Radio Broadcasts

The BC Archives has radio broadcast recordings from privately-owned radio stations in Vancouver, Victoria and the BC Interior, as well as from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). These include recordings on acetate discs from 1935 to 1960 and on magnetic tape from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s.

Broadcasters, collectors and radio stations have donated major collections. Among the privately-owned radio station recordings in our collection are CKWX and CJOR (Vancouver), CJVI (Victoria), and CKOV (Kelowna). A valuable group of amateur off-air recordings document Vancouver broadcasting in the 1930s. Public broadcasting is represented in major collections of radio programs by CBC producers Robert Chesterman, Jurgen Hesse, Don Mowatt, Norman Newton and Imbert Orchard.  A substantial number of British Columbia Schools Broadcasts (1941-1980) were produced by the CBC in co-operation with the Department of Education. In addition, we hold a large selection of CBR (CBC Vancouver) productions from 1940-1960, copied from originals held by the Library and Archives Canada.