The Board of Broadcast Governors (BBG) was an arms-length Government of Canada agency. It was created in 1958 by amending the Broadcast Act to regulate television and radio broadcasting , originally taking over that function from the CBC .
18-461: The Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting , otherwise known as the Aird Commission , was chaired by John Aird and examined Canada's broadcasting industry. The report released its findings in 1929 when it concluded that Canada was in need of a publicly funded radio broadcast system and a governing regulator for all broadcasting throughout the country. The Aird Report eventually resulted in
36-478: Is done abroad and how it could be improved on home soil. Between April 17 and July 24, the commission heard 164 oral statements, took 124 written submissions, and had the comments of nine provinces and controlled conventions. Travelling across Europe and the United States , the commission made several observations regarding the inner workings of radio stations and their ownership. It was noted that some of
54-588: The stock market crashed a scant six weeks after the report was issued, making government support for public broadcasting problematic. Eventually, however, under the government of R. B. Bennett , the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission was formed in 1932 under the chairmanship of Hector Charlesworth , a journalist and music critic from Saturday Night magazine . Aird died in Toronto in 1938. His grandson John Black Aird
72-534: The 1920s. However, a series of controversial and ungoverned attacks over the airwaves, directed namely at the Catholic Church and Canadian Government, led it to be a matter of public and political importance. This led to debates on how broadcasting should be managed. These problems included the feeling that religious radio stations had " ...emerged as a new weapon with which one religious group could bludgeon another... ", and that U.S. stations unfairly dominated
90-757: The 1932 creation of the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission , the forerunner of the CBC as well as the CRTC . From 1922-1932, the radio administration came under the Department of Marine and Fisheries . With only dozens of radio stations broadcasting within Canada, and few Canadian households owning radios, the Radio Broadcasting industry was not a top agenda issue for the Federal Government in
108-644: The Aird Commission delivered its nine-page Report of the Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting to Parliament . Included in the report was the recommendation that broadcasting in Canada should benefit the people of the country. To this end, the report recommended a publicly owned system funded in part by a $ 3 annual licence fee, in essence, the blueprint for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . Unfortunately,
126-992: The Election of 1930, the Aird Report fell into the hands of the new Prime Minister R.B. Bennett . This eventually led to the passing of the Radio Broadcasting Act (1932). This created the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, predecessor to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as well as the Canadian Radio-Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). This early CRBC was meant to serve as a free public broadcaster, under federal control for purposes of education and entertainment. The CRBC also served as
144-608: The Great Depression. The set top taxes were not enough for the CRBC to survive off of alone, so there were allotted advertising slots for Canadian businesses. This was dually useful as the crippled Canadian economy would benefit from the business generated. After some very controversial and partisan programming, the CRBC became a target from the liberal government who had just come back to power with Mackenzie King's most recent re-election in 1935. With 2 formal investigations in
162-495: The J.C.P.C. ultimately decided that this was a federal matter. Based on the report, a national company, the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission , was set up that would have power to operate and own all radio stations in Canada. Further control was given to the provinces to broadcast the content they want but within the provincial boundaries. After the Liberal government (who initially put together this Commission) had fallen in
180-615: The Progressive Conservative party intended to change the makeup of the Canadian Broadcast system. Up to that point, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) had been responsible for maintaining broadcast infrastructures, creating programs, and regulating the industry. These roles described the CBC as being both "cop and competitor" and were argued to be separated. The regulatory function was thus given over to
198-519: The airwaves despite an agreement to reserve some frequencies exclusively for Canadian stations. These led the government of William Lyon Mackenzie King to establish a Royal Commission on the subject of broadcasting. Aird was appointed head of the three-man commission which also included Augustin Frigon , an electrical engineer, and Charles Bowman , editor of the Ottawa Citizen . In 1929,
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#1732772008049216-716: The airwaves despite an agreements to reserve some frequencies exclusively for Canadian stations. In December 1928, under the direction of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King , P.J. Arthur (Minister of Marine and Fisheries) formed the Aird Commission to report on federal broadcasting policy. Sir John Aird and his colleagues Charles A. Bowman, Esq. (Editor of the Ottawa Citizen ), Augustin Frigon , D.Sc. (Director of École Polytechnique in Montreal), and Donald Manson, Esq., (Chief Inspector of Radio, Department of Marine and Fisheries) set out to examine how radio broadcasting
234-543: The best broadcasting was done in Germany and the United Kingdom , where they both made use of a public broadcaster. What they also observed was a dependence on advertising revenue in many radio markets. This dependence led the commission to come to the conclusion that when it came to matters of public importance, Canadians should have access to uninterrupted public broadcasting, free of solicitation. The latter notion
252-662: The mid-1930s from special Parliamentary Committees, the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission was disbanded. The broadcasting element of the CRBC was succeeded by what we know today as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1936. The regulatory element of the CRBC and later the CBC eventually evolved into the Board of Broadcast Governors (BBG), and then into the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). John Aird (banker) Sir John Aird (November 15, 1855 – November 30, 1938)
270-475: The regulatory governing body for all private radio stations. Bennett’s Radio Broadcasting Act had proposed an eventual takeover of all private radio stations by the federal government, something which to this day has never materialized. At this time, one-third of Canadians owned a home radio receiver. There was a mandatory annual licensing fee for radio owners. Although it wasn’t free, it was considered an affordable means of entertainment for country suffering through
288-622: Was a Canadian banker. Born at Longueuil in Canada East (now Quebec ), he joined the Canadian Bank of Commerce in 1878. He became president of the bank in 1924 and held that position until 1929. A number of problems arose during 1920s, causing debates on how broadcasting should be managed. These problems included the feeling that religious radio stations had "...emerged as a new weapon with which one religious group could bludgeon another...", and that U.S. stations unfairly dominated
306-486: Was a Canadian lawyer who served as the 23rd Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1980 to 1985. Board of Broadcast Governors The BBG was replaced by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in the 1968 amendments to the 1958 Act. The board consisted of 12 members appointed by the federal government: The head of the board was the Governor. There had only been two Chairmen: In 1957,
324-648: Was at times abandoned in hopes to stimulate Canadian businesses during the Great Depression . Without regulation, the commissioners feared that American radio stations would take over Canada. At this time, the United States was facing issues at their southern border with several “Border Blaster” signals taking listenership away from domestic stations. The Commission sought to protect Canada from such activity. There were some disagreements amongst Commissioners regarding who should control this new proposed public broadcaster. This debate continued until 1932, when
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