1946:

Techno-savvy Vancouverites swoon, and the city prepares to plunge headfirst into the future with the news that it will soon be home to its very own FM radio station.

“A 250-watt frequency modulation broadcasting system, latest radio development, will be established in Vancouver as soon as equipment is available,” reports the Vancouver Sun. “Frequency modulation, or ‘FM’ as it is familiarly known in radio language, reduces static to almost nothing and permits truer reproduction of broadcasting, including reception of musical overtones and other notes not now available in transmissions.”

The 250-watt stations, which will be installed by the CBC in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, are expected to open “new vistas in broadcasting”, according to an address by CBC chairman A.D. Dunton, speaking to a luncheon meeting at the Hotel Vancouver. Unfortunately, as of Dunton’s address, not a single FM radio set is available in retail outlets in Vancouver, and, due to technological limitations, it is likely that the new CBC frequency won’t be available to all areas of the city.

“It is expected [FM sets] will be manufactured and ready for sale on the retail market in Canada this fall,” the Sun reassures its readers, however “even parts of Vancouver thus may not be able to hear the new station established here, depending upon location of these areas.”

 

IMAGE: Radio announcer at work at CJOR, circa 1942. Image courtesy of the Vancouver Archives.