The Canadian Radio League was a public pressure group led by Graham Spry

Graham Spry

- Further reading :*Babe, Robert. "Graham Spry" in Canadian Communications Thought: Ten Foundational Writers. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-7949-0.*McChesney, Robert W. , Canadian Journal of Communication 24....

 and Alan Plaunt

Alan Plaunt

Alan Butterworth Plaunt was a Canadian broadcasting pioneer, journalist and activist.The son of a wealthy lumber family, Plaunt attended the University of Toronto and University of Oxford and was a keen observer of the fledgling British Broadcasting Corporation while in Britain becoming a believer...

 to mobilize support for the establishment of public broadcasting

Public broadcasting

Public broadcasting includes radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing and commercial financing.Public broadcasting may be...

 in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The League was founded in 1930 in order to lobby for the implementation of the 1929 Report of the Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting

Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting

The Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting, otherwise known as the Aird Commission, was chaired by John Aird and examined Canada's broadcasting industry. The report released its findings in 1929 when it concluded that Canada was in need of a publicly funded radio broadcast system...

 (Aird Commission) recommending the creation of a Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission

Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission

The Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission was Canada's first public broadcaster and the immediate precursor to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.-Origins:...

 (the forerunner of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

.) Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King

William Lyon Mackenzie King

William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921 to June 28, 1926; from September 25, 1926 to August 7, 1930; and from October 23, 1935 to November 15, 1948...

 had delayed implementation of the Aird Commission's report until after the 1930 federal election

Canadian federal election, 1930

The Canadian federal election of 1930 was held on July 28, 1930 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 17th Parliament of Canada...

. However, with the defeat of King's government and the election of a Conservative

Conservative Party of Canada

The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...

 government led by R.B. Bennett, the future of public broadcasting become uncertain.

Spry and Plaunt founded the League and used it to influence public opinion in support of public broadcasting making their case to trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

s, farm groups, business associations, churches, the Royal Canadian Legion

Royal Canadian Legion

The Royal Canadian Legion is a non-profit Canadian ex-service organization founded in 1925, with more than 400,000 members worldwide. Membership includes people who have served as current and former military, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, provincial and municipal police, direct relatives of...

, the Canadian Club of Toronto

Canadian Club of Toronto

The Canadian Club of Toronto is a club in Toronto which meets several times a month to hear lunchtime speeches given by invited guests from the fields of politics, law, business, the arts, the media, and other prominent fields....

, newspapers, university presidents and other influential public figures.

The Canadian parliament held public hearings into the future of broadcasting in Canada at which the League testified urging the creation of a national public broadcasting system that would reflect Canadians' identity and be free from the influence of private American interests. "The choice before the committee is clear," Spry affirmed during the hearings. "It is a choice between commercial interests and the people's interest. It is a choice between the state and the United States."

Largely as a result of the CRL's efforts, the Bennett government introduced the Canadian Broadcasting Act of 1932 creating the CRBC. Spry revived the CRL in 1968 as the Canadian Broadcasting League when the creation of a new Broadcast Act threatened the future of the CBC. For the next two decades it was active lobbying on the issue of public broadcasting and the cable television

Cable television

Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...

industry profits, funding for the CBC, educational broadcasting and legislation. It remained active until the late 1980s.