Portal to the Online Railway Photos of Canadian Archives
CNR, forerunner of the CBC

Introduction

Consider the following fictional man-on-the-street interview:

Do you listen to radio programmes by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation?
Sometimes.
Do you know who did the first coast-to-coast broadcast?
The CBC?
No.
Really.
It was the Canadian National Railways.
No way!
True.

Though the above dialogue is concocted, we think it's a safe bet to say that the vast majority of today's Canadians don't know who was the primary forerunner of the CBC. This article takes a quick look at this episode in Canadian History.

Genesis

Legget, p. 139: «[The CNR] even pioneered with radio receiving sets for passengers in parlour cars, the elegance of which made the headlines.»

Stevens, pp. 326 & 329: «[Sir Henry Thornton, the second President and Chairman of the CNR,] quickly reacted when experiments proved the possibility of radio reception on moving trains. On July 1, 1923, the Canadian National Railways Radio Department was formed. In the following month, a party of American tourists en route across Canada received a program especially prepared for them. Before the end of that year, Canadian National Railways were the outstanding broadcasters of Canada: parlor cars sold tickets for special events. The first network went into operation in December 1923; a year later Canadian National Railways possessed three broadcasting stations and eleven outlets in addition to its train services. In March 1924, it inaugurated a program that endures to this day—Hockey Night in Canada. Early in 1925, its Moncton station broadcast the first program from Canada to Great Britain. On this occasion both Canadian and American stations gave Canadian National Railways a monopoly of the air.

Thornton had arranged for all Canadian National employees to obtain radio sets on extended terms of credit, a concession whose significance was not lost upon them. In 1926, the development of the carrier current device, whereby a number of messages could be carried over the same wire simultaneously, enabled Canadian National Railways to extend its broadcasting services from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In the following year, special transmissions to Britain became regular features; more than 19,000 miles of telegraph, telephone and cable lines were employed.

By this time, transmissions for railway use were a minor element in the company's broadcasting services; without conscious desire or effort it found itself deeply involved in radio programming, with its studios producing for all and sundry. It was first to provide opportunities for local talent and also it led the way in selling Canadian programs abroad. It was obvious, however, that sooner or later this industry must have an identity of its own, and in October 1932, the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Corporation, a separate public authority, took over the staff and broadcasting commitments of Canadian National Railways, which thus became the parent of the publicly owned services of today [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation].»

[Canadian National Railways: Pioneer broadcasters, 1926 , p.327]

Buck, p. 145: «A radio department was established in 1923 to provide entertaining broadcasts to passengers and patrons of the system's hotels. Aerials were installed on parlour and lounge cars, and console radio sets placed in prominent locations, many with special operators. Although availability was limited at first, the system expanded quickly, with radio-telephone service and an early facsimile (fax) system introduced by 1930. Sir Henry commented, “The administration believes that in the establishment of a radio department it has taken a unique and constructive step in railway operation.”»

MacKay and Perry, pp. 52 & 57: « Demonstrating that CN was “more than just another common carrier,” Thornton had been on the job only six months when he introduced a service unknown on other railways. Setting up transmitters in cities along its route, CN broadcast symphony concerts, plays about Canada's history, children's programs and hockey games to eighty lounge cars on sixteen main-line trains. “Radio-equipped observation cars had an aerial right on the roof,” recalled Jack Carlyle of Toronto, who helped establish the service. “They installed thirty-two headphones at the seats and a loudspeaker operated by an attendant.” Hailed as the first radio network in North America, the system was sold to the government during the Depression and became the foundation of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.»

By consulting Gormick and Potts' online article and the commemorative postcard image shown at the very top, we can establish the evolution of the network as follows:

In 1924, the CNR received permission to establish 3 500-watt stations
and rented the transmitters from the following 9 private stations under the guise of 7 “phantom” call signs:


These are presumably the 10 “stations” alluded to in the above 1926 image.

Thereafter 13 more stations were added to the network:

Gormick and Potts: «The first regularly-scheduled coast-to-coast network program produced by CN Radio was broadcast December 27, 1928.

By December 31, 1929, the CN Network was turning out three hours of programming a week.

CN Radio's operating costs for 1929 (the highest in CN Radio's lifetime) totaled $ 441,000 [$6,658,141.30(2021)] of which $ 55,000 [$830,380.43(2021)] (12.46%) was spent renting time on private stations - a weekly average of roughly $ 57.00 per city having a participating station or stations. Talent expenditures for the networked and locally-produced programs were $ 117,000 [$1,766,445.65(2021)] (26.52%).

Between 1923 and 1931, total capital expenditures amounted to $ 170,000 - of which, $ 135,000 was spent building stations. (The CN Moncton station cost $ 25,000
[$377,445.65(2021)]). About $ 35,000 went to equipping trains for radio reception.

In 1931, CN was feeding programs over CN Telegraph wires to its three O & O [Owned-and-Operated] stations in Moncton, Ottawa and Vancouver while covering 19 other Canadian cities by renting airtime on private stations.»

Thus, to make all this happen required a sizable investment not only in equipment but in staff and performers. In the next sections, we take a closer look at some of the archived images documenting these aspects.

Transmission

In the right-hand-side photograph, the planks, bearing battery-powered equipment, are resting across the backrests of seats in a sleeper carriage. The heavy lead-acid batteries are themselves resting on bedding slats stretched across the seats.

Interestingly, MacKay and Perry reproduced the above r-h-s photo in their book but gave it a completely different interpretation:

MacKay and Perry, p. 53: «CN pioneered radio entertainment on trains in 1923. Studio and transmitting equipment of CN's radio station CNRW were crammed into a colonist car (above) on a siding at Winnipeg. Programs were picked up by passenger trains and broadcast in parlour cars over earphones or loudspeakers.»

We are totally mystified by their second sentence. First and foremost, CNRW was CN's phantom call sign for its signal transmitted via CKY's equipment, with its performance studio (see below) located in CN's Fort Garry Hotel, a block away from its CNoR-built station. Moreover, the gentleman is holding what certainly appears to be the microphone portion of a candlestick phone. The lady is staring at a 3-dial tuned radio frequency (TRF) receiver with a speaker horn. She is likely writing down the index numbers on the dials corresponding to the signal's reception. Thus, given the ad hoc assemblage of the battery-powered equipment and the activities portrayed, we are inclined to believe that they were assessing the quality of the reception whilst providing live feedback to the broadcaster's technicians.

One issue remains unresolved in our mind. Where these “phantom” CNR stations broadcasting at a different frequency than their host stations?

Studios

Performers

Music programmes ranged from classical to popular. For example, Gormick and Potts point out that CNRA Moncton broadcasted Old-Time Fiddlers contests, CNRT Toronto aired 25 programmes featuring the prestigious Hart House String Quartet and the Toronto Symphony and CNRM Montreal «mounted complete productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas with full orchestras and choruses of 50 voices.»

Shown below is a photo shoot capturing a moment during a play, enhanced with sound effects:

The gentleman seated at the table would be the narrator. The man on the far left is dressed as a conductor and is holding a lantern. He appears poised to give the highball, p.139. But such a gesture would have been pointless on a radio show. Instead, his role was perhaps to shout out a harty “All Aboard”. The lady next to him has her left hand gripping the rocker arm of a locomotive bell. The man on the far right, dressed as a fireman/engineer, is holding some sort of in-house acoustic device derived from old music boxes. He would have cranked the handle to rotate a cylinder that plucked comb teeth reproducing the clickety-clack sound heard by all passengers on a moving train. The man next to him is blowing into an assembly of three whistles to mimic no doubt an engine's chime whistle. The lady, standing in the background and likely holding the directorial script, gave the players their cues. Oddly though, except for the whistle player, none of the other players are looking towards her which seems like a strange staging. Regardless, she was also a station announcer as seen in the next section.

Finally, note that, in three of the studios shown above, a locomotive/ship bell prop can be seen:

This immediately begs the question whether the rail-journey play was also performed at other studios. Keep in mind that «[a]ll CNR programs had to be broadcast “live”. This was a time in history when stations did not have recording equipment of any kind which would have facilitated “delayed broadcasts”. That came later (mid 30's) with the introduction of the laminated aluminum 16" electrical transcriptions, and later (mid 40's) the invention of tape recording equipment.

Announcers

Reception

The aerials mounted on the roofs of lounge and observation cars had to be low profile in order to meet the height restrictions imposed by tunnels, bridges and the like.

The early radio receivers were of the 3-dial [large knobs] TRF variety. The loud speaker seen below on the left-hand-side was manufactured by Western Electric: it had a paper cone.

These receivers needed to be operated by attendants. «A major problem of early TRF receivers was that they were complicated to tune, because each resonant circuit had to be adjusted [with one of the large knobs] to the frequency of the station before the radio would work.»

«In later TRF receivers the tuning capacitors were linked together mechanically ("ganged") on a common shaft so they could be adjusted with one knob…» This advancement and others led to receivers being easier to operate and less ungainly.

Though archived at two different institutions, the above two images are from the same photo session given that the same folks appear in both. The captions imply that sleek radio-gramophone cabinets have now replaced the earlier TRFs. However, a gramophone was not likely used once the train was under way because the playback media would undoubtedbly be scratched due to the constant jostling of the carriages.

Finally, here are a few more images of passengers enjoying Sir Henry Thornton's innovation:

Ending

Gormick and Potts: «…Mackenzie King [tenth prime minister of Canada] had established a Royal Commission on December 6, 1928, “to examine into the Broadcasting situation in the Dominion of Canada and to make recommendations to the Government as to future administration, management, control and financing thereof.”»

On August 7, 1930, the Liberals under Mackenzie King lost the federal election to the Conservatives under R.B. Bennett.

Buck, p. 163: «Following the desires of the Conservatives to dismember the CNR and sell off the pieces, the board of trustees sold the CNR radio network, established for its passenger trains and hotels, to the dominion government at a great loss. The network comprised the basis of what would become the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.»

Gormick and Potts: «As writer d'Arcy Marsh has been quoted “As a direct result of Sir Henry's ability to see the possibilities inherent in a new medium of expression, the railway did for Canada what she was too pathetic to do for herself”.»

References

  1. Bank of Canada, Inflation Calculator
  2. Buck, G.H. (1997), From Summit to Sea: An Illustrated History of Railroads in British Columbia and Alberta, Fifth House Ltd., Calgary, ISBN 1-895618-94-0.
  3. Gormick, G. and Potts, J.L. (October 1998), Canada's First Network: CNR Radio, The Canadian Communications Foundation.
  4. Legget, R.F. (1973), Railways of Canada, Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver, B.C..
  5. MacKay, D. and Perry, L. (1994), Train Country: An Illustrated History of Canadian National Railways, Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver/Toronto, Canada, ISBN 1-55054-153-6.
  6. PicClick (2021), Vtg Antique Western Electric 1920s original paper Cone Loud Speaker very cool .
  7. Stevens, G.R. (1973), History of the Canadian National Railways, The Macmillan Company, New York.
  8. Wikipedia (2021), Candlestick telephone, last edited on 8 January 2021, at 09:45 (UTC).
  9. Wikipedia (2021), Lead–acid battery, last edited on 19 March 2021, at 02:09 (UTC).
  10. Wikipedia (2021), Music box, last edited on 8 April 2021, at 06:26 (UTC).
  11. Wikipedia (2021), Owned-and-operated station, last edited on 25 March 2021, at 03:28 (UTC).
  12. Wikipedia (2021), Phonograph, last edited on 7 April 2021, at 18:02 (UTC).
  13. Wikipedia (2021), Radio receiver, last edited on 30 March 2021, at 23:08 (UTC).

Last Updated December 12 2025, at 09:52:22 MST ⚫ Visitor #