Before RSID: <<2026-07-01T13:31Z MFSK-32 @ 14070000+1500>>
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n4 t oaam 455 of Shortwave Radiogram.
I'm Tony Pavick in Hope, British Columbia in Canada sitting in for Kim Andrew Elliott.
Here is the lineup for today's programme, in MFSK modes as noted:
1:33 MFSK32: Programme preview (now)
2:40 MFSK32: Radio in Canada: The Prehistory
7:57 MFSK64: The CBC and Radio Canada International
10:19 MFSK64: This week's images
28:23 MFSK32: Closing announcements
Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net
And visit http://swradiogram.net
We're on Bluesky now: SWRadiogram.bsky.social
And X/Twitter: @SWRadiogram
Radio in Canada: The Prehistory
Primitive radio broadcasting in Canada began in the 1890s as
utility stations using Morse code. Radio pioneers Guglielmo
Marconi and Reginald Fessenden laid the groundwork for
transatlantic broadcasts and voice transmissions in the early 20th
century.
Marconi set up a receiving station at Signal Hill in
Newfoundland. On 12 December 1901 heeived the
Morse code letter S ( ● ● ● ) transmitted from his
sending station in Cornwall in the UK, 3500 km away.
Meanwhile, Fessenden, a Canadian, was in Pittsburgh in
Pennsylvania working on the basics of voice transmission by
amplitude modulation. This cross-border competition would
make for interesting claims in later years.
Both men continued to work on perfecting radio transmissions and
conducted tests with speech and phonograph records until the onset
of World War I when civilian use of radio was banned by the Canadian
government.
It wasn’t until 1920 that the competing claims would heat up. While
it is generally accepted that KDKA, then known as 8ZZ, in Pittsburgh
was the first broadcaster geared toward the general public, having
reported election results on 2 November 1920, the Marconi station
XWA (later CFCF) in Montréal began entertainment broadcasts several
months earlier on 20 May 1920. The claim to being the 'first' gets
even murkier if one looks back to 1919, with Frank Conrad using 8XK
in Pittsburgh, a precursor to 8ZZ/KDKA, to broadcast music, and XWA
in Montréal using a 500 watt Marconi transmitter to do the same.
The claim to be the first is best left to each country’s national pride.
The first network in Canada is less muddy. One might assume it was the
CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The first network was actually
established by the Canadian National Railway, the CNR. Sir Henry Thornton,
president of the CNR, knew that radio could be used to promote rail travel.
He had special radio listening cars set up on CNR’s long distance trains
and he also established CNR owned radio stations along the route with
programming fed to them via the telegraph transmission lines owned by CNR.
By 1927, 76% of the nation had radio coverage. However, most Canadians tuned to
high powered stations from the USA. In 1928, the Royal Commission on Radio
Broadcasting was established to investigate the development of a national public
broadcaster to counter the American broadcasters. This lead to the creation of
the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC) in 1932. That would become
the CBC in 1936.
Next up…. The CBC and Radio Canada International
A CBC TV test pattern
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Shortwave Radiogram now changes to MFSK64 ...
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Before RSID: <<2026-07-01T13:37Z MFSK-32 @ 14070000+1499>>
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This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64
In 1936 the CBC, known as Société Radio-Canada for the French
audience, was born. Broadcasting in both English and French,
it was modeled after the BBC. The English service was soon
providing hËntasdwn programmes such as The Happy Gang, a
variety show, which debuted in 1937 and the French soap opera
Un Homme et Son Péché in 1939. Both ran for 22 years. Hockey
Night in Canada with Foster Hewitt was popular on both sides
of the border. It still airs on CBC TV to this day.
CBC News contributed to the network’s success during the war years
leading to the establishment of two CBC services, the Trans-Canada
Network and the Dominion Network, similar to the BBC Home Service
and the Light Programme. When the war ended, the predecessor to
Radio Canada International, the CBC International Service would be
established with a 24 hour a day service not only in English and
French, but German, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch and Swedish to name a few.
For a short time it was known as The Voice of Canada.
By 1947 the CBC’s presence on shortwave was as follows.
Note that each frequency had a callsign.
CBC International Service: Sackville, New Brunswick (all 50 kw)
CHLA: 21710 kc/s
CKRP: 21600 kc/s
CKNC: 17820 kc/s
CKCS: 15320 kc/s
CKCX: 15190 kc/s
CKLX: 15090 kc/s
CKEX: 11900 kc/s
CKRA: 11760 kc/s
CHOL: 11720 kc/s
CKXA: 11705 kc/s
CHMD: 9640 kc/s
CKLO: 9630 kc/s
CHLS: 9610 kc/s
CHAC: 6160 kc/s
CKOB: 6090 kc/s
CKRZ: 6060 kc/s
CBC Stations:
Montréal Quebec CBLX: 15090 kc/s (7.5 kW)
Montréal Quebec CBFW: 6090 kc/s (200 watts)
Vancouver British Columbia CBRX: 6160 kc/s (150 watts)
In 1952, CBC TV was born with CBLT in Toronto & CBFT in Montréal.
By 1955 66 % of all Canadian had access to TV. In 1966 colour TV
arrived across the nation.
As TV matured, medium wave, FM and shortwave radio still played
a vital role, leading to the establishment of the CBC Northern
Service on radio in 1958 and a shortwave service to the Arctic in 1960.
The CBC International Service became Radio Canada International around
1970 and was one of the world’s most listened to shortwave outlets.
By the mid 70s it broadcast in 10 languages and the CBC Northern Service
broadcast in English, French, Inuktitut, and Cree.
CBC domestic radio and TV continued to grow with advances into FM Stereo,
24 hour a day programming, the cable only channels CBC Newsworld/ Réseau
de l'information, and programming on satellite radio, and the now defunct
international TV channels Newsworld International and Trio.
By the 1990s severe budget cuts hit RCI. Almost all non English or French
services at RCI were closed down. RCI programming in English and French was
replaced with relays of CBC domestic shows. By 2012 shortwave broadcasting
was shutdown and the transmitter facilities at Sackville, New Brunswick were
torn down. This event was memorialised in Amanda Dawn Christie’s documentary
"Spectres of Shortwave". RCI is now an internet only service.
CBC/RCI Logos through the years
Image: 1940_to_1958
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Image: 1958_to_1966
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The colour TV era...
Image: 1966_to_1974
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Image: 1974_to_1986
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Image: 1986_to_1992
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The current logo used since 1992
Image: 1992_to_Present
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CBC International Service/ Radio Canada International logos
Image: CBC_International
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The change to Radio Canada International
Image: RCI_1970_to_1974
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Image: RCI_1974_to_1985
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Image: RCI_1985_to_1992
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Image: RCI_1992_to_2021
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The current internet only logo
Image: RCI_2021
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Shortwave Radiogram now returns to MFSK32....
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Before RSID: <<2026-07-01T13:58Z MFSK-64 @ 14070000+1499>>
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This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK32 ...
Transmission of Shortwave Radiogram is provided by:
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Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net
And visit http://swradiogram.net
http://swradiogram.bsky.social
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I'm Tony Pavick. Please join us for the next Shortwave
Radiogram.