British Columbia. Division of School Radio Broadcasts

Government

British Columbia. Division of School Radio Broadcasts

• Division of School Radio Broadcasts

1940-1968

From its inception in 1936, School Broadcasting in Canada was designed to enrich and supplement existing school curriculum and to promote Canadian unity and citizenship. The majority of school broadcasts were organized at the provincial level, between Departments of Education and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, although cooperation between educators and broadcasters took place at the municipal and national levels as well. The CBC provided free production and administrative staff, transmitter time, studio facilities and network charges, and were responsible for arranging presentation and distribution of school broadcasts. Departments of Education were responsible for paying all direct costs, such as the salaries of actors and musicians, and were in charge of program planning and content. Certain costs, such as the salary of the Director of Programming, were shared. In 1943, a National Advisory Council on School Broadcasting was set up by agreement between the the Canadian Education Association and the CBC to represent Departments of Education and other national bodies concerned with the development of education in Canada.
Although educational radio programs were being broadcast in Vancouver as early as 1927, regular scheduling of school broadcasts in British Columbia did not begin until 1936, when the Okanagan Valley Teachers’ Association used surplus funds to initiate a project involving the use of radio in B.C. classrooms. A provincial committee of enquiry was set up to investigate the potential of radio as a teaching aid, particularly in rural or isolated areas.
In 1938, $500 from the Department of Education funded an initial series which was broadcast as “The British Columbia Radio School” between October 1938 and March 1939. The series included broadcasts on music, science, social studies and history. By 1940, the need for a full time administrator for program planning and supervision resulted in the appointment of Kenneth Caple as Director of School Broadcasts for the province of B.C. Separate schedules for autumn and spring programing were developed and program guides and manuals were distributed to teachers throughout the province. New subject areas such as language, health and art were added to the existing series. By 1942 over 500 schools in B.C. were equipped with radio.
In 1968 the Division of School Radio Broadcasts and the Division of Visual Education amalgamated to form the Division of Audio-visual Services.

C Government Name

British Columbia. Division of Audio-visual Services (1968-1974)

19794

Revised PW/KH 2017-11-23
Revised Khughes 2023-04-26

Central Name Authority Files.
Accession file T4022