Canadian Radio League
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The Canadian Radio League was a public pressure group led by Graham Spry and
Alan Plaunt Alan Butterworth Plaunt (March 25, 1904 – September 12, 1941) was a Canadian broadcasting pioneer, journalist and activist. The son of a wealthy lumber family, Plaunt attended the University of Toronto and University of Oxford and was a keen obse ...
to mobilize support for the establishment of public broadcasting in Canada. The League was founded in 1930 in order to lobby for the implementation of the 1929 Report of the Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting (Aird Commission) recommending the creation of a Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (the forerunner of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.) Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King had delayed implementation of the Aird Commission's report until after the 1930 federal election. However, with the defeat of King's government and the election of a Conservative government led by
R.B. Bennett Richard Bedford Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett, (July 3, 1870 – June 26, 1947), was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, philanthropist, and politician who served as the 11th prime minister of Canada from 1930 to 1935. Bennett was born in ...
, the future of public broadcasting become uncertain. Spry and Plaunt founded the League and used it to influence public opinion in support of public broadcasting making their case to trade unions, farm groups, business associations, churches, the
Royal Canadian Legion The Royal Canadian Legion is a non-profit Canadian ex-service organization (veterans' organization) founded in 1925. Membership includes people who have served as military, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, provincial and municipal police, Royal ...
, the
Canadian Club of Toronto The Canadian Club of Toronto, now known as Canadian Club Toronto, is a non-profit speakers' forum in Toronto, Ontario. It meets several times a month to hear speeches given by invited guests from diverse fields, including politics, law, business ...
, newspapers, university presidents and other influential public figures. The Canadian parliament held public hearings into the future of broadcasting in Canada at which the League testified urging the creation of a national public broadcasting system that would reflect Canadians' identity and be free from the influence of private American interests. "The choice before the committee is clear," Spry affirmed during the hearings. "It is a choice between commercial interests and the people's interest. It is a choice between the state and the United States." Largely as a result of the CRL's efforts, the Bennett government introduced the
Canadian Broadcasting Act of 1932 Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
creating the CRBC. In 1968 Spry revived the CRL as the 'Canadian Broadcasting League when the creation of a new Broadcast Act threatened the future of the CBC. For the next two decades it was active lobbying on the issue of public broadcasting and the cable television industry profits, funding for the CBC, educational broadcasting and legislation. It remained active until the late 1980s.Portman, Jamie, "Tories ready to shove Broadcast Act through", ''Toronto Star'', August 30, 1988


See also

*
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting Friends of Canadian Broadcasting (FRIENDS) is a Canadian advocacy group that monitors developments in the Canadian television and radio broadcasting industries. The group promotes expansion of public broadcasting, investment in Canadian content, a ...
(modern-day equivalent)


References

{{reflist Political advocacy groups in Canada Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Public radio in Canada Cultural promotion organizations Protectionism