MONTRÉAL — Early commercial radio broadcasting in Canada, during the period from 1918-1932, has been commemorated as a national historic event today by Steven Guilbeault, minister of environment and climate change and minister responsible for Parks Canada.
“Commercial radio in Canada got its start with the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of Canada in 1918,” explains a Parks Canada press release. “From its rudimentary Montréal facility, this company experimented with wireless broadcasting and received a licence for station XWA in December 1919. A year later, the station started a regular schedule of transmissions.”
From that first station, Canada’s commercial radio industry grew to 39 radio stations by 1922 and then jumped to 77 stations across the country by 1932.
“The Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, Canada’s first public broadcaster, was established in 1932 and with it the era of exclusively private radio came to an end, but it was a period that would establish the basis of Canadian broadcasting for the 20th century. In a little over a decade, radio had gone from a niche hobby to a major cultural industry,” the release says.
“On behalf of the Government of Canada, I am honoured to commemorate the national historic significance of early commercial radio broadcasting in Canada,” Guilbeault said in the release. “Historic designations reflect Canada’s rich and varied history and I encourage all Canadians to learn more about early commercial radio broadcasting in Canada and its important contributions to Canada’s heritage.”
A plaque highlighting the national historic significance of early commercial radio broadcasting in Canada was unveiled at an event yesterday in Montréal. (Pictured above, left to right, are: Geneviève Caron, director of Parks Canada’s Mauricie and Western Quebec field unit; Yolande Cohen, Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada representative; François Gagnon, executive director of École de technologie supérieure de Montréal (ÉTS); Denis Couillard, director of solutions development at Ultra Communications; and Alain Dufour, secretary of the Quebec Society for Vintage Radio Collectors.)
The plaque will eventually be placed at ÉTS. A spokesperson for the Office of the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change told Cartt.ca via email the plaque has not yet been placed because the area is under construction. “It will be installed on Williams Street in Old Montreal, close to 1023 Williams St.,” the spokesperson said, adding the exact location is still to be determined.
“Just like Marconi, who was a daring and persevering entrepreneur, the community of researchers at ÉTS is striving today to imagine the telecommunications of tomorrow, which will serve not only to interconnect people, but also billions of objects that will be part of our daily lives, whether to improve our health, monitor the state of our infrastructure in real time, guide our transport or adapt to climate change,” Gagnon said in the press release.
For more, please see the press release and a backgrounder about the early years of Canada’s commercial radio industry.
According to the backgrounder, early commercial radio broadcasting in Canada from 1918-1932 was designated a national historic event in July 2019 by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Photo provided by Parks Canada.
