Our April 26th programme was The History of Canadian Broadcasting. The guest speaker was Kealy Wilkinson, Executive Director of the Canadian Broadcast Museum Foundation. The programme begin with a background on the development of broadcasting in Canada in the 20th century. She mentioned that Canada’s first radio station was CFCF in Montreal in 1920; that Lorne Greene read the CBC news during the WWII and that the very popular Happy Gang radio show was broadcast on CBC radio. Canada’s first 2 television stations in Toronto and Montreal went on the air in 1952.
She mentioned that Canada is the only developed country with no preservation society and that of all the programming produced by the CBC between 1936 and 1984, only 16% was preserved. The National Broadcast Collection for Canada does have over 100,000 items. A recent addition was 50 years of material from CHUM radio.
The Scarborough Historical Society hosts programmes on the 4th Tuesday of each month from January to April and from September to November. All programmes begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Bendale Public Library and are free and open to the public.