Sponsor (July-Dec 1951)

Make your product the first choice io Qoefaec area USE CHRC the first choice of radio-listeners in this 29 county area CHRC (the only SOflO watt station in Quebec city) reaches 250,000 radio homes and a $908,288,000 net effective huying income* For availabilities and rates, write, wire or phone our representatives : CANADA: Jos. A. Hardy & Co., Ltd. U. S. A.: Adam J. Young Jr., Inc. "LAVOIX DU VIEUX QUEBEC" Sales Management, May, 1951 Pat Freeman, and T. J. Allard, executives of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. 108 Sparks St., Ottawa, and 37 Bloor St.. W.. Toronto. Q. What is the Massey Commission Report and why is it significant? A. The Massey Commission - more formally known as the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters & Sciences — was appointed by the government in 1949 to investigate Canada's culture in general, and broadcasting in particular. Its five members consisted of four educators, headed by Vincent Massey, chancellor of University of Toronto, and one engineer, Arthur Surveyor of Montreal. Recently, it published its recommendations to the government in the form of a report — a weighty tome of 517 pages. much of it devoted to broadcasting. What the report boils down to, a sponsor editor determined after reading all 517 pages conscientiously, is that the commissioners regard themselves as an elite intelligentsia whose mission it is to castigate broadcasters as commercial Philistines. Four of the five commissioners ignored the complaint presented by 113 privately owned stations that the CBC "is at once competitor, regulator, prosecutor, jury and judge." They further rejected the stations' chief proposal that a separate, permanent body be set up to regulate both private stations and the CBC, like the FCC in the U.S. Instead, the four commissioners stoutlv upheld the CBC for "combatting commercialization and excessive Americanization of Canadian programs." Too. the commissioners praised the CBC for catering to minority tastes, for trying to "elevate" public taste; and they quoted with approval the fantastically undemocratic credo of the BBC's director-general, Sir William Haley: "Men who devote themselves to broadcasting must not do what noisy, uninformed clamour tells them to do, but what they believe to be right." (In other words, don't give the people what they want, but regiment them into accepting what an elite coterie thinks they ought to want.) Significantly, the one dissenting commissioner siding with the stations' |tlea for a separate regulatory board was the non-academic engineer. Arthur Surveyor. Like most Canadian broadcasters. Surveyor acknowledges the CBCs virtues. By enforcing stiffer regulations on the content and spacing of commercial copy, the CBC has helped avoid the relatively unbridled excesses of U.S. radio stations, who. with their lack of self-control, threaten to kill the medium. Also, the CBC. through its experimental dramatic shows ( like Andrew Allan's prize-winning Stage '51 series I and its Wednesday Night talks and fine music, has added a distinguishable Canadian flavor to the medium. However, unlike the other dilettante commissioners. Surveyor also realizes that advertising, whether vou like it or not. is an integral part of the cultural climate of Canada. Or in his words: "There is a tendency to underestimate the importance of advertising in the economic life of the country " The upshot of the report is yet to be known. Its recommendations will be considered by Parliament this fall. Q. What's the TV situation in Canada? A. Television in Canada is today in a state of creeping growth. Right now, no TV stations are operating in the Dominion, but interest in the new medium is high, largely because of American hoopla. According to a report sponsor received from Richard G. Lewis, publisher of Canadian Broadcaster & Telescreen, Canadians at the beginning of May this year had bought 56.284 video sets. The owners were receiving TV shows from across-the-border stations. Citizens of Windsor, Ontario, owned 24.195 sets, or 43% of the total; people in the Toronto-Hamilton area of Ontario had 19,969, or 35% of the sets; the Niagara Peninsula had 9.228, or 17% of the sets; and others, many in Vancouver-Victoria, British Columbia, had 2.892, or V < of the total sets. Q. What's the status of the CBC TV network? A. Its growth has been virtually stationary. In March. 1949, the government issued an interim policy report. It gave the CBCs Board of Governors control of Canada's TV broadcasting, and provided the CBC with a loan of $4,000,000 to begin developing video. Since then, two CBC television stations have been in a slow process of construction in Toronto and Montreal. 60 SPONSOR