It doesn’t cost you anything to listen to this radio station. It is available free over the air and on the Internet. The station pays for a licence to broadcast and also pays royalties for the music we play. Was there a time when the listener actually had to pay in order to listen to the radio in Canada? If you said yes, you know your history. Radio has been around since the 1920’s and back in those days on through the 1930’s you would pay for a “private radio receiving licence” issued under the Radiotelegraph Act to establish a private radio receiving station and to install a radio receiving set. A licence permitted the installation and operation of one set only and no person could install or operate more than one except under and in accordance with a licence granted by the minister for each such set. The licence was not transferrable. The use of the licensed apparatus would be limited to the reception of radio broadcasts intended to be received by the public. The radio receiver was not to be operated as to emit any radiation that interfered with reception by any other radio receiving sets. The receiving station, or automobile set, and its licence had to be open at all reasonable times for inspection by duly authorized officers of the Department of Transport. Ahh, the good old days. Today you can still pay for radio, or at least a reasonable facsimile of radio, delivered by satellite to your vehicle and for a music service like Spotify, which is not radio. Local radio with its timely information is free and available to anyone who owns a radio but thank goodness don’t need a licence to listen to it.
That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.