Securing the North: Building the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Northern Service

Abstract

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (cbc) Northern Service, founded in 1958, preserved the economic, political, military, social, and cultural geographies of mid-twentieth-century northern development. The public broadcaster only reluctantly expanded northward, building upon already established shortwave services and ceding to requests for programming from a few, far-flung radio stations operated by the armed forces, civilian volunteers, and mining companies. Though these radio stations were never enough of a priority to receive the support they needed to most effectively serve their small, isolated audiences, they still held symbolic significance for the cbc, representing a means by which to establish its claim to the country's northernmost airwaves and thereby secure control over broadcasting in Canada.