RCA-Victor Tube Radio

During the Second World War the radio company RCA Montreal, like other Canadian manufacturers, was mobilized to produce military equipment for the war effort. This M-45A radio is the first civilian model manufactured by the company after the war’s end. It testifies to the period before television, when for decades radio played a crucial role in promoting and disseminating francophone culture.

Radio overcame the isolation of distant communities and contributed to the modernization of French-Canadian society, with Quebec’s first station, CKAC, hitting the airwaves in 1922 and Radio Canada following suit in 1936. Families would gather around to listen to Quebecois radio dramas, follow the Montreal Canadians’ hockey games, hear political speeches, and dance along to live music broadcasts.