Fear of a Howard Planet!

The Christmas ads bombarded Canadians over the holidays, satellite Radio had arrived and Canadians were jumping for joy. Anxious to rid themselves of those old terrestrial signals and welcome the ever expanding rays of music, sport and talk radio. All of it through the wonders of XM and Sirius Radio Canada.

Yes, finally the Great White North could share in the cross border joy of hundreds of signals blasted to their personal players or taken on the road in their cars. The promise of non stop hockey, the best of music, talk show topics for all, it was to be a brand new, brave new world for our aural enjoyment.

Curiously though the folks at Sirius Canada were quiet about one name, a broadcaster who had become synonymous with the future of satellite Radio. Howard Stern, was all over the mainstream media in December, there with Katie Couric, sharing chuckles with Ed Bradley at 60 minutes, showing up on CNN, even with Bill O'Reilly at Fox, it was all Howard, all the time. Defended as a beacon of free speech, by the New York Times and PBS, two news gathering organizations that probably never considered the Stern phenomena as of interest until now.

Stern had jumped to Sirius radio in the USA, his show which is to start in mid January single handedly seemed to bring life to the Sirius brand in the US, with a launch in Canada of the two competing systems, many felt that a Stern presence at Sirius would win the day for the Canadian rights holders as well. But not so fast there Stern fans, Sirius Canada, worried about the CRTC and its past history and dislike of all things Howard, has chosen to not carry the Stern show for the tender ears of Canadians.

Stern had a short lived exposure to Canadians a few years ago when three Canadian stations broadcasted his program in the local markets of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, the show which at times can be vulgar and crude, was met with mixed a reaction and seemed to provide extra employment opportunities for receptionists at the CRTC and the Canadian Broadcast Standards offices.

Eventually, the Standard radio chain chose to discontinue the Stern program, bowing to the pressure put upon it by the CRTC and faltering ratings in the key markets, Canada was once again free of the scourge of Stern.

With the debut of satellite radio however the return of Howard hovered ominously over Canada, the folks at Sirius Canada were a tad disingenuous in the pre Christmas selling season, not really saying that they would not carry Stern, but never really saying that they would. Today they announced that they wouldn't be picking up the controversial hosts move to the unregulated world of satellite in the USA.

Stern who has run into trouble in the US with the FCC over the years, has moved to Sirius to keep his show true to what he wants to do, by becoming a subscription based service he now is free to continue on with his brand of entertainment without fear of censure or fine. His arrival at Sirius has been greeted like a general liberating villages everywhere from the yoke of totalitarianism, well almost everywhere we guess.

The problem for Sirius Canada now is that many Canadians have decided to vote with their ears, forsaking the sanitized and regulated Sirius Canada service for a fake American address and a grey market account with Sirius USA, something like 80,000 Canadians are reported to have signed up for the American version of Sirius, something that wasn't supposed to happen with Sirius gaining a license to operate in Canada.

The folks at Sirius Canada are doing the math as we write this, tabulating the cost of letting their audience leave to seek out another source of their satellite fix all in quest of a guy named Howard. They say they have until January 9th to make a final decision, whether to risk the wrath of the CRTC or the wrath of a Stern fan spited.

The CRTC which seems to live in a universe that no longer exists, seems to think it can hold back the tide of communications, Canadians are suggesting otherwise. It may take the business executives at Sirius to make a decision as to who might eventually win the battle for Canadians ears. The fact that the consumer has to actively seek out and pay for the access to the Stern program should be enough of a statement for the CRTC to leave the nanny like state behind. If someone is paying for the program, one suspects that they aren't going to complain about its content.

We'd like to believe that Canadian culture is strong enough to survive the offerings of Howard Stern. Those that don't like his brand of radio have no need to listen and can't really listen unless they willingly subscribe. That one act of paying for his programming would seem the perfect solution for the CRTC's dilemma.

It would be rather ironic to see the nascent Canadian Industry suffer needlessly, as Canadian radio listeners actively seek out Stern, while abandoning the many other new Canadian options available to them via Sirius Canada.

The approach being planned by Sirius Canada under fear of the CRTC, is believed to be called shooting yourself in your foot.