INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly fix>m the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely afreet reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. B&gher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Infonnation Company 300 Nonh Zeeb Road, Ann Aibor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761^700 800/521-0600 The Advent of Television: A Study of the Perceptions and Expectations of the First Television Viewers in Metropolitan Halifax in the Early 1950s Barbara L. Davies Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the Master of Arts, Atlantic Canada Studies at Saint Mary’s University. Halifax. Nova Scotia (c) copyright by Barbara Davies 1998 7 January 1998 Thesis Advisoi^^lx^:^ Michw J. Larsen Date Examiners: John (0. Reid Date Glenn Walton Date National Library Bibliothèque nationale I ^ lof Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services sennces bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington Ottawa ON K 1A 0I^ Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your mu Voiro rOtérorco Our tue notre rOtéronca The author has granted a non­ L’auteur a accordé une hcence non exclusive hcence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library o f Canada to Bibhothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies o f this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfîche/fîlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership o f the L’auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d’auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts from it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author’s ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. 0-612-33840-1 CanadS Barbara Davies The Advent of Television: A Study of the Perceptions and Expectations of the First Television Viewers in Metropolitan H ali^ in the Early 1950s 7 January 1998 On Monday, December 20th. 1954 at 5:45 PM, Haligonians tuned their television sets to the inaugural broadcast of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. CBC-CBHT, channel 8, welcomed Halifax-Dartmouth viewers to the newest channel on their network, another step towards predominately Canadian programming in Maritime C anada. Few people at that time understood the changes that would take place in this new visual, technical world. In anticipation of a television broadcasting station being established in the Halifax-Dartmouth area, the CBC Bureau of Audience Research commissioned a study of radio listening pattems in order to obtain some background information on the likes and dislikes of the existing radio audience. This information was to be used to create programs and program schedules which would attract people to television. The survey consisted of diaries written by the members of the selected households as well as personal interview questionnaires. One year after television had arrived, the interviewers returned to talk to the original respondents to discover just how popular television was and how radio listening pattems had changed, if at all. Further research was done on how leisure activities were altered once television arrived in the community. The course of television's beginnings has been an exploration of contradictions; it inspires while it incites, stimulates while it sells, provokes while it persuades, preaches while it pretends, educates while it elects. A pacifier to the lonely, the aged, the young, television enhances general knowledge while providing escapism for the masses. This paper focuses on the Halifax experience of this new medium. ^etficotion This thesis is dedicated to the people in my life who believed in the magic of television and the power of dreams - to my parents, Eric and Laura Davies, and to my friends, Linda Allen, Glenda D'Arcy and Heather White. >Vpfcnowfe«fgements This thesis would never have been successfully completed without the guidance, encouragement and support of the faculty and staff of; Saint Mary's University, the Halifax City Regional Library, the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, the National Archives of Canada, the National Library of Canada, the Archives of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Dr. Paul Rutherford, University of Toronto. ^'abfe of Contents Preface 1 Chapter 1 ; Introduction 15 Chapter 2: The Beginning 27 Chapter 3: Television Will Do What? 42 C hapter 4: Criticism, Commissions and the CBC 69 Chapter 5: The Surveys 107 Chapter 6: In My Living Room 143 Tables 185 Appendix A; Milestones In Canadian Broadcasting 199 Bibliography 202 of 0a6(es cfllfe cPoge Table 1 How did respondents select their radio programs? 185 Table 2A What were the ages of the survey respondents compared to 186 the 1951 Canadian Census? Table 2B What was the education level of respondents? 186 Table 2C What was the breakdown by national origin of the sample 187 population compared to the 1951 Canadian Census? Table 3 What was the socio-economic status of the respondents? 188 Table 4 What were the occupations of the respondents? 188 Table 5A What was the breakdown of the individual household 189 members and their hours of listening within the household? Table 5B What was the use of radios, by the number of hours? 189 Table 6 From the diaries, the table shows the order of preference for 190 CBC radio programs. Table 7 How many households were in the survey population? 191 Table 8 What were the religions represented in the sample 191 population? Table 9 What were the community activities in Greater Halifax? 192 Table 10 What was the primary source of news for respondents? 192 Table 11A What was the overall percentage of participation in various 193 communication activities? Table 11B What memberships were held by respondents? 194 Table 12 What expectations did respondents have conceming the 194 anticipated television programming? Table 13 What were the salary levels and occupations in Halifax 195 around CBHTs installation date? Table 14 What were the reasons for having reservations over the 195 television purchase? Table 15 Why would families NOT purchase television? 196 Table 16 What kind of programs did parents want in a Children's Hour? 196 Table 17 Where should emphasis be placed for programming in 197 Halifax? Table 18 What about commercials on television? 197 Table 19 Percentage of Television Households Viewing Programs 198 between 06:00 and 09:00 PM Table 20A Halifax Memorial Library. Circulation Statistics: 1952 -1957 198 Table 2GB H a li^ Memorial Library. Registered Active Borrowers: 198 1952 -1957 ^Preface "It was on television, that most potent force of twentieth-century modernity, that many Nova Scotians first encountered the truth of their pre-modem essence."^ So begins a discussion by Ian McKay, conceming the manufacture of a cultural heritage that would become synonymous with Nova Scotia. Creating the images of rugged coastline and sturdy folk, fishing villages and lobster traps, Nova Scotia culture became an industry of its own, a commodity that would become marketable world wide. This representation had little to do with the inhabited reality of harsh coastal life, but was created by a few enterprising individuals who decided that Nova Scotia's "folk" heritage should be recast, creating the illusory, modest, hardworking, folk people; these were visions that tourists expected to see and were willing to pay for. This pure essence to which Mr. McKay refers was based on the notion that true culture was confined to that which was untouched by technology and kept pristine from man's intervention. However, it would be television, that most intrusive of mediums, that would propel Helen Creighton, for example, into many Nova Scotian homes, and by her own admission, advance her search for ghost stories, folk songs and lyrics. She used television to promote her songs, her stories, her province and herself. And it worked. Her vision of the past becam e the province's official history, giving a picture of their heritage to the people, those poor and struggling, proud simple folk, untouched by science, industry and the mass media.^ A visual representation of culture of a different sort began with the first glow of television's arrival into local living rooms. Some historians might suggest that this infusion of a new world view was indeed an intrusion into a cherished past. changing the very heart rhythm of an idyllic existence. Chroniclers, Margaret Conrad and Neil Rosenberg might argue that this encroaching outside influence would be the death knell of the Golden Age, the last days of honest folk and simpler times.^ But a local rural artist, Maude Lewis, for example, might wonder what all the excitement was about.