CANADA FOLLOWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 14, 16 July 1936, Page 32

CANADA FOLLOWS

PLAN TO NATIONALISE' RADIO

Canada's special radio committee has recommended to the Canadian, Parliament that broadcasting in the . Dominion be nationalised and patterned after the non-commercial British system rather than the American sell-time-on-the-air plan. In- Great Britain it. is decreed under the Royal Charter "that the broadcasting service should be conducted by a public corporation acting as a trustee for the national interest, and that its status and duties should correspond with those of a public service."

In the United States the law states that broadcasting must be conducted in "public interest, convenience, and necessity." :>•.'■■.,..-■•

The Canadian Radio Commission, in control for five years, has been confronted with numerous problems arising from serving, in both French and English, the vast sparsely-settled territory. The main source of revenue has been the 1,700,000 dollars derived from the annual 2 dollars fee for listeners1 licences.

The committee, ; after listening and collecting much evidence, endorsed this conclusion:—

It has been made evident that the establishing of national broadcasting in Canada presents many difficulties, for the correction of which time, experience, arid large expenditures of public money will be necessary. That, in the opinion of your committee, radio broadcasting could be best conducted by a general manager. It is recommended that the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Act of . 1932 be repealed, and that a new Act be substituted which will place the direction of broadcasting in the hands of a corporation with an honorary board of nine governors chosen to give representation to al\ parts of Canada, this board to operate through a general manager and an assistant general'manager, who will be responsible to the

board for the conduct of all business of the organisation.

Members of the honorary board of; governors, it is suggested, should be men of broad outlook, having a know- [ ledge of the tastes and interests of j the listening public, and ■ who can ! make a definite contribution to the solution of the, problem before the corporation. The general manager, under the proposal, would be appointed by the Governor in Council upon the recommendation of the board of governors and be an executive of the widest experience in the field of broadcasting. The committee further stated:— "We recommend that the corporation be given substantially the powers now enjoyed by the British Broadcasting Corporation, and in addition that it be given exclusive control over (1) the character of all programmes, political and otherwise, broadcast by private stations, and the advertising content thereof;. (2) all wire-line networks used for carrying broadcast progfammes. . "We desire to reaffirm the principle set out in the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Act of 1932 that, in determining the compensation.to.be paid for the talcing over ■of any private stations, no allowance shall be made for - the value of the licence terminated by the taking over of such station and that no person shall be deemed to have any proprietary right in any channel allotted, and that no person shall be entitled to any compensation' by reason of the .cancellation of the allotment of a channel or change in a channel." New precedents in control of political broadcasts were suggested by the committee:— • "Dramatised" political broadcasts be prohibited. r Broadcasting time be assigned equally between political parties.' No political broadcast be permitted on election day or on the two preceding days. It has always been argued, whenever the proposal is made that the j British system should be adopted in the United States, that it was quite impossible because the English idea could, not be applied to a country as wide as Uncle Sam's domain. Canada, however, is as wide as ;the land from Montaiik Point to . the' Golden Gate. So, if the Canadians can successfully adopt the plan of;; the. British Isles, it might seem that one of the main arguments of the American broadcasters against the British system is about to be exploded.