[Swprograms] Fwd: [ODXA] Say goodbye to bad radio

[Richard Cuff <rdcuff@xxxxxxxxx>]

Posted over at the ODXA group...

Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA  USA


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brian Smith <am740@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 6 Mar 2005 13:57:32 -0500
Subject: [ODXA] Say goodbye to bad radio
To: Group/ODXA <odxa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>



By Gary Dunford -- For the Toronto Sun

RADIO REVOLT? A pal got his nifty new XM Radio this week. Pure music feeds
from the sky. He's not waiting for the CRTC to get off the dime. Have we
been here before people? Buddy wants tunes. Now.

How long is the CRTC gonna sit on the satellite radio file? Hello?

Isn't the CRTC's dithering over which -- if any -- Canadian radio satellite
service to "approve" explain why about 700,000 Canadians today watch Directv
instead of Expressvu or Star Choice?

The broadcast regulator diddled away most of the 1980s. Technical studies,
blue sky brain-storming, maple syrup mom-ism.

Canadian TV satellite entrepreneurs were grounded, hopelessly ensnared in
the CRTC's spider web of ifs, buts and CanCon musings. Directv -- the US
satellite TV service -- was up and running with HBO and ESPN. Canadians
found a way to get it. You gonna wait? Or you gonna watch?

The CRTC created the grey market in satellite TV. It's Ottawa's fault
Canada's homegrown sky TV biz was still-born. They dropped the ball.

Do these poobahs never learn from their mistakes?

The same agency that wraps itself in the flag and weeps crocodile tears for
Canuck talent is directly responsible for our screwy set-up, kids.

Two satellite TV providers compete for a nation of 30 million. Yet more than
half a million Canucks watch a U.S. bird. It was there first.

So as fall turns into winter, and winter turns into spring, the CRTC
shuffles paperwork for two Canadian companies who would offer a hobbled
(they would say "enhanced") CanCon version of existing XM and Sirius
satellite radio services. Continent-wide, static-free, CD quality sound. But
Canuck fees and with the Great Seal of Ottawa.

There is much for the CRTC to stall about.

Which of XM's 68 commercial-free music channels and 34 channels of sports
must be locked out or musically sanitized?

Should Sirius Canada offer a channel of French-Canadian fiddle tunes if it
is allowed to drop Howard Stern on us? Discuss.

Any wonder there's a brisk traffic in U.S. receivers coming across the
border? Early adapters subscribe to Yank services now, with US addresses of
convenience.

Grey market satellite

"I used the Empire State Building as my address," boasts one new XM Canuck
on a web user board. "Just remember to leave your receiver on while you
activate it."

As in the case of grey market satellite TV, it's Canucks outside the GTA who
lead the way to grey market satellite radio. As one shrugs: "If you're in
northern Ontario or on the road, you gotta have Sirius or XM. If you're in a
city, there might be a coup ple of good stations."

But wait, you cry! Who dares listen without Canadian providers or CRTC
approval? Is there a satellite radio signal up there this morning?

"We are well south of the 49th parallel in Ontario," explains early adapter
Joe Dwarf. "A lot of the U.S. -- like the whole state of North Dakota -- is
north of Toronto. Satellite radios work fine anywhere in southern Canada."

Northern Ontario

"XM works fine in my car and my hotel," posts another Canadian XM user
staying at The Senator in Timmins. "Go forth my friend and say good-bye to
bad Northern Ontario radio."

"Drove home to the Soo and had no reception problems at all," brags a
Toronto XM rebel. "My brother loves his new Skyfi with boombox and car kit!
Merry Christmas, bro!"

If you can say "Delphi Skyfi2 car bundle" or "Kenwood Sirius 901," you get
my point. If only the CRTC did. Get off the can. As one XM user puts it:
"Hell is empty. The devils are all here."

Remember the sly question in The Motorcycle Diaries?

"Don't you know that the deeper you bury the diamonds, the more determined
the pirate is to take them?"

Canadians who want new technology they read about -- and pay for it -- are
hardly pirates. They're pissed.

They know if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck but is always a day
late and a dollar short, it's not a mallard. It's the CRTC.

Silly goose.


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