Swashbucklers : The Story of Canada's Battling Broadcasters

by NASH, KNOWLTON

• ISBN13: 9780771067747
• ISBN10: 0771067747
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-09-01
• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart

Summary

From its beginnings, broadcasting in Canada has been a battlefield, with the larger-than-life entrepreneurs who fell in love with the new medium locked in battle with government and meddlesome "do-gooders" impressed by the cultural power of radio. The first fight of the radio pioneers was over advertising, and initially, the private broadcasters won: commercials were here to stay, making radio an immensely profitable industry. But the biggest battle of the early years was between private broadcasters and those who lobbied against the new commercial adventurers: should the airwaves be used to sell things and entertain, or to enrich and educate Canadians? The struggle consumed both sides for years, even after the establishment of national public radio in 1936. The advent of television in the early 1950s merely moved the war to fresh terrain. By the early 1980s, the private broadcasters appeared to have won, but a new player arrived on the scene the cable industry. The proliferation of specialty channels threatened the end of mass, national audiences for television, but in an ironic twist, the small, specialty audiences for cable awoke private broadcasters to the need for specialized Canadian programming. The swashbucklers who battled for control of the airwaves and over what is broadcast on them have left behind them a rich record, one that Nash brings to life in this vivid and entertaining story of the men the Sedgwicks of Toronto, the Siftons of the Prairies, the Thomsons of Ontario, the Bassetts and the Rogers of Toronto, the Aspers of Winnipeg, the Shaws of Calgary, the Chandlers of Vancouver, the Peladeaus of Quebec, along with Moses Znaimer of CITY TV and Ivan Fecan of CTV who together have entertained us (and tried to sell us things) in the privacy of our living rooms for much of this century.

Author Biography

In his early years as a journalist Knowlton Nash worked with the Globe and Mail, United Press, and, as a freelancer, the Financial Post, Maclean’s, the Vancouver Sun, and the Windsor Star, among other Canadian news outlets. He covered stories around the world, including the Cuban missile crisis, the student riots in Paris in 1968, and the Vietnam War, and interviewed various Canadian prime ministers and American presidents. In 1969 Nash was made director of information programming at the CBC, and in the mid-1970s, he became its director of television news and current affairs, a position he held until becoming anchor and senior correspondent for “The National” in 1978. In 1988, he stepped down as anchor, although he remained as senior correspondent until 1992, when he retired from daily television news broadcasting. Today, he is host of the CBC documentary series “Witness” and the archival program “Sense of History,” as well as anchor of “News in Review,” an educational series produced for schools and libraries.

Nash is also well known as the author of seven previous acclaimed books, including Cue the Elephant, Prime Time at Ten, Kennedy and Diefenbaker, The Microphone Wars, Trivia Pursuit, and The Swashbucklers. In 1989, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, in 1995 he was given the John Drainie Award for his significant contribution to broadcasting, in 1996 he was named to the Canadian News Hall of Fame, and was made a Member of the Order of Ontario in 1998. Knowlton Nash lives in Toronto with his wife, Lorraine Thomson.