As Robert Mayes puts it:

It was the development of broadcast radio and the organisation of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Northern Service that marked the beginning of the present mass communication system in the Canadian North.(5)

   In 1945, a few small local radio stations that had been opened by the Canadian and American armed forces stationed in the Northwest Territories were converted to civilian programming. These low-powered stations could reach a very limited audience and their programs were rather poor in content until 1954 when some of them began broadcasting tape recordings of the CBC network. In the meantime, CBC continued the Northern Messenger broadcasts.
   It is in the late 50s that took place "one of the most important developments in CBC radio" (CBC History, p. 14). In 1956, facing the demands of the Euro-Canadians who had moved north -either with the armed forces or the mining companies- CBC proposed a plan for a service that would serve the scattered residents of the Canadian North, an area of some two million square miles including:

- the Yukon,

- the Northwest Territories, including the archipelago of the High Arctic,

- the northern parts of all the provinces except the Maritimes.

    Two years later, the Parliament approved the plan and voted a capital outlay of CAN$ 2.5 million and operating expenses of CAN$ 450 000 a year to start the CBC Northern Service (today CBC North).
   According to Doug Kirkaldy,"this was a significant step. The CBC says it was that money that allowed the corporation to set up full-fledged radio stations, with professional broadcasters turning the stations into production centres" (Kirkaldy, 1984). CBC acquired the patchwork of former military stations and built new transmitters and stations. One of them, CHAK Inuvik lies within the Arctic Circle and is farther north than any other CBC station. The programs sometimes included microwave feeds (when possible), but above all they were local productions in English, French, Indian languages (Slavey, Dogrib, Cree, Chipewyan, Hareskin and Loucheux) as well as in the various Inuit dialects of Eastern Inuktitut, Western Inuvialook and Coppermine (the emergence of a pan-Inuit language will come in the 1970s).
   For the first time, the Inuit audience could receive radio in their own language and suited to their particular interests. A short-wave service was also created in 1960, using the northern-directed beam of the Sackville transmitter that had been built for the international service. By 1973 (when satellite television arrived), technical improvements had enabled the Sackville transmitter to broadcast 18 hours a day.
   As we have seen, radio in the Northwest Territories was not primarily intended for the Inuit but rather for the Euro-Canadians that lived there. However, the decision of the government to set up radio operation in the North and grant the necessary funds made it possible for the Inuit to be rapidly involved in this new medium, and thus not only passive consumers of mainstream Canadian culture. Unfortunately, television operation is far more complex and costly than radio ...

B) The Coming of Television

    Television's first experiments in Canada were carried out in 1930, i.e. just four years after its invention by John Logie Baird in England. Soon regular services developed in Britain (1936), Germany, France (1938) and in the United States (1939). After 1945, U.S. networks began to expand rather quickly and there was a real craving for television on both sides of the borderline. "Canadians were watching American (US) television. This was the spur that created Canadian Television"(6). In 1951, when the Massey Report which led to the creation of CBC Television was released, there were already 146,000 TV receivers in Canada. In other words, like radio, television began as a pipeline for American programs.
   Following the principles of the Massey Report, the Government provided for a general system based first on public ownership. "There was to be a CBC-owned station and production centre in each of the main regions with private stations elsewhere. All private stations were to be affiliates for the time being" (CBC History, p. 18). Of course, Canadian television would have to be different from the American model and work from the mandate conferred by Parliament. (see pp. 8-9)

Canadian television was born in a paternalistic environment, its role to provide not what the masses wanted -indeed, their love of American culture disqualified them from knowing what they wanted- but what was good for them. If American television was devoted to fun and gratification, then Canadian television could not be. 6

    CBFT Montreal went on air on September 6, 1952 and CBLT Toronto two days later. The first Canadian television picture viewers could see was an upside-down CBC test card. Together, the two stations could reach 30% of the population. By 1954, new stations had been opened in Ottawa (CBOT), Vancouver (CBVT), Winnipeg (CBWT), Halifax (CBHT) as well as private affiliated stations in the largest cities. Thus, after two years' existence, 60% of Canadian households were covered and receiver ownership sky-rocketed growing from 146,000 to 1,000,000 . Originally, alternative service could not be licensed as long as service in the major areas was not achieved. However, the "single station" policy was soon dropped with the passing of the 1958 Broadcasting Act. New private stations took the airwaves in 1960 and the CTV (Canadian Television) Toronto-based network as well as TVA (Les Télédiffuseurs Associés) from Montreal were opened.

    One of the main differences between radio and television lies in the complexity of the broadcasting signals. Unlike radio, television uses very fragile microwaves that cannot be carried over a long distance but are necessary for live transmissions. At that time, the only picture recording protocol available was the kinescope, a device using a 16 mm cine-camera filming the television screen, and the picture quality was quite poor (the broadcast video-recorder was invented in 1956 by Ampex).
   The first television microwave link was completed between Toronto and the neighbouring American city of Buffalo NY in January 1953 so as to carry live American programs. By May 1953, there were microwave circuits connecting Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa to provide CBC stations with feeds. This technology was quite expensive: microwave relays are usually built in line-of-sight with each other and no more than 70 kilometres apart. Before Telstar-1 and the USA/Pleumeur-Bodou satellite duplex in 1962, no television signal had ever crossed the Atlantic Ocean. For instance, the BBC coverage of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation had to be flown to Montreal by a Royal Canadian Air Force jet.
    Nevertheless, a coast-to-coast microwave relay system was gradually built as new stations and new affiliates joined the network. However, only the larger centres (and the small cities that happened to be on the "itinerary") could enjoy television. Building hundreds of relays across deserted areas to serve remote populations in the North seemed and maybe was preposterous. On July 1, 1958 a special program, Memo To Champlain, marked the achievement of the longest (6,400 kilometres) microwave relay system in existence linking Victoria, BC to Sidney, NS. The connection with the province of Newfoundland, across the Cabot Strait was achieved a year later.

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