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Ruling the Airwaves: The CRTC and Canadian Content
Does watching American TV make you less Canadian?
Broadcast Date: March 5, 1961
March, 1961: politicians and pundits are making a lot of noise about the Americanization of Canadian television. Some are promising to "Canadianize" our airwaves. What's that mean? Tongue somewhat in cheek, Montreal commentator Sydney Lamb decides to watch a lot of television to find out what exactly our national identity is, and how it could be endangered by watching Wagon Train or Jack Benny.Does watching American TV make you less Canadian?
• Interest in the amount of Canadian programming on the airwaves dates back to the early days of radio. In 1929 the Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting reported "unanimity on one fundamental question — Canadian radio listeners want Canadian broadcasting."
• In 1932 the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission was created to regulate all Canadian broadcasting. In 1933 it placed a 40 per cent limit on foreign programs on Canadian private radio.
• The 1951 report of the Royal Commision on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences (the Massey Commission) made recommendations upon the principles which should govern broadcasting and television policies in Canada.
• In 1957, a second Royal Commission on Broadcasting (the Fowler Commission) released a report stressing the importance of a Canadian broadcasting system. It lead to the creation of the 1958 Broadcasting Act.
• When Parliament passed the 1958 Broadcasting Act, the Board of Broadcast Governors was created to ensure that Canada's broadcasting system was "basically Canadian in content and character."
• In 1959 the BBG began regulating television stations, requiring 45 per cent of programming in a four-week period be "basically Canadian in content and character" by 1961. The requirement was upped to 55 per cent in 1962.
• The BBG's definition of "Canadian" was generous; shows had to be "basically Canadian in content and character." That included foreign events where Canadians participated (hockey games) or events of special interest to Canadians (baseball's World Series.) Credit was also given to shows produced in Commonwealth or French-speaking countries.
• In 1961 a committee of politicians and broadcasters was formed to study the effects of cable television (which had been around since the late 1940s). It reported that the "basically Canadian" mandate of the Broadcasting Act was not being met, and that the government should intervene.
• The BBG Canadian content requirements were adjusted in 1962, 1963 and 1964.
• Sydney Lamb, a commentator for CBC Radio's Sights and Sounds, was on the English faculty of Sir George Williams University. In 1974 Sir George Williams University merged with Loyola College to become Concordia University.
• American comedian Jack Benny starred in a hugely popular weekly radio program that went on the air in 1933. In 1950 his show moved to television. The Jack Benny Program lasted until 1965.
• Wagon Train, a popular television western series, first aired in 1957 and ran for eight years. It starred Ward Bond and Robert Horton.
Does watching American TV make you less Canadian?
Medium: Radio
Program: Critically Speaking
Broadcast Date: March 5, 1961
Commentator: Sydney Lamb
Duration: 9:41
Last updated:
March 12, 2008
We have had 2 Royal Commissions on the Media. The 1970 Davey Commission and the 1981 Kent Commisssion. From both Royal Commissionsnot one recomendation has been passed by Parliment. The 1987 NFB of Canada documentary "Manufacturing Consent" earned world wide aclaim onhow the corporate owned media influence and control citizens attitudes and beliefs and still no changes in to Media Concentration and diversity of opinion and content. In 1998 Ryerson School of Journalism teacher - James Miller writes book about Canadian Newspaper problem entitled," Testerdays News - Why Canada's Daily Newspapers are Failing Us". Not only are Canadians influenced to the point of controlled, more and more of a Canadian "Egalitarion" domestic policy has been lost to American "Monetorism". Unfortunately, it's not the Canada I grew up with and that is manufactured by the Corporate owned news.
Submitted by: Mr. Blair M. Phillips