly in a terrain where the air is common to both "countries. If not, Canada will not worry very much. She has set her hand to the plough. She has had her fling of commercialised broadcasting. Now for the reckoning. THE POLICY ADOPTED. It will be a slow process, extending over years. There will be no resumption of existing stations, with compensation. They will not be legislated out of existence. They will be allowed to continue, but . everyone knows they will not be able to compete with the programmes that the State, with a uniform system from the Atlantic to the Pacific, will be able to operate. In time they will pass out, unwept, unhonoured, and unsung. . A nationally-owned system will be operated by a Federal Commission. Each province will have its autonomous sub-commission, in an advisory capacity. A chain of high-power stations, of 50,000 watts each, will be erected, in the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbiastrong enough to guarantee that any Canadian, citizen who wishes to hear a Canadian or British programme may do so. The capitalisation will follow the lines of the British system. Licence fees will ,be supplemented by. revenue from such national organisations as the Canadian Pacific RaUway, that have been content merely with the mention of their-name, as sponsors of programmes. .Subject to this condition, revenue will be accepted from industries and the commercial community. AGREEMENT WITH WASHINGTON. The commission will have power to lease, purchase, or expropriate existing stations, and to acquire - private telegraph'^wires in order to inaugurate trans-Canada broadcasts. The main functions, of, the commission will be similar to-tho.se of the British Broadcasting Corporation. ,J The existence of small low-power stations will not be endangered" by the new system, except that they must, conform to the restrictions regarding advertising on the air. By a gentleman's agreement .with United. States, Canada will be allotted nine cleared channels without power' limitations. These have been selected by the Government experts so that' they occupy an advantageous position' in the broadcasting band with reference to the high-power American stations, and preclude the .possibility of interference. It will be, possibly, three years before the new' system will have entirely absorbed the old one. An immediate start is to be.made with the transCanada broadcasts, to be followed by the gradual adoption of the remaining units of the system, so as to cause the least possible inconvenience to present vested interests.