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RCI has broad international appeal

Broadcast Date: Feb. 23, 1950

When the International Service reaches out to listeners, they reach back. The service has been on the air for five years, and if there's any way of judging its success, listener mail might be it. Letters — 135,000 so far — have come from wherever the Canadian shortwave service is heard. In this clip celebrating the fifth anniversary of the International Service, we hear excerpts from letters sent by listeners in Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Germany and Argentina.

RCI has broad international appeal

• A popular English-language program on the International Service was Listener's Corner, launched in 1947. On the weekly show, host Liston Burns read letters from the mailbag.
• In the late 1940s, the service had no reliable way to know how many people were listening. It relied on three subjective criteria to judge success:
- The volume of letters.
- The feedback from letter-writers.
- The co-operation of foreign broadcasters in relaying Canadian broadcasts to local audiences.

• Even as the shortwave service celebrated five years on the air, some Canadians questioned whether it was necessary. An editorial following a series of articles in the Montreal Gazette said: "The outlay of $1,750,000 of public funds yearly to broadcast in a dozen languages to 40-odd countries warrants a demand for evidence as to whether or not the national advantage gained is in proportion to the money and effort being expended."

• People in other countries listened to shortwave radio much more than Canadians did. In 1948 a London correspondent for the Financial Post noted: "It is a great pity that Canada does not send Sir Ernest MacMillan and his Toronto Symphony over here for a tour. They would have had a grand reception, and it would remind the British that there are other things in Canada besides making holes in the ice to catch fish."

• Because listener numbers are so hard to determine, estimates of listenership have varied greatly. In 1953, the Montreal Gazette reported that a "conservative estimate" was that four million people tuned in regularly, and 16 million more listened occasionally.
• In 1985 a news release from the shortwave service reported that 10 million people were listening each week, and that the broadcaster received 50,000 letters annually.

• As of 2005 the shortwave service broadcasts a listener-mail program called The Maple Leaf Mailbag and receives about 15,000 letters and e-mails per year.
• Listenership in 2002 was estimated to be about five million per week.

• Broadcasting on shortwave is different from AM and FM. As the name suggests, shortwave broadcasting uses shorter radio waves to carry a signal. These waves, unlike longer AM and FM wavelengths, can bounce off the earth's ionosphere and reach destinations thousands of kilometres from their point of origin.
• Shortwave broadcasts can be heard only on shortwave receivers.

RCI has broad international appeal

Medium: Radio

Program: CBC Radio News Special

Broadcast Date: Feb. 23, 1950

Guest(s):

Duration: 3:29

Photo: National Archives of Canada/PA-111380

Last updated:
Dec. 3, 2010