The Dominion Network was the second English-language radio network of the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the governmen ...

from January 1, 1944 to 1962. It consisted of the CBC-owned CJBC radio station in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

and a series of 34 privately owned affiliates from coast-to-coast. The Dominion Network was set up as a complementary network to the CBC's main English service which became known as the Trans-Canada Network. While the Trans-Canada Network focus was on public affairs, educational and cultural programs, the Dominion Network's broadcast schedule consisted of lighter programming fare than that of the Trans-Canada Network and carried more American programming. As well, the Dominion Network operated mostly in the evenings, freeing affiliates to air local programming during the day.

History

The Dominion Network was launched on January 1, 1944 after a request by private affiliates asking to set up their own radio network in order to carry American programming was turned down. CBC became concerned that the private stations might succeed in pressuring the government to permit such a private radio network. As a result, the CBC set up its own second network to appease demands by privately owned CBC affiliates for popular programming that would provide more commercial revenue. The network was managed by Spence Caldwell, who later became a founder of

CTV CTV may refer to: Television * Connected TV, or Smart TV, a TV set with integrated internet North America and South America * CTV Television Network, a Canadian television network owned by Bell Media ** CTV 2, a secondary Canadian televisio ...

. Shows carried by the network included '' Duffy's Tavern'', '' Amos & Andy'' and '' Fibber McGee and Molly''. There is an

urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...

that a CBC announcer once accidentally gave a station identification as "the Dominion Network of the Canadian ''Broadcorping

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''", which was popularized when US TV producer Kermit Schaefer included a recreation of this incident on one of his best-selling '' Pardon My Blooper'' record albums in the 1950s. Canadian political pundit Mark Steyn often refers to the CBC as such in his columns. The network was dissolved in 1962 and most of the private stations became independent. CJBC gradually became a French-language station and is now the Southern Ontario owned-and-operated station of Radio-Canada's Première Chaîne.

Stations

Alberta

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

- CFCN *

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city an ...

- CFRN (affiliated with CBC Radio for two years after the Trans-Canada and Dominion Networks merged) *

Medicine Hat Medicine Hat is a city in southeast Alberta, Canada. It is located along the South Saskatchewan River. It is approximately east of Lethbridge and southeast of Calgary. This city and the adjacent Town of Redcliff to the northwest are wit ...

CHAT Chat or chats may refer to: Communication * Conversation, particularly casual * Online chat, text message communication over the Internet in real-time * Synchronous conferencing, a formal term for online chat * SMS chat, a form of text messagin ...

(affiliated with CBC Radio when the Trans-Canada and Dominion Networks merged)

British Columbia

* Chilliwack - CHWK (affiliated with CBC Radio when the Trans-Canada and Dominion Networks merged) * Penticton - CKOK (affiliated with CBC Radio when the Trans-Canada and Dominion Networks merged) *

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...

- CJOR * Vernon - CJIB * Victoria - CJVI (affiliated with CBC Radio when the Trans-Canada and Dominion Networks merged)

Manitoba

* Brandon - CKX (affiliated with CBC Radio when the Trans-Canada and Dominion Networks merged) *

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...

- CKRC

New Brunswick

* Saint John - CFBC

Nova Scotia

* Halifax - CHNS *

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

- CJCB (from 1948, previously a TCN affiliate)

Ontario

Brantford Brantford ( 2021 population: 104,688) is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by Brant County, but is politically separate with a municipal government of its own that is fully independ ...

- CKPC * Fort Frances - CKFI (affiliated with CBC Radio when the Trans-Canada and Dominion Networks merged) *

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilto ...

- CHML * Kingston - CKLC/

CKLC-FM CKLC-FM (98.9 MHz) is a commercial radio station in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It broadcasts a country format and is branded on-air as ''Pure Country 99''. It is owned and operated by Bell Media which also owns sister station CFLY-FM. The ra ...

(shared affiliation 1953-1962) * Kitchener - CKCR (1949-1960) (CKCR-AM-FM affiliated with CBC Radio when the Trans-Canada and Dominion Networks merged.) *

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

- CFPL (affiliated with CBC Radio when the Trans-Canada and Dominion Networks merged) *

Orillia Orillia is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is in Simcoe County between Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe. Although it is geographically located within Simcoe County, the city is a List of municipalities in Ontario#Single-tier municipalities, single ...

- CFOR (from 1945) (affiliated with CBC Radio when the Trans-Canada and Dominion Networks merged) *

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the c ...

- CKCO (became CKOY in 1949) * Owen Sound - CFOS (affiliated with CBC Radio when the Trans-Canada and Dominion Networks merged) *

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire unti ...

CHEX Chex is an American brand of breakfast cereal currently manufactured by General Mills. It was originally produced and owned by Ralston Purina of St. Louis, Missouri, using the name Chex starting in 1950. The Chex brand went with corporate s ...

St. Catharines St. Catharines is the largest city in Canada's Niagara Region and the sixth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2016, it has an area of , 136,803 residents, and a metropolitan population of 406,074. It lies in Southern Ontari ...

CKTB CKTB is a radio station in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Broadcasting at 610 AM, the station airs a news/talk format. CKTB is housed in the former mansion of William Hamilton Merritt, the main promoter of the first Welland Canal, located on ...

* Stratford - CJCS *

Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario (official name; the city continues to be known simply as Sudbury for most purposes) ** Sudbury (electoral district), one of the city's federal el ...

- CHNO *

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its populati ...

- CFPA (affiliated with CBC Radio when the Trans-Canada and Dominion Networks merged) *

- CJBC (flagship, the only CBC owned and operated station, converted to French-language Radio-Canada station in 1964) * Windsor -

CKLW CKLW (800 AM) is a commercial radio station in Windsor, Ontario, serving Southwestern Ontario and Metro Detroit. CKLW has a news/ talk format. It features local hosts in morning and afternoon drive times, with syndicated Canadian hosts ...

(affiliated with both Trans-Canada and Dominion until 1950 when CBC owned CBE launched) * Wingham - CKNX

Prince Edward Island

Charlottetown Charlottetown is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, Charlottetown was an unincorporated town until it was incorporated as a city in ...

- CFCY (affiliated with CBC Radio when the Trans-Canada and Dominion Networks merged)

Quebec

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

- CFCF now defunct *

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is t ...

- CJQC (affiliated in 1949; previously

CKCV CKCV was a French-language Canadian radio station located in Quebec City, Quebec. It operated from 1924 to 1990. For most of its existence the station broadcast on 1280 kHz on the AM band, using a daytime power of 10,000 watts and a nighttime pow ...

was affiliated with both the Trans-Canada Network and the Dominion Network. CJQC affiliated with CBC Radio when the Trans-Canada and Dominion Networks merged) now defunct

Saskatchewan

Moose Jaw Moose Jaw is the fourth largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. Lying on the Moose Jaw River in the south-central part of the province, it is situated on the Trans-Canada Highway, west of Regina. Residents of Moose Jaw are known as Moose Javian ...

- CHAB * Prince Albert - CKBI * Regina - CKRM *

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

- CFQC

References

History of Canadian Broadcasting: CBC Radio Networks
{{CBC Radio CBC Radio Defunct Canadian radio networks 1944 establishments in Canada 1962 disestablishments in Canada *