Dominion Network

Updated on Oct 19, 2023

Edit

Comment

Type Radio network Launch date 1944		Country Canada

Availability National through CJBC and private affiliates Owner Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Key people Spence Caldwell (manager)

The Dominion Network was the second English-language radio network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from January 1, 1944 to 1962.

It consisted of the CBC-owned CJBC radio station in Toronto and a series of 34 privately owned affiliates from coast-to-coast. The Dominion Network was set up as a complementary network to the CBC's main English service which became known as the Trans-Canada Network. While the Trans-Canada Network focus was on public affairs, educational and cultural programs, the Dominion Network's broadcast schedule consisted of lighter programming fare than that of the Trans-Canada Network and carried more American programming.

As well, the Dominion Network operated mostly in the evenings, freeing affiliates to air local programming during the day.

History

The Dominion Network was launched on January 1, 1944 after a request by private affiliates asking to set up their own radio network in order to carry American programming was turned down. CBC became concerned that the private stations might succeed in pressuring the government to permit such a private radio network. As a result, the CBC set up its own second network to appease demands by privately owned CBC affiliates for popular programming that would provide more commercial revenue.

The network was managed by Spence Caldwell, who later became a founder of CTV. Shows carried by the network included Duffy's Tavern, Amos & Andy and Fibber McGee and Molly.

There is an urban legend that a CBC announcer once accidentally gave a station identification as "the Dominion Network of the Canadian Broadcorping Castration", which was popularized when US TV producer Kermit Schaefer included a recreation of this incident on one of his best-selling Pardon My Blooper record albums in the 1950s. Canadian political pundit Mark Steyn often refers to the CBC as such in his columns.

The network was dissolved in 1962 and most of the private stations became independent. CJBC gradually became a French-language station and is now the Southern Ontario owned-and-operated station of Radio-Canada's Première Chaîne.