Satellite radio is on the air
Listening changed drastically this week Almost too many new stations, Cancon not so hot
The broadcasting universe expanded exponentially this weekend for thousands of Canadians who rushed electronics, hardware and appliance stores to purchase expensive receivers, and to pay subscription fees of $ 13 to $ 15 a month for Canada’s first two satellite pay- radio services, Canadian Satellite Radio/ XM and Sirius Canada. What they heard when they got their receivers connected to their car radios and home sound systems will likely change their perception of radio forever. Whether it’s worth the investment remains to be seen.
It’s almost too much radio to comprehend, even after 48 hours of continuous dial- turning: the 80 ( on CSR/XM, owned by Toronto fast- food magnate John Bitove) to 100 channels ( on Sirius Canada, co- owned by Standard Radio and CBC) range across a wide spectrum of broadcast possibilities: from music of every genre, both recorded and live, to bundles of play- by- play sports and sports information channels; from news and public radio services from around the world to comedy channels and children’s programming; from American and Canadian talk radio to religion and old- time radio drama.
Service technicians at both operations on the weekend said the number of sign- ups could barely be accommodated, even with additional shifts working around the clock. So what’s the big deal? In a nutshell, more music, deeper play lists and more diversity than commercial, landbased radio could ever provide. Pay radio is literally 80 to 100 stations in one package; 10 per cent of them originating in Canada, with 85 per cent Canadian content in roughly 50- 50 French- and English-language proportions. Music accounts for about 60 per cent of the total number of channels, divided into such formats as rock, pop, hits, music of each decade since the 1940s, country, folk, jazz, blues, Latin, world, classical, dance, hip- hop and R& B, lifestyle, show tunes and Christian music. There’s even an all- Elvis channel and a truckers’ channel. Each category carries several stations offering variations on the general theme. The size of the overall music catalogue available to subscribers outstrips the average radio station music library by an unimaginable quotient. But for all its spectacularly rich, provocative, seamlessly programmed and diverse content, the independent Canadian music lobby that so vigorously supported these licence applications — and opposed a subsequent appeal by rival land- based pay- radio operator CHUM Ltd. — has received short shrift.
Their work, including the live concert that’s airing tonight from Toronto’s Mod Club on Sirius Canada’s CBC Radio 3 channel as the service’s official launch event — featured artists are Feist, Kathleen Edwards, The Trews and Ron Sexsmith — will not be heard in the U. S. unless subscribers there have the most recently issued receivers.
This includes the estimated 80,000 Canadians who have purchased receivers and subscriptions on the “ grey market,” using U. S. billing addresses, in the past five years.
“ All 10 Canadian signals can be heard only on new or updated hardware,” Sirius Canada president Mark Redmond told the Star. “ Just how many Canadian channels existing subscribers will receive depends on how old their receivers are.”
In addition, grey market subscribers who believed they would be able to hear Howard Stern (Canadian fans of the American “shock jock” have launched an Internet petition at www. petitiononline. com/ sterncan/petition.html urging Sirius Canada to carry his program) and other controversial American programming, will not be able to do so. As of Dec. 1, Canadian satellite radio signals replaced the American signals north of the border.
Their compensation is Canadian content: lots of CBC Radio on Sirius Canada, lots of sports on XM and, for English- language music fans, three tiny wedges of eclectic fringe pop on three of 18 Canadian channels on both services.
It’s the kind of content they can already get on regular, overtheair radio, and on college and community radio, for free.
Channels are accessed by a tiny, pocket- radio- sized receiver and antenna — models range in price from $80 to $400 — that display, at the turn of a knob, the name and dial number of the channel that’s playing, the title of the song ( or the program), the name of the artist ( or host) and the time. The digital stereo sound quality does far exceed the former FM standard — satellite tracking glitches and electric storms notwithstanding — and the units are transportable, though some models require cradles and some rather specialized installation. No one’s saying how many subscribers have signed up to the new services. Unlike their publicly owned American parents — and the originators of 90 per cent of the programming Canadian subscribers will hear — both CSR/XM and Sirius Canada are privately owned operations and decline to make sales figures public. New York- based Sirius has about 2.5 million subscribers in the U. S., while Washingtonbased XM has in excess of 6 million. “The response has exceeded our projections and expectations,” was all Sirius president Redmond said yesterday. CSR/XM, which recently issued an initial public stock offering, is prohibited by securities regulations from releasing revenue information.