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

42 • islands of resistance
each radio receiving set, which became a contentious issue with the
rapid spread of radio and the ownership of more than one set. Shared
listening occurred more often in homes and among family members.
Those without radios were acutely aware of the sounds of radio that
wafted out of their neighbour’s windows in the summer months. The
ability to evade licence fees in small communities therefore depended
on the privacy afforded by isolation and the clannishness of community
that protected the members from the perceived interference of
outsiders, such as radio inspectors.
Being advertiser-supported and not requiring listener licences,
American network broadcasting filled in the gaps, and provided competition
to Canadian public broadcasting. As late as 1937, stories and
editorials such as “Radio Licence Worries” in The Montreal Gazette,
persisted in expressing the annoyance householders felt about the
radio inspectors, who visited homes to check whether or not the
household possessed a valid radio licence. 16 The suspicion of and resistance
to radio licences was reinforced by the fraudulent sale of licences
in Saint John, New Brunswick. 17 The sale of more than a million radio
listening permits in Toronto was lauded, but many fines were anticipated
as 650 homes with receivers that had been licensed in 1935 did
not purchase permits in 1936. 18 While listeners typically resented the
very existence of licence fees, the price increase in 1938 provoked a
renewed outcry against them. In that same year, 1002 complaints were
recorded in an internal CBC memo. The Department of Transport
received 861 of the complaints and the remaining 141 went straight to
the CBC. 19 The same file also included a 22-page petition resisting the
licence fee increase.
A newspaper editorial, entitled “Canadian Broadcasting System
— Or Is It?” outlined most of the protests against the final increase
of the licence fee to $2.50 in 1939. It quoted Alex Frost, chairman of
the radio committee, saying, “[n]ot only are we paying twice now, but
will be paying three or four times over according to the number of
sets owned, in the home, the car or summer camp.” 20 The editorial
went on to argue that “Radio subscribers... want to know if privatelyowned
broadcasting stations are riding free on the CBC system’s corporation
programs... why the Canadian system should be loaded up
with commercials, and then linked up with the American hookup for
more commercials... and would like to know why Canada cannot have
a CBC program free of commercial blabla entirely?” 21 The resentment