Andrea Langlois et al - Islands of Resistance - Pirate Radio in Canada

CHAP TER 3
Resistance to Regulation Among
Early Canadian Broadcasters and
Listeners
Anne F. MacLennan
radio piracy depends on acts of transgression
that in turn are bureaucratically defined by regulation. The slow development
of radio regulation in Canada meant that what would now
be considered piracy, at least initially, was sporadic and inconsistent.
While pirate radio was distinct from amateur radio, it was almost
impossible to break the rules until licences were issued for commercial
broadcasting in 1922. Over the course of its first few decades, piracy
assumed many forms in Canadian broadcasting. As radio became
licensed, pirates — and even some of those stations who chose to get
licences — challenged regulation in a variety of ways. Forms of resistance
encompassed program content, frequency radius and listener
responses to licensing, which all could be positioned just off the margins
of acceptable broadcasting or listening practices.
Camping on the Airwaves in the 1920s
Initial incidences of piracy did not refer to pirate stations on unassigned
frequencies, but strictly to the pirating of wavelengths. The
transgressors in this case tended to be American broadcasters, occupying
a space on the dial assigned to a Canadian radio station. This
situation was illustrated in a 1927 headline proclaiming, “American
Radio Stations Pirating on CKY, Lowry.” 1 These American stations
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