As we are approaching the opening of the Vancouver Olympics the temperature of Canadian patriotism is rising dramatically. Even the Leader of the Opposition says he hopes his wife will be able to curb his enthusiasm once the Games start. Especially his enthusiasm for curling.
It is therefore remarkable that patriotic Canadians don’t seem to mind that a new international race is unfolding on another front on which sixty-five years ago Canada – after much initial hesitation – played a prominent role. On that front even today Canada is a modest player – the front of international broadcasting. Few Canadians know about RCI, Radio Canada International, the international arm of the CBC.
Most Canadians do know about CNN and the BBC and have even heard of Al Jazeera, which will soon be viewable on cable. Some know about Russia Today (RT) which may also become available on cable. But very few are acquainted with France 24, which was launched by former president Chirac. But who, until last weekend’s story in The Globe and Mail, has heard of Press TV, the new Iranian propaganda service out of Teheran?
That the Chinese are in the game, too, with their Xinhua CNC, will surprise few. It was launched last year.
Back to 1944-1945. The BBC and the Voice of America had been broadcasting to the world for some time when the Mackenzie King government, after considerable hesitations, gently asked the CBC whether it, too, might be able to launch an international shortwave service. The motivation was clear enough: Canadian patriotism – plus political considerations about Canada’s role in the forthcoming peace negotiations – demanded that Canada make its presence felt in the air as it was on the ground, on the battlefields of Europe. After doing extensive feasibility studies the CBC said “Yes.”
Test transmissions out of Montreal did not begin until December, 1944, five months before the end of the war. The service was officially opened in February, 1945. It was a major event. Mackenzie King himself delivered a message on shortwave. Transmissions were in English, French, German, Dutch and Czech. (The word propaganda was taboo – Canada provided information. The sound of the Voice of Canada was to be suitably sober.) Other languages were added later – the three Scandinavian languages, Spanish and Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian and Polish. Much more recently – Chinese and Arabic. The shortwave service continues but of course RCI also uses the new media. Details can be found at www.rcinet.ca.
So why do so few Canadians know about this service, especially now when the temperature of Canadian patriotism is getting hotter by the minute?
One can guess the reason. The CBC has been so traumatized by the regular ordeal of budget cuts that it has made it its policy not to publicize the service at home. The Corporation is afraid the public won’t understand that, as an expression of Canadian patriotism, RCI is a bargain.
Thank you for the information. I did not know about this and I used to work in a radio newsroom in my youth. No it was not before this service started.
(Almost) nobody is THAT old!
I was head of the German Section from 1946-1953. I worked in the section from the beginning, i.e., from December 1944.