Think it's just the Toronto Sun that constantly complains about the CBC? Actually, it goes back to a time when the Sun had not even come close to rising as a local Toronto newspaper.

This article (with way too tiny print) from Maclean's Magazine dates to 1954, and features a long rant about how the CBC was on a mission to control all TV in Canada - including what was shown on what few private stations then existed.

"By the terms of their licenses these private stations must carry at least ten and a half hours a week of CBC programs. At least partly because the programs are free (except to the taxpayer) the private stations now on the air are carrying up to 16 or 18 hours a week of CBC-TV... Thus all stations, public or private, will eventually be part of the CBC-TV network."

So what did Canadians get to watch back in the mid-50s? According to the story, even back then, viewers seemed to prefer the offerings from across the border - for those lucky to be living close enough to be able to pull in the signals. 

"To give you an idea what can be done with an alternative on Monday nights we can watch one of television’s best comedy shows, I Love Lucy, from Buffalo, instead of amateur boxing from Toronto. On Thursday nights we can watch TV’s latest cops-and-robbers show, Dragnet, instead of wrestling from Maple Leaf Gardens. And we may get many other hours a week of shows we really like—Groucho Marx, The Life of Riley, and live, comedy, variety and dramatic shows—which aren’t seen at present on any Canadian stations.

Television, like reading, movie-going, radio-listening and almost everything else is all a matter of taste—even among people with good taste. Any television monopoly, such as we have in Canada now, is faced with the incontestable fact that wrestling fans in general will not watch opera if they can help it, and that opera lovers are usually driven insane by wrestling.

If we had alternative stations in Canada no one would presume to drag the creators of our present television policy kicking and screaming to watch straight commercial television if they wished to watch the CBC. But the prospect would be not without temptation since they are using almost that kind of force on hundreds of thousands of Canadian TV viewers now; it’s happening by government decree and the viewer is paying by special tax to see that it goes on happening."

Things have certainly changed in terms of viewer options. In fact, it could be argued we're in a new "Golden Age" of television - even though a lot of what's being watched isn't always being viewed on a television. Anyway, an interesting glimpse into one man's opinion about TV in its infancy. (And for the record, the author, Scott Young, is the father of Canadian music icon Neil Young. How ironic, then, for him to be complaining about Canadian content!)

And as for his complaints about the CBC? Well, I guess the more things change, etc.

Maclean's, 1954: Let's Stop Monopoly Television