Programming
Network programming included orchestral music, live Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts from NBC and New York Philharmonic Orchestra broadcasts from CBS, dramatized informational programs such as The Youngbloods of Beaver Band which serialized life on a western Canadian farm. One of the best known national drama series was Radio Theatre Guild produced in Montreal by Rupert Caplan. Under program director Ernie Bushnell, CRBC increased the number of weekly English language series being broadcast over the network to 17 by the time of the network's demise.
Another CRBC program, one which originated on the CNR's network in 1931, was Hockey Night in Canada under the names Saturday Night Hockey, General Motors Hockey Broadcast and then, starting in 1934, The Imperial Oil Hockey Broadcast. Other programming including fare such as Bible Dramas from CRCM Montreal, Canadian Press News - a 15 minute nightly newscast from CRCT Toronto presented by Charles Jennings (the father of Peter Jennings), Western Radio Players a weekly dramatic half-hour from CKY Winnipeg and Northern Messenger, a weekly program originating from Toronto but aimed at Canadians living in the far north including personal messages to RCMP officers, missionaries, trappers and others from family and friends, the program was continued by CBC into the 1970s.
CRBC's nation-wide radio coverage of the 1935 federal election was the first time Canadian election results were broadcast nationwide.
All programs were live as there were no recording facilities. The network had six stations of its own and relied largely on private affiliates to provide studios, equipment and staff.
In April 1936, CRBC provided round the clock coverage of the Moose River Mine Disaster in Nova Scotia with announcer J. Frank Willis broadcasting live reports from the mine head every half hour for five days as rescue crews attempted to recover the lost miners. The reports were broadcast throughout Canada as well as to 650 stations in the United States and the BBC.
The CRBC turned to radio advertising in order to make up a shortfall between government grants and the amount of money needed to run the network.
Read more about this topic: Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission
Famous quotes containing the word programming:
“If there is a price to pay for the privilege of spending the early years of child rearing in the driver’s seat, it is our reluctance, our inability, to tolerate being demoted to the backseat. Spurred by our success in programming our children during the preschool years, we may find it difficult to forgo in later states the level of control that once afforded us so much satisfaction.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)