CBC North
CBC radio and television services in Northern Canada
CBC North (Inuktitut: ᓰᐲᓰ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥ, romanized: SiiPiiSii Ukiuqtaqtumi, lit. 'CBC Northwest'; Cree: ᓰᐲᓰ ᒌᐌᑎᓅᑖᐦᒡ, romanized: SiiPiiSii Chiiwetinuutaahch; French: ICI Grand Nord) is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's radio and television service for the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon of Northern Canada as well as Eeyou Istchee and Nunavik in the Nord-du-Québec region of Quebec.
History
The genesis of CBC North began in 1923 when the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals established a radiotelegraph system linking Dawson City and Mayo in Yukon with Alaska, British Columbia, and Alberta. Other settlements in Northern Canada were soon connected, forming the Northwest Territories & Yukon (NWT&Y) Radio System.
While the original purpose of the NWT&Y Radio System was to provide a means of communication among military personnel and commercial interests in far-flung corners of remote Northern Canada, the system came to be used for the transmission of general information and entertainment to the civilian population as well. Over the subsequent three decades, this ancillary role of the NWT&Y Radio System led to the development of low-power AM community radio stations at sites where NWT&Y radiotelegraph stations were located.
Most of these radio stations were operated on a volunteer basis by members of the Canadian Armed Forces as well as civilians residing in the communities the stations served. In addition to local programming, the stations often aired recordings provided by the United States Armed Forces Radio Service—owing to the US military presence in several Arctic settlements at the time—and also a limited amount of CBC programming relayed via the NWT&Y Radio System.
In late 1952, the Armed Forces Radio Service ceased deliveries of programming to several of the radio stations. Efforts were then made to expand the reach of CBC programming in Northern Canada by utilizing the resources of the CBC's Troop Broadcast Service, which was originally developed to distribute recordings of CBC radio programming to Canadian military units stationed overseas.
The domestic distribution of CBC radio recordings began in January 1953 with CFGB in Goose Bay, Labrador (now Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador) receiving an initial shipment of 53 discs that would then be sent to CHFC in Churchill, Manitoba; and then to CFWH in Whitehorse, Yukon.
“CBC North” enters the record as cBC radio and television services in Northern Canada. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what North, radio and television can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“CBC North” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, North, radio and television provides the most credible route into that argument.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5009026. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1923, 1952 and 1953.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “CBC North” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.