Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, more commonly abbreviated CBC, is Canada's government-owned television network and radio network. In French, it is called the Société Radio Canada, or SRC.

The CBC was founded in 1932 when the federal government set up the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, or CRBC. The CRBC took over the radio stations formerly set up by the government owned, Canadian National Railway. In 1936, the CRBC became a full Crown corporation[?], and gained its present name.

For the next few decades, the CBC was behind all broadcasting innovation in Canada. In July 1958, CBC TV was linked from coast to coast. They introduced FM radio to Canada in 1946, television in 1952, and colour television in 1966. Since the 1970s, the CBC has not dominated broadcasting in Canada like it formerly did, but still plays an important role.

Today, the CBC operates several television and radio networks, in both English and French:

• two national broadcast television networks, one in English and one in French. Both sell advertising, and are otherwise similar to the privately-owned networks, but still rely more heavily on Canadian-produced programming than the others.
• two national cable news channels, Newsworld and Réseau de l'Information (RDI)
• the Northern Service, television programmed for viewers in the far north
• four national radio networks, two in each language. In English, CBC Radio One provides mostly news, information and general entertainment programming. CBC Radio Two[?] airs arts and culture programming. In French, these services are replicated by the Radio-Canada[?] and Chaîne Culturelle[?] networks respectively. The radio networks do not accept advertising.
• an international broadcasting service, Radio Canada International[?]
• a domestic shortwave service for northern Quebec

CBC television programs include:

• Hockey Night In Canada
• Get Set for Life[?] with Alyson Court[?]
• Mr. Dressup[?] with Ernie Coombs[?]
• Sesame Park
• Spynet
• The Nature of Things[?] with David Suzuki
• Royal Canadian Air Farce
• This Hour Has 22 Minutes

CBC radio programs include:

• As It Happens
• Quirks and Quarks
• Ideas[?]
• Finkleman's 45s[?]
• Saturday Afternoon at the Opera[?]