From the Globe and Mail:
Just when you thought the back catalogues of Gordon Lightfoot, April Wine and Men Without Hats were running out of airwave quota-space, along comes the federal regulator to save the day. At least eight channels provided by each of the three companies handed satellite radio licences on Thursday will have to be Canadian-produced, as will 85 per cent of what those channels play.
Let's assume for a moment that the all-Canadian-owned licensee, CHUM Ltd., drops out (it's pouting because it wanted the playground all to itself). That would mean that between the other two players, Canadian Satellite Radio (CSR) and Sirius Canada, there will be 326 hours of mandated Canadian content every day.
This, it seems, is not nearly enough for the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists. "The CRTC has effectively become an enabler of U.S. product dumping in Canada," its national executive director, Stephen Waddell, boomed yesterday, referring to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the broadcast regulator. (ACTRA doesn't mind American movies and TV producers piling north to shoot using Canadian performers and crews; it just wants to protect us from the final product.)
And wait a sec -- did we forget to mention that Sirius and CSR will also be required to give 5 per cent of their revenues to a fund supporting Canadian artists? It's what you might call a United Way for culture. One hopes that the musical charity cases that emerge from this cultural dirigisme start laying down some tunes ASAP; after all, when you've got 326 hours to fill each day, there's only so many times you can do the Safety Dance.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...siness/General
At least you folks north of the border may be hearing more Gord. How about an "all Gord, all the time" station?
