The Introduction of Multilingual Multicultural Radio Stations in Canada

In the 1960s, following requests from multilingual radio station owners, the Canadian government increased the amount of content in languages other than English or French allowed on the airways. This marked an important shift towards multicultural programming. In 1962, Polish-Canadian Casimir Stancyzkowski received the first licence for CFMB in Montréal. In 1966, Italian-Canadian Johnny Lombardi founded CHIN Radio in Toronto. The creation of these new stations demonstrated the viability of multilingual radio programming, broadcast from stations dedicated solely to that purpose. Multilingual, multicultural radio broadcasting has helped newcomers adapt to life in Canada, while offering them a public voice and contributing to their cultural expression.

Foreign-language programmes had been aired on various stations across the country long before the 1960s. As early as 1928, minority language groups in Canada – as small as Windsor’s Maltese community and as large as Winnipeg’s Ukrainian community – received dedicated radio time for third-language broadcasts from both private and public (from 1932) broadcasters. These broadcasts were typically run during non-prime-time weekend slots and were paid for by the ethnocultural group involved, primarily on privately-owned radio stations. However, industry regulations allowed stations a maximum of 15 percent third-language programming, and there were no policy provisions to exceed this limit. In 1958, Michael Mutzak, a Ukrainian-Canadian entrepreneur, was the first to apply to the industry regulator for a licence to operate a foreign-language radio station. Polish-Canadian Casimir Stanczykowski followed suit a few months later. Although both attempts failed, they prompted the Board of Broadcast Governors to develop a third-language broadcasting policy.

In the 1960s, the government permitted broadcasters to carry up to 40 percent of their weekly schedules in third languages, subject to a public hearing. Applicants were required to show that an audience of 150,000 to 200,000 possible listeners existed for their stations to be considered viable. After Casimir Stancyzkowski received the first licence for CFMB, Johnny Lombardi founded CHIN Radio in Toronto with a standard licence, and was then granted an expanded third-language licence in 1970. Broadcasting to more than 30 different ethnocultural groups in Toronto, this was the first radio station to cater solely to Toronto and the region’s many ethnocultural communities, most of whom had come to Canada since the Second World War. CFMB and CHIN were the only multilingual radio broadcasters for the first decade after the new regulations were passed, and they offered valuable information to immigrants about life in Canada and celebrated cultural diversity. Later stations granted multilingual broadcast licences were CJVB in Vancouver (1972), CKJS in Winnipeg (1975), CKER in Edmonton (1980), CHKF in Calgary (1998), and CJLL in Ottawa (2003).