Canada Before Television: Radio, Taste and the Struggle for Cultural Democracy by Len Kuffert (review)

The history of radio in Canada is not exactly neglected–think of the work of Mary Vipond and Frank Peers–but Len Kuffert argues there is still much to be discussed. In his new book Kuffert examines how the medium developed in Anglophone Canada. He has immersed himself in archives on both sides of the Atlantic and has written an engaging account of the subject. The approach is thematic, with chapters focusing, for example, on the impact of the commercially driven US system–and the challenge it posed to any alternative system concerned ultimately with 'cultural democracy'–the relationship to the BBC, and the problems of content regulation.

The fundamental problem for Canadian broadcasting has always been that there is a huge advertising-financed system south of the border accessible across that border, so when the Canadian government finally got round to asserting the need to develop indigenous broadcasting and the legitimacy of regulation to secure that end audiences had become used to 'free' broadcasting which appealed to popular taste but did not seek to expand that taste. Kuffert is not snobbish about the virtues of the US approach but he acknowledges its deficiencies and explores well the desire of those involved in the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, and then the CBC, to learn from the BBC, without being patronised by it. There was fairly constant contact and British programmes were regularly transmitted by the CBC, but it never enjoyed what John Reith memorably described as 'the brute force of monopoly'. As Kuffert says, 'Becoming the BBC in Canada was impossible for the CBC, having being constrained politically from displacing the existing commercial stations and needing to do more than dabble in sponsored material' (p. 113). As that dilemma remains, so do the issues of taste and content regulation. However, it is startling to learn how much trouble the American comedian Eddie Cantor's allegedly risqué shows caused. Jazz programming had some commentators arguing in frankly racist language that it should not be broadcast at all. Common sense prevailed, however, and there was widespread dissemination of the music, with the CBC opting for 'serious jazz' (p. 176).

One incidental pleasure of Kuffert's book is his accounts of the doings of some of the principal dramatis personae involved, ranging from Graham Spry of the National Radio League, which campaigned for public service broadcasting, to Gladstone Murray, first general manager of the CBC, a Canadian expat who had previously worked for the BBC at a senior level and proved a competent, if erratic, chief executive. This stimulating book needs a more extensive index and I wish Kuffert would avoid talking on occasion about 'highbrow stuff'. One can overdo the populist persona.