OUT OF THIN AIR

that it was his intention to have the report re—studied. Later, he reassured Dad that as long as he was in power, there was “. . .no chance

the Aird Report would be dug out, let alone implemented.”

If the Prime Minister thought it was going to be an easy job to bury the file containing the Aird Report, he was mistaken. There were two powerful factors he yet had to contend with: Graham Spry, the founder and head of the Canadian Radio League, and the Canadian newspaper industry. During this time, Graham Spry became synonymous with Canadian nationalism. He and other members of the Canadian Radio League were strongly opposed to American domination of Canadian radio and were convinced that the only way to keep radio Canadian was to nationalize it; so, therefore, they wanted the Aird Report imple— mented. The daily newspapers, of course, agreed with the Aird Report’s “no advertising“ recommendations and together with the Canadian Radio League they formed a strong and influential lobby. The private broadcasters soon realized that if this powerful lobby was successful it would spell their doom. They drew together and presented their own lobby. Finally, the result was neither complete nationalization nor com— plete private ownership. In 1932, a bill was passed in Parliament creating a three—member Commission to “. . .carry on the business of broadcasting in Canada” during which they were to regulate and control privately— owned stations “...so long as these continued to exist.”

The Commission, called the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission was headed by journalist Hector Charlesworth, who was at that time Editor of Saturday Night, the prestigious Toronto magazine; the Vice-Chairman was Thomas Maher, a forestry engineer who at one time had been a director of CHRC, a private Quebec radio station; the third member was Lt. Colonel W Arthur Steel who had a vast technical knowledge, and had served as one of Canada’s advisors at the Madrid Conference which had set international frequency allocations. The Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission was 'the forerunner of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation which was created about six months after the Moose River Broadcasts in 1936.

For a while the powerful newspaper industry licked its wounds and settled down to coexist with the new medium until the sudden attention given to radio during the Moose River broadcasts caused the old ani— mosity to surface again. The immediacy of the information and the powerful effect of the spoken voice on the imagination eclipsed the print of the newspapers. Also, because of the direct and instant reporting from

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