The arrival of radio transformed the daily lives of Canadians in the 1920s. For the rural populations in particular, this medium of communication facilitated access to world news. However, radio stations across the Prairies broadcasted in English. In the view of many members of the French-speaking elite, listening to these stations promoted linguistic assimilation and cultural Americanization. The population, however, ignored these warnings and embraced radio with enthusiasm.

After the creation of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in 1936, leaders of the French-speaking minority used their institutional network, the Associations nationales provinciales des Prairies, to exert pressure on the public broadcaster. As stated in the network’s manifesto of 1940, they asked the corporation to respect Canadian duality and offer “a fair share to French on the Western Canadian network.” To justify its refusals, CBC cited limited financial resources caused by the Great Depression, as well as strong opposition from the English-speaking majority to the development of a French-language radio network outside Quebec.

Faced with this impasse, Prairie francophones raised $125,000 to build four radio stations. To help them, in 1945, the Comité permanent de la survivance française en Amérique, (from 1956, the Conseil de la vie française en Amérique) launched a national fundraising campaign. Under the slogan “Let’s help French West Radio,” the initiative raised an additional $212,000, including $192,000 in Quebec.

Despite their success, the leaders of the French radio project were not out of the woods yet. Some groups were opposed to French-speaking people operating radio stations. They argued that the project would not be viable because of the small size of the French-language market. Others felt that granting broadcasting licenses to French-speaking people in Western Canada would be tantamount to privileging one ethnic group among others.

These comments angered the leaders of Radio-française, who retorted that starting a business was a right, not a privilege. In 1946, a French radio station opened in Saint Boniface, Manitoba, followed by others in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1949, and Gravelbourg and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1952.