Source : National Post

Move 'to give our subscribers the best, most compelling radio out there': Debuts Monday on Sirius

Howard Stern, the radio shock jock who has racked up record fines from U.S. regulators for his raunchy routines, is coming back to Canada, beginning Monday on Sirius Canada satellite radio.

Mr. Stern's satellite radio show debuted in the United States last month, but was not initially added to the 100 channels of the newly launched Canadian subscription service, whose backers include the CBC.

Mark Redmond, chief executive of Sirius Canada, said the service first wanted to ensure it had technology in place to allow subscribers to tune out Mr. Stern's show if they don't want it.

But there are those who want to hear him, he said, pointing to those who have been tuning in to the so-called grey market for U.S. satellite signals, which drew an estimated 100,000 Canadians before the Canadian services launched.

"It was important for us to add him [Mr. Stern] to the lineup to give our subscribers the best, most compelling radio out there," Mr. Redmond said.

Some observers said Sirius Canada may have been reluctant to air Mr. Stern because satellite radio is regulated in Canada, while it isn't in the United States. Others contend the CBC, one of three partners in Sirius Canada, has resisted putting Mr. Stern on the air until now because the public broadcaster was reluctant to be associated with the shock jock.

Mr. Redmond said the decision to bring Mr. Stern's show to Canada was made by the full board of Sirius Canada, which includes two members from the CBC, two from Sirius and two from the third partner, Standard Broadcasting Corp.

"We believe we will get more subscribers because of it," he said.

Sirius Canada is a private company and has not revealed subscriber numbers to date. But, in the United States, Mr. Stern's five-year, US$500-million production contract helped narrow the gap between Sirius and XM, the clear No. 1 satellite radio service there.

Mr. Stern jumped to subscription satellite radio from conventional radio, citing heated battles with regulators over his freedom to discuss anal sex and stage antics involving bodily functions and insults.

Mr. Stern also once referred to French Canadians as "cowards" and "pussies."

Clear Channel Communications Inc. paid a US$1.75-million settlement with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in 2004 after more than 200 indecency complaints were filed against Mr. Stern's nationally syndicated radio show. Clear Channel dropped the show.

Mr. Stern's show, which first aired in Canada in 1997 on radio stations Q107 in Toronto and CHOM-FM in Montreal, as well as Toronto's Citytv, was eventually dropped by 2001.

"He's a proven flop in Canada," said Stephen Tapp, president of Sirius Canada's main rival, XM Canada, and former general manager of CHUM Ltd.'s Citytv. "He hasn't been in this country in years.

A spokesman for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said the commission and other regulators won't interfere with Mr. Stern's broadcasts unless there are complaints.

Mr. Redmond said he hopes joining the industry's self-regulating Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, and taking other steps to block offensive broadcasts, will be enough. Sirius has agreed to prevent Mr. Stern and other "mature" content channels such as a gay and lesbian channel from reaching the receivers of subscribers who don't want them by blocking them at the source.

"I don't really want to speculate on what concerns or complaints we may have in the future, because I don't know," Mr. Redmond said. "We believe the levels of controls we've now put in place are sufficient to alleviate any of the concerns of the CRTC."

In 2004, the CRTC took the rare move of stripping a Quebec radio station of its licence after repeated complaints about abusive language and the outrageous acts of one of its shock jocks.

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