From the late 1890s to 1913, there were few regulations on radio communications in Canada. The earliest stations could transmit only Morse code; despite this limitation, as early as May 1907, the Marconi station in Camperdown, Nova Scotia, began broadcasting time signals on a regular schedule.
The Radiotelegraph Act of June 6, 1913, established Canada’s general policy on radio communications, which was then commonly known as “wireless telegraphy.” Similar to the law in force in Britain, the act required that the operation of “any radiotelegraphic apparatus” required a license issued by the Minister of the Navy. This included members of the general public who only had a radio receiver and did not transmit, who had to hold an “Amateur Experimental Station” license and also pass an exam required to obtain an “Amateur Experimental Certificate of Proficiency,” which required the ability to send and receive Morse code at five words per minute. (This policy differed from the United States, which only required a license to operate transmitters and had no restrictions or taxes on individuals using only receivers.)
After entering the First World War in August 1914, Canada banned the use of radio receivers and transmitters for civilian purposes altogether. This restriction remained in force until May 1, 1919. Radio regulation remained under the supervision of the Department of Naval Service until July 1, 1922, when it was transferred to the civilian control of the Department of Marine and Fisheries.
During World War I, advances in vacuum tube technology made audio transmission practical. Until April 1922, there was no formal category of radio stations that provided entertainment broadcasts to the general public, so the earliest Canadian stations that broadcast operated under experimental, amateur, and government permits.
Information about the earliest experimental broadcasts is limited. One of the pioneers was William Walter Westover Grant, who served with the British Royal Air Force in France during World War I, where he gained extensive experience installing and maintaining radio equipment. After the war, he returned to Canada, where in May 1919 he reportedly “built a small station in Halifax, Nova Scotia, through which voice and music were broadcast in what were probably the first scheduled programs in Canada.” In 1920, Grant began working for the Canadian Air Board’s Forest Patrol, developing air-to-ground communications for observer planes that were used to report forest fires, initially using radio telegraphs. The initial base was located in Morley, Alberta, where Grant built the CYAA station. In January 1921, operations moved to High River Station in southern Alberta, where Grant installed a VAW station that was capable of transmitting audio. In addition to his forestry work, Grant began making a series of experimental entertainment broadcasts, believed to be the first in western Canada. Grant left the forestry project and founded WW Grant Radio, Ltd. in Calgary, which was granted the city’s third commercial broadcasting station license on May 18, 1922, with the arbitrarily assigned call letters CFCN (now CKMX).
A better-known example was Montreal station, which was first licensed sometime between April 1, 1914 and March 31, 1915 as an experimental XWA station by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of Canada, Ltd. (“Canadian Marconi”) and was one of the few civilian stations allowed to continue operating during World War I, when it was used for military research. Initially, it transmitted only Morse code, but in the spring of 1919, employee Arthur Runciman began a series of voice tests, although the equipment was initially advertised as useful for point-to-point communications rather than broadcasting. In early 1919, parent company British Marconi sent a surplus 500-watt transmitter to Montreal for evaluation. As was common at many early stations, the engineers soon grew tired of having to speak repeatedly for test broadcasts and began playing phonograph records, which attracted the attention of local radio amateurs.
In addition to the development of experimental broadcasts taking place in Canada, some American stations, especially at night, can be easily received in densely populated parts of Canada.