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

40 • islands of resistance
Political statements were equally as likely to garner complaints and
influence decisions over what material was suitable to be broadcast.
For example, CKGB in Timmins, Ontario, had allowed the Communist
Party to broadcast as a part of its schedule, taking advantage of
the leeway allowed by the CBC for local stations to approve political
speeches. As noted in a letter from Thos. Lawrence, Secretary of the
Northern Ontario Regional Committee of the Communist Party of
Canada, to Gladstone Murray of the CBC, CKGB’s station manager,
Mr. W. Wren withdrew permission and terminated a previous agreement
to allow the Communist Party on the air. Lawrence noted that
Wren explained, “It is difficult to interpret the rules and regulations
of the CBC particularly in regard to political speeches. Furthermore,
the onus for the passing of such speeches rests on the local station . . .
We have received complaints from certain people regarding Communist
broadcasts.” 13 In this case, complaints from listeners provided the
impetus or excuse for change despite the allowances in policy.
Conflicts over content, local priorities, language and the ability to
conform to national network radio policies continued to spark resistance
in every region of Canada. There were ongoing disputes over
language — starting with complaints about French-language broadcasts
in the West over CRBC and English in Quebec, as well as those
language bans during the Second World War mentioned above. Local
and regional priorities, such as those in Moose Jaw, also continued to
mark the Canadian experience of radio. Once broadcasting patterns
were formed in the Canadian South, and CBC network radio and television
were expanded to the North through the Anik satellite in the
1970s, new forms of resistance arose. Illegal stations, unauthorized
broadcasts in Inuktitut, broadcasts from Radio Moscow and other
makeshift arrangements to meet local needs defied regulation, even
co-opting some CBC network staff in the process. 14
Listener Resistance
The implementation of licensing was not relegated to the stations
themselves, but was also extended to receivers. A little known part of
Canadian radio history is that the Radiotelegraph Act also required
listeners who owned a radio set to pay a fee of one dollar a year to listen
(broadcasters paid 50 dollars for their licences). The radio receiving
licence fee was raised to two dollars in 1932 and $2.50 in 1938