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Date Posted: 18:58:04 07/04/05 Mon
A Canadian Catch in a Radio Ruling
By IAN AUSTEN
Published: June 20, 2005
Americans have long marveled at Canada's content rules for radio: Why is it that the likes of Shania Twain and Loverboy take up 35 percent of the airwaves?
Loverboy may soon have its revenge on American listeners, courtesy of satellite radio. Last week, a Canadian regulator approved versions of XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio service, with a catch: satellite radio in Canada must carry a minimum of eight channels with 85 percent Canadian content.
And since it would be uneconomical for the satellite companies to block those channels south of the border, Americans listeners will get them as well.
Some members of the Canadian music industry welcome the idea of more exposure, but Graham Henderson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association, expressed a concern: "What's going to happen a year or two from now if Sirius and XM say, 'We've got a lot of bandwidth taken up by Canadian channels and nobody's listening?' "
John Bitove Jr., chief executive of Canadian Satellite Radio, a Toronto-based joint venture with XM, said his company would steer its music away from performers like K. D. Lang and Shania Twain, who already get extensive airplay in the United States.
"This is more about undiscovered Canadian talent," he said.
That will not necessarily be the case for some of its talk programming. Mr. Bitove plans a comedy channel that will feature, among others, performances from Jim Carrey and Mike Myers.
"There are lots of Canadians who Americans think are Americans," he said. IAN AUSTEN
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