RADIO IN CANADA

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18552, 26 April 1930, Page 14 (Supplement)

RADIO IN CANADA

CONTROL BY GOVERNMENT. ROYAL COMMISSION’S REPORT Concrete steaps toward inaugurating a Government-owned radio monopoly in Canada are expected to be taken in the near future with the introduction in the Canadian Parliament of legislation for the purpose of regulating broadcasting in the Dominion. Introduction of the legislation resulted from a lengthy investigation of broadcasting by a royal commission, which came to the conclusion that operation of broadcasting stations by private interests, as followed in the United States, had not been successful in Canada, where both population distribution and economic conditions were different. There are a considerable number of stations in Canada, but the reports indicated that they could not support themselves by advertising programmes, as in the United States, in the majority of instances, and fear w'as expressed that the heavy expense incident to the operation of the stations would eventually result in the closing down of many of them, leaving the Canadian audience with little radio entertainment other than that received from the United States.

The commission recommended that broadcasting be placed on a basis of public service, that a provincial director should be appointed for each province, to have full control of programmes broadcast in his territory, and that he be aided by a provincial advistory council on radio and broadcasting. Establishment of a chain of seven high-powered stations running across Canada was recommended for initial service, to be the nucleus of the more ambitious system eventually to be created. These stations would have a power of as high as 50,000 watts with supplementary stations of low r er power erected in areas not effectively covered by the main stations. Existing stations would be used until the proposed chain and auxiliary stations were built.

The cost of the chain and its auxiliaries was estimated at £650,000, and the operating expense was placed at £500,000 a year. Existing broadcasting stations, all of which would be put out of operation or converted into auxiliary stations under the plan, would be taken over by the Government and their owners compensated. The costs of establishing and maintaining the Government service would be covered by licence fees, rental of stations for indirect advertising and a subsidy from the Government. It is proposed to increase licence fees for receiving sets from 4/- to 12/6 a year, which would provide an estimated revenue of £IBO,000.