In 1958, the Board of Broadcast Governors assumed responsibilities for regulating public and private broadcasters from the CBC and the Department of Transport and in 1968, with the adoption of the Broadcasting Act, regulation became the responsibility of the Canadian Radio-television Commission ( CRTC ).

His first post upon returning to his home country was an advisory position with the Canadian Radio and Television Commission ( CRTC ) in Ottawa, where he battled Canada's private broadcasters, especially CTV, over new Canadian content regulations.

Due to CRTC regulations on the foreign ownership of broadcasters, Labatt was forced to sell TSN and RDS upon its acquisition by Interbrew in 1995.

In November 2000, Learning and Skills Television of Alberta, a company majority owned by CHUM Limited ( 60 %), was awarded a category 1 television broadcasting licence by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ( CRTC ) called BookTelevision-The Channel, described as " a national English-language Category 1 specialty television service that will feature magazines and talk shows, dramas and documentaries that are exclusively based upon printed and published works, and offered with additional programming that provides an educational context and promotes reading.

On June 1, 1986, upon successful application to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ( CRTC ) for a broadcasting licence, began to broadcast as CHRY at 50W, with a transmitting antenna located on the top of Vanier College's residence building.

On July 4, 2012, Red River College discontinued over the air broadcasting of student radio station 92. 9 Kick FM after nearly 10 years of broadcasting, due to a campus radio policy change by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ( CRTC ).

In Canada, radio stations are regulated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ( CRTC ), which provides that " a campus radio station is a radio station owned or controlled by a not-for-profit organization associated with a post-secondary educational institution ".

The CRTC distinguishes two types of campus radio: instructional ( for training of professional broadcasters ) and community-based campus ( programming provided by volunteers who are not training to be professionals ).

" In recent years, some community-based campus radio stations, including CFFF-FM in Peterborough and CJMQ-FM in Sherbrooke, have in fact had their CRTC licenses formally reclassified from campus radio to community radio.

Humber is the only GTA College with a CRTC campus instructional license and fully operational radio station, Radio Humber FM 96. 9.

This was denied in 1974 because the commission felt campus stations should not be commercial ventures, though other reports indicate that broadcast applications during this period were turned down by the CRTC because the station lacked financial stability.

It also made presentations to the CRTC on a number of issues relating to community radio in Canada, including efforts to reduce content restrictions the CRTC had placed on the limited form of commercial advertising allowed on campus and community stations at the time.

Because CRTC regulations require a campus radio station to be governed by the university it serves, the CRTC issued CFFF a new license on October 17, 2007, officially reclassifying it as a community radio station.

However, the CRTC is also sometimes erroneously criticized for CBSC decisions — for example, the CRTC was erroneously criticized for the CBSC's decisions pertaining to the airing of Howard Stern's terrestrial radio show in Canada in the late 1990s, as well as the CBSC's controversial ruling on the Dire Straits song " Money for Nothing ".

* Milestone Radio: In two separate rounds of license hearings in the 1990s, the CRTC rejected applications by Milestone Radio to launch a radio station in Toronto which would have been Canada's first urban music station ; in both cases, the CRTC instead granted licenses to stations that duplicated formats already offered by other stations in the Toronto market.

The CRTC finally granted a license to Milestone in 2000, after a cabinet order-in-council directed the commission to license two new radio stations that reflected the cultural diversity of the Toronto market, and CFXJ-FM launched in 2001.

* CHOI-FM: The CRTC announced it would not renew the licence of the popular CHOI-FM radio station in Quebec City, after having previously sanctioned the station for failing to uphold its promise of performance and then, during the years following, receiving about 50 complaints about offensive behaviour by radio jockeys which similarly contravened CRTC rules on broadcast hate speech.

The station was later sold to RNC Media, but instead of renewing its license the CRTC issued RNC a license to launch a new radio station on the same frequency.

* Satellite radio: In June 2005, the CRTC outraged some Canadian cultural nationalists ( such as the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting ) and labour unions by licencing two companies, Canadian Satellite Radio and Sirius Canada to offer satellite radio services in Canada.

The CRTC contends that this low level of Canadian content, particularly when compared to the 35 % rule on local radio stations, was necessary because unlicenced U. S. receivers were already flooding into the country, so that enforcing a ban on these receivers would be nearly impossible ( see below ).

* 2008 Ottawa radio licences: On November 21, 2008, federal Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages James Moore issued a statement calling on the CRTC to review its approval of two new radio stations, Frank Torres ' CIDG-FM and Astral Media's CJOT-FM, which it had licensed in August 2008 to serve the Ottawa-Gatineau radio market.

Satellite radio poses a more complicated problem for the CRTC.

In November 2004, the CBC, in partnership with Standard Broadcasting and Sirius Satellite Radio, applied to the CRTC for a license to introduce satellite radio service to Canada.

The CRTC approved the subscription radio application, as well as two others for satellite radio service, on June 16, 2005.

Perhaps due to CRTC regulations requiring radio stations to announce their call letters, the station began in August 2005 to identify itself as both CFNY and the Edge during identification breaks.

In recent years, a notable trend in Canadian radio has been the gradual abandonment of the AM band, with many AM stations applying for and receiving authorization from the CRTC to convert to the FM band.

AM radio stations have the additional protection that cable companies which offer cable FM services are required by the CRTC to distribute all locally available AM stations through conversion to a cable FM signal, but cable FM only accounts for a small percentage of radio listeners in Canada.

On November 1, 2004, the CRTC began hearing applications for satellite radio services.

The CRTC argues that allowing free trade in television stations would overwhelm the smaller Canadian market, preventing it from upholding its responsibility to foster a national conversation.

In the mid-1980s, it tried to launch stations in the key Western markets of Calgary and Edmonton, only to be rebuffed by the CRTC.

In Canada, cable operators that offer FM cable services are required by the CRTC to distribute all locally available AM stations in this manner.

While Canadian TV stations are technically required to identify themselves over the air by their call letters, the rule is rarely enforced by the CRTC.

As a result, many TV stations never use their call letters for any purpose other than official CRTC business, and are instead identified by a brand such as CTV Northern Ontario, OMNI. 1 or Global BC.

CTVgm initially intended to retain CHUM's Citytv system while divesting CHUM's A-Channel stations and Access Alberta in order for the CRTC to approve the acquisition.

However, the CRTC made the deal conditional on CTV divesting itself of Citytv, because they already have CTV O & O stations serving the very same cities ( CFTO-DT Toronto, CIVT-DT Vancouver, CFCN-DT Calgary, CFRN-DT Edmonton, and CKY-DT Winnipeg ) as it would have exceeded the CRTC's concentration of media ownership limits.

The 1971 CRTC rules ( 30 % Canadian content on Canadian radio ) finally come into full effect and by the end of the 20th century radio stations would have to play 35 % Canadian content.

Some stations – especially those playing formats where there may be a limited number of Canadian recordings suitable for airplay, such as classical, jazz or oldies, may be allowed by the CRTC to meet Canadian content targets as low as 20 per cent.

In 2008 he gained CRTC approval to relaunch the Toronto and Cobourg transmitters as separate stations.

However, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ( CRTC ) said it would only approve CTVglobemedia's purchase of CHUM if it sold off CHUM's Citytv stations instead, while being permitted to keep the A-Channel stations ( including CKVR ).

On April 9, 2007, Omni Television owner Rogers Communications applied to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ( CRTC ) to purchase all of the A-Channel stations ( including CFPL ), CKX-TV and several cable channels being put up for sale in the wake of CTVglobemedia's pending acquisition of the CHUM group.

On June 8, 2007, the CRTC announced its approval of CTVglobemedia's purchase of CHUM Limited, but added a condition that CTVglobemedia must sell off CHUM's Citytv stations to another buyer while keeping the A-Channel stations ( including CFPL ), in effect cancelling the planned sale of A-Channel to Rogers Media.