Source : National Post

Former CRTC head sought 'thoughtful' programs for CBC

Harry Boyle, who has died at the age of 89, was head of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and one of its first commissioners when it started in 1968. He also set the style for CBC Radio, taking it from more populist programming -- soap operas and variety shows -- to longer, thoughtful programs.

The creator of the CBC's popular Assignment radio program in the 1950s, Boyle went on to force CBC Radio to give up advertising once he arrived at the CRTC. He wanted CBC Television to drop advertising as well, but it never did.

Harry Joseph Boyle was born on Oct. 7, 1915, on a farm near St. Augustine, Ont., an intersection with a few houses and a general store north of London, Ont. He went to high school in nearby Wingham, and then St. Jerome College in Kitchener, Ont. His father failed at farming and went on to run the general store in St. Augustine. Boyle's life in an Irish-Catholic family in rural Ontario was fodder for his later novels -- he published four of them -- and radio plays.

After college he started freelancing for a number of newspapers in western Ontario. His string expanded to include larger papers such as the London Free Press and the Globe & Mail.

There was a radio station in Wingham, and Boyle noticed its newscasts consisted of the announcer reading old copy from the Christian Science Monitor. He suggested the owner might try reading Boyle's own local news reports, and was soon given his first job in radio.

In 1942, he moved to the CBC in Toronto and became what was known as a farm commentator, an important role back when one Canadian in four was living on a farm, and within a couple of years was in charge of the national farm broadcasts.

Eventually Boyle approached Ernest Bushnell, director-general of the CBC, and told him the state broadcaster was too ordinary and was too much like private radio.

"We need thoughtful programs for radio, not the kind of patter we have now," he told the magazine The Canadian in an interview in 1960. Bushnell, who later went on to found his own radio and television stations, told Boyle to go ahead, and the CBC began to broadcast the kind of longer-format analytic programming that remains its signature today.

In 1968, the government formed the CRTC, and Boyle was one of its first five commissioners. When the head of the CRTC, Pierre Juneau, left to join Pierre Trudeau's cabinet, Boyle became its second chairman.

Among the many things the CRTC did under Boyle was promote Canadian content in music on radio, as well as Canadian content on television. He was unpopular with many of his former CBC colleagues, especially since he enjoyed needling them with an insider's questions when they came to him to renew the CBC's license.

Many telecom industry people didn't like Boyle either. They thought he was too artistic, as well as an idealist who didn't understand their business. He was certainly never a captive of it, a charge made of later CRTC commissioners.

Boyle was made an officer of the Order of Canada in 1978, received three honorary doctorates and numerous other awards. He won the Leacock Medal for Humour twice, in 1963 and 1975.

Boyle is survived by his daughter Patricia and son Michael.

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