Public Trustee of the Canadian Air

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 669, 2 May 1952, Page 6

Public Trustee of the Canadian Air

WN the face of financial difficulties, massive competition from U.S. tadio, and the usual spate of listener criticism, Canada’s Broadcasting Corporation stands sturdily upright and gets on with the job, says the writer of this article, a former "Listener" staff member. The CBC, hé affirms, is not afraid of being funny, serious, different, or receptive to new ideas.

"W‘HE Canadian Broadcasting ‘Corporation is one of the few radio concerns on the North Ameriean Continent which does not operate with one eye on the sponsor and the other on the indispensable Hooper ratings of popularity with listeners. Such a rarity is naturally up against a good deal of opposition, both from inside and outside Canada. The American radio networks, loaded with star shows and larded with singing commercials, lean over the border with all the weight of a barely suspended avalanche. The privately-owned Canadian stations, which are not yet allowed to form networks, pour out streams of entertainment and advertising, sometimes as much as twenty-four hours a day. The booming bass of the North American theme song Free Enter-

prise drowns any tentative whisper. from a publicly-owned Cofporation that broadcasting may have other possibilities besides those two which have already been thoroughly explored; entertaining the consumer and persuading him to buy. Taking this opposition into consideration therefore, the first questions that occur to the radio-minded visitor to Canada are: Does anyone listen to the CBC, and if so, does it have any influence? The answer to both these questions is yes. In fact, it is yes on both sides of the border, a fact which encourages CBC officials who read letters sent in by American listeners. The CBC was born on November 2, 1936, taking over the functions of the three-man Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, which had just been legislated out of existence after a rather groping life of four and a half years. Before this twilight period there had been mostly darkness, ‘confusion and static, with the number of receiving sets increasing rapidly and their owners, each of whom had a vote, clamouring loudly for an improvement. in conditions. Licences to operate broadcasting stations had been granted private bodies of widely differing complexion, and the Government seemed to feel that the contentious job of regulating these bodies should be given to a~thoroughly nonpolitical organisation. The Commission was the first effort in this direction, the CBC the second. One authority has defined the CBC as a public trustee rather than a government corporation. It is established by statute, but within the broad boundaries determined by the statute it operates freely without reference to any government department. "It is," says this authority, "dependent for sanction both to the elected

representatives of the nation and. the broad moral sanction of the people themselves. It performs a combined operational and regulatory function in its guardianship of a national monopoly." The CBC has always struggled to maintain its financial independence. Rather than accept appropriations it borrows from the Government and pays back loans from its two main sources of revenue; license fees and the sale of air time. Since sponsorship contains a threat to independence, although in a different way from reliance on direct appropriation, sponsored programmes are limited to 20 per cent of the whole.

. The CBC has also defended itself from political interference with the integrity of its news broadcasts, so far successfully. Speaking in broad, tactful generalisations, CBC men will say that there was a time during the war when they felt particular pressure over the presentation of news. The Corporation, which strongly approves of its news broadcasts, presented a united front against the pressure. After sounds like thunder had been heard for some little while the pressure gradually eased, and CBC news’ broadcasts’ continued to be straight news. Operating on a strictly limited budget the News Service does a_ sober, well-presented job. It

seems to be able to summon a considered, clear ‘eut, individual opinion from any portion of the globe, including New Zealand, a dot on the map unknown to most inhabitants of the North American Continent. Its correspondents are encouraged to remain uninfluenced by sudden swirls of emotion, and continue to call a spade a spade even if a Congressional Investigating Committee shouts loudly that the implement is really a hammer and sickle. Because of its freedom from political interference it should not be thought that. the CBC -is an autocratic body quite outside the control of the Legislature. As in the case of ‘Canadian National Railways, the Government will not produce in the House details of internal management, but the CBC may properly be investigated by Parliamentary Committees, and this. occurs frequently. Accounts and memoranda are inspected and officials called to answer questions. Nor is there apy gag on general Parliamentary debates on the CBC. Members of the Opposition parties give their opinions as pungently as writers to the newspapers’ correspondence columns. ~Networks and Landfines The CBC runs three networks: TransCanada, Dominion and French, Anyone used to a small country with one standard time throughout would find Canadian network operations complicated. The French netWork needs little explanation. It operates mainly in Quebec, and its programmes are intended primarily for French Canadians. The other two networks are English language. Trans-Canada is on most of the day, Dominion only in the evenings. The CBC owns only a proportion of the

stations that carry Trans-Canada and Dominion Network programmes. The privatély-owned stations in the Networks agree to carry network programmes for so many hours each day, but even the CBC owned stations run their local programmes for a good part of their broadcasting time.. Generally speaking, Network programmes are the important section of the day’s broadcasting, and deal with things which interest the whole country. Because of the time difference between the Eastern and Western Provinces,* "network" is not often an accurate description of a programme broadcast across the whole country. West Coast broadcasts are usually delayed two hours. This means a lot of recording and much use of land lines. Britain reaches a population of fifty million with 975. miles of line. Canada needs 15,000 miles of line for her 14,000,000 people. Line time is purchased from three telegraph companies, and the cost is about a million dollars a year, a burdensome expense. Faced with increasing financial difficulties, massive American competition and the usual hail of home listeners’ criticism, the CBC stands sturdily upright and gets on with the job. It is not afraid of being funny, serious, different or receptive to new ideas. Naturally, not every new idea is a good one. The ones that don’t work out either disappear beneath roaring waves of criticism or sink without trace in a sea of apathetic silence. But the occasional good idea springs into life and flourishes, gratifying the listeners and justifying the CBC’s faith in the continued existence of good ideas. Wednesday night is the time of trial for the most ambitious ideas. The listener may hear a long documentary on the Pacific Coast Indians, accompanied by their music, a two-hour play on Socrates by a Canadian writer, dramatisations of Stephen Leacock’s stories, or the latest work of a young Canadian omposer. Wednesday night is not made up of background noises; the listener has to give his concentration. Problems for Writers Good ideas, of course, deserve ‘good payment. The CBC does its best to keep alive the writers it encourages, and in an average year pays out nearly two hundred thousand dollars. to them. If a free-lance writer is prolific and capable he can just about keep himself, unless he is ambitious and wants to raise a family. He writes with one eye lifting over the border, where competition is murderous but the top few can afford families, television sets and butter on the table. The CBC really means to encourage Canadian writers. During 1949 Western Canada was edified by the spectacle of the programme director of the Trans-Canada Network making a speaking tour in which he urged authors’ groups to submit more radio scripts. Schools and children’s broadcasts, and women’s hours are cast in forms generally familiar to New Zealanders, but there is a good deal less time devoted to sport. Only three Canadian horse Taces each year are considered sufficiently vital to be given network broadcasts. Ice hockey gains most attention, matches being broadcast over two networks each Saturday night during the season, but the average New Zealander, raised on NZBS sports coverage, would feel he was on an austerity ration. The Massey Commission on _ the National Development of Arts and

Sciences dealt at some length with the activities of the CBC, and as a whole justified its function as regulator of licences and conditions under which private stations operate. This’is a sore point with the private stations who argue that the CBC is a competitor and should not therefore be a judge as well. This controversy is certain to be carried over into the television. field. CBC starts television this year in Toronto. Private stations claimed they were prepared to start before that time, but were not granted licences. The Masséy Commission based its, support of the CBC’s regulatory function;on the ground that broadcasting is not an industry but a public service. Private citizens are permitted to engage in this service subject to the regulation of the CBC, a body finally responsible to Parliament, but they enjoy no vested right to engage in broadcasting as an industry. The final word has not been spoken here. Whether the definition of broadcasting as a public service stands depends largely on the progress of American influence in Canada. A sign of Canadian strength, written in language Americans understand well, is that at the time of writing the Canadian dollar is at par with the U.S. dollar and likely to go higher. The CBC, which does not limit itself to a dollar rating, can afford

to be conhdent, too,

G. leF

Y.