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CBC Radio takes to the air

Broadcast Date: Nov. 4, 1936

Nov. 2, 1936 launches a new era in Canadian broadcasting. It's the first day for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which replaces the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission. In this clip, CBC Chairman Leonard Brockington tells listeners they can expect many new things from the new broadcaster. Its governors, he says, have ideas and ideals that are "almost as numerous as apple blossoms in the Annapolis Valley or peach blossoms in the Okanagan."

Of the 74 radio stations in Canada, the CBC owns three and leases four more. Private or public, virtually all are dwarfed by more powerful American stations, and it will be a challenge for the CBC to ensure Canadians can hear their own radio. Brockington pledges to provide a wide variety of programming for listeners. "It is hoped that the radio in Canada will be a welcome guest at your family fireside, and not a skeleton in your family cupboard," he says.

CBC Radio takes to the air

• The CBC's predecessor, the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC), began broadcasting in 1932. Regular programming didn't get underway until February 1933.
• The CRBC began with two hours weekly of national broadcasting, but within months it was up to one hour nightly.

• One of the greatest achievements by a CRBC reporter was J. Frank Willis's coverage of the Moose River mine disaster in April 1936. Every half-hour for 56 hours, Willis reported to 58 Canadian radio stations and 650 U.S. stations on the efforts to rescue two men trapped in the mine.
• Hear some of Willis's reporting from the mine in this CBC Archives clip.
• Another big story carried by the CRBC was the 1934 birth of the Dionne quintuplets in Callander, Ontario.

• The CRBC's demise ultimately came because of evidence it was subject to the whims of the ruling government. After a contentious 1935 election, its days were numbered.
• In spring 1936 a parliamentary committee was appointed to hear submissions on what should replace the CRBC.
• In the end, the committee's report recommended keeping a public broadcaster and giving it regulatory powers over all radio stations in Canada. Licensing and allocation of frequencies were controlled by the federal government.

• When the CBC went on air on Nov. 2, 1936, it had 132 English and French staff, including 10 producers and 14 announcers.
• There were six hours of network programming daily, and CBC transmitters reached 49 per cent of Canadian households. There were radios in one million Canadian homes.
• In the CBC's first year, 70 per cent of its programming consisted of music.

• Leonard Brockington, heard in this clip, was the CBC's first president. Born in Wales in 1888, he immigrated to Canada in 1912 and worked as a lawyer in Calgary. In his book The Microphone Wars, Knowlton Nash describes Brockington as "Canada's best-known after-dinner speaker."

CBC Radio takes to the air

Medium: Radio

Program: CBC Radio Special

Broadcast Date: Nov. 4, 1936

Guest(s):

Speaker: Leonard Brockington

Duration: 14:46

Photo: Blackstone Studio / Library and Archives Canada / PA-122231

Last updated:
March 11, 2008