The Only Class I-A Stations in Canada Were All Government Owned.

[Gregg.]

When you look at the old list of Class I-A stations across North America, all the Canadian ones were owned by the government. Most were part of the CBC Radio Network but a couple, CBF Montreal 690 and CJBC Toronto 860, were part of the Radio-Canada Network, broadcasting in French. For a free-market nation, I wonder why the government kept all the Class I-A frequencies for itself?

Class I-A:

540 CBK Watrous-Regina -- CBC
690 CBF Montreal -- Radio-Canada
740 CBL Toronto -- CBC
860 CJBC Toronto -- Radio-Canada
990 CBW Winnipeg -- CBC

A few commercial, privately-owned stations were Class I-B, along with other government-owned stations:

940 CBM Montreal -- CBC (Non-directional by day and only slightly nulled away from Mexico City at night.)
1010 CFRB Toronto -- commercial station
1010 CBR Calgary -- CBC
1070 CBA Moncton -- CBC (It was far enough from Los Angeles to allow CBA and KNX to both be 50,000 watts non-directional.)
1130 CKWX Vancouver -- commercial station
1550 CBE Windsor -- CBC (Despite I-B status, it was only powered at 10,000 watts.)
1580 CBJ Chicoutimi -- Radio-Canada

In recent years, 690 CBU Vancouver, 730 CKAC Montreal and 980 CKNW Vancouver were given Class A status. The latter two are/were commercial stations.


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[tvnut]

What's more, the CBC, which both broadcast and issued licences before the CRTC was formed, took over most of those frequencies from private commercial broadcasters. CFRB, for instance, was on 860, but ousted when CBC took over the frequency in 1948. CFRB was given 50 kW directional in lieu of clear-channel status, up from 20 kW. And CFRB had been on 690 before that, and was moved to 860 so Radio Canada could put CBF on 690 in Montreal. CKY Winnipeg and CFCN Calgary were also evicted from 1-A frequencies in favor of CBW on 990 and CRB on 1010.

 

[Gregg.]

What's more, the CBC, which both broadcast and issued licences before the CRTC was formed, took over most of those frequencies from private commercial broadcasters. CFRB, for instance, was on 860, but ousted when CBC took over the frequency in 1948. CFRB was given 50 kW directional in lieu of clear-channel status, up from 20 kW. And CFRB had been on 690 before that, and was moved to 860 so Radio Canada could put CBF on 690 in Montreal. CKY Winnipeg and CFCN Calgary were also evicted from 1-A frequencies in favor of CBW on 990 and CRB on 1010.

Didn't know that. Geez, the Canadian government really big-footed its way to a string of Class I-A stations. I remember that the CBC was formed a couple of decades after many privately owned stations got on the air and got powerful transmitters.

 

[tvnut]

CBC effectively took over the coast-to-coast CNR Network, owned by Canadian National Railways. CNR yielded to the CRBC in 1933, reorganized as CBC in 1938. There's one vestige of CNR Radio left: Hockey Night in Canada, which started as a Saturday night radio broadcast from Toronto and Montreal in the fall of 1931.