Ray Manzarek, keyboardist for the Doors died of cancer. A hugely influential band but I must say it was years before I could listen to them. See I grew up in Scarbourgh listening to punk, new wave as well as garage and rockabilly from the 50's & 60's while everybody else was listening to Q-107 who insisted on playing the same playlist every fucking day for years and years. The Doors, Zeppelin, Stones, Who, Floyd and Rush literally every fucking day, at least twice a day. No exaggeration. I really resented that at the time. It wasn't till years later that I got over that and decided that they were actually good bands. Except for Rush, they still suck.
Anyway where was I? Oh right, Ray Manzerek. He also produced the first X album as well, on which they buzz-sawed their way through "Soul Kitchen". Which was in turn later used in an episode of "Miami Vice" just before something blew up real good. So there's that.
THE DOORS ~ "LIGHT MY FIRE";
X & RAY MANZAREK ~ "SOUL KITCHEN";
Ronnie Splinter ~ Guitarist for influential 1960's Dutch garage band The Outsiders (not be confused with the 1960's American garage band The Outsiders who had a hit with the classic "Time Won't Let Me")
THE OUTSIDERS ~ "LYING ALL THE TIME";
Marshall Lytle ~ Bassist with Bill Haley's Comets as well as his preceding band The Saddlemen. Also co-wrote "Crazy Man Crazy" and a few songs for Haley associated group The Jodimers including their big hit "Rattle Shakin' Daddy", pioneer of the Rockabilly "Slap Bass" sound ~ 79
BILL HALEY & THE COMETS ~ "ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK";
BILL HALEY & THE COMETS ~ "RAZZLE DAZZLE";
Johnny Smith ~ 1955 Guitarist who did the original version of the surf classic "Walk Don't Run", later covered by The Ventures, Shadows, Belaires, Los Straitjackets and virtually every other surf band ~ 90
THE VENTURES ~ "WALK DON'T RUN";
Jim Sundquist ~ Guitarist for 1960's garage band The Fendermen "Mule Skinner Blues" ~ 75
THE FENDERMAN ~ "MULE SKINNER BLUES";
Eddie Bond ~ 1950's Rockabilly singer originally on Sun Records then on Mercury later became a country singer ~ 79
EDDIE BOND ~ "TORE UP";
EDDIE BOND ~ "ONE WAY TICKET";
Floyd McRae ~ Singer with 1950's Doo-Wop group The Chords who do the original version of the classic hit "Sh-Boom" later covered by The Crewcuts ~ 80
THE CHORDS ~ "SH-BOOM" (recorded in 1980);
THE CREWCUTS ~ "SH-BOOM";
Virgil Johnson ~ Singer with Doo-Wop group The Velvets ~ 77
THE VELVETS ~ "MY LOVE";
Bob Engemann ~ Singer with 1950's Pop Vocal Group The Letterman w/hits like "Love is A Many Splendored Thing", "When I Fall In Love", "The Way You Look Tonight", "Softly", and covers of pop hits like "You'll Never Walk Alone", "Up Up And Away", "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" and "Walk On By" ~ 76
THE LETTERMEN ~ "LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING";
THE LETTERMEN ~ "WALK ON BY";
Tuesday 21 May 2013
Thursday 16 May 2013
PROUD FM Takes Another Kick At The Can
This week the CRTC announced that PROUD FM has applied for a signal increase. Broadcasting on 103.9 FM at 60 watts, PROUD is asking for an increase to 250 WATTS, an increase that would allow them to reach the bulk, if not the entirety of Toronto and much of the suburbs. Coincidentally this increase to 205 WATTS is exactly the same size as that formerly held by CKLN, the now defunct radio station at Ryerson at 88.1 FM.
PROUD FM (the actual call-letters are CIRR-FM) is the "Gay Themed" radio station owned by the Evanov Corp which has been broadcasting since 2007 with a checkered history of format tinkering, mass firings, abrupt walkouts over lack of pay and a recent closing of their offices and studios from downtown's "Gay Ghetto" on Church street and a move to the boondocks. The coverage PROUD FM gets from the local gay papers has gone from supportive in the early days to mostly critical for the last several years as most of the original staff either quit or were fired. The constant knock against their programming has been that while originally they made an attempt to feature gay artists they soon dumped much of this in favour of "music that gay people actually listen to". This seems to consist mainly of Madonna, Lady Gaga and lots of pretty mainstream dance music. The gay community seems to be pretty disappointed, much the way that the black community became disappointed in THE FLOW and CARN FM.
Speaking of which; WTF is this!?
That PROUD FM would now be asking for 250 watts is ironic since it was Bill Evanov, owner of PROUD FM who was first out of the starting gates in applying for CKLN's signal once CKLN had it's license yanked by the CRTC in a very rare move prompted by the truly historic incompetence and dishonesty of the station's left-wing activist management and that of the Ryerson Student Union who had seized control of the station in 2009. Evanov barely waited for the rotting corpse of CKLN to cool before bragging to the media of his intention to apply for the vacant 88.1 signal, thus setting off a feeding frenzy of over twenty other applicants for what would be Toronto's last open FM signal. Those other applicants included the heavyweights like Moses Znaimer, CHIN and the CBC to lightweights like a small group calling themselves INDIE 88 not to mention Ryerson's attempt to get the signal back. In a surprise upset the CRTC awarded the signal to INDIE 88 last year.
As for PROUD FM; they got nothing, squat, nada, zippo, the big goose egg. At the CRTC hearings last April (which I attended) PROUD FM's testimony included the usual claims that they needed the new, more powerful signal or they would have to go out of business as their 60 watt signal could not go beyond the downtown core. Evanov had been having a good year since they had just been granted a new Gay themed AM station in Montreal. All seemed to be going pretty well until the CRTC Commissioners pointed out that PROUD FM did not actually need to move to 88.1 FM to get a better signal since they could get a signal increase where they were albeit this would be a smaller one than they were shooting for by moving.
This was an important point since the CRTC insists that before an applicant asks for some sort of move or upgrade that they will have exhausted the resources they already have. The representatives from PROUD seemed baffled by the question the Commissioners were asking and they never really recovered. However while PROUD may have been shot down, unlike most of the other applicants they were not completely empty handed as the still had their existing 103 FM signal and a CRTC practically daring them to apply for a signal increase. I'm surprised it took them this long to follow up.
This time their odds should be pretty good. They already have the signal so unlike last time their won't be any other competing bids to fight off. There may still be an issue if the increase turns out to interfere with a neighbouring signal however, but it's too early to see if that is indeed the case. There is also a sneaking suspicion among many that Evanov, who also owns a dozen other radio stations, has no real commitment to the "Gay Themed" format and intends at some point to dump it entirely in favour of some more mainstream format once he has a signal capable of reaching the entire city, more or less.
PROUD FM (the actual call-letters are CIRR-FM) is the "Gay Themed" radio station owned by the Evanov Corp which has been broadcasting since 2007 with a checkered history of format tinkering, mass firings, abrupt walkouts over lack of pay and a recent closing of their offices and studios from downtown's "Gay Ghetto" on Church street and a move to the boondocks. The coverage PROUD FM gets from the local gay papers has gone from supportive in the early days to mostly critical for the last several years as most of the original staff either quit or were fired. The constant knock against their programming has been that while originally they made an attempt to feature gay artists they soon dumped much of this in favour of "music that gay people actually listen to". This seems to consist mainly of Madonna, Lady Gaga and lots of pretty mainstream dance music. The gay community seems to be pretty disappointed, much the way that the black community became disappointed in THE FLOW and CARN FM.
Speaking of which; WTF is this!?
That PROUD FM would now be asking for 250 watts is ironic since it was Bill Evanov, owner of PROUD FM who was first out of the starting gates in applying for CKLN's signal once CKLN had it's license yanked by the CRTC in a very rare move prompted by the truly historic incompetence and dishonesty of the station's left-wing activist management and that of the Ryerson Student Union who had seized control of the station in 2009. Evanov barely waited for the rotting corpse of CKLN to cool before bragging to the media of his intention to apply for the vacant 88.1 signal, thus setting off a feeding frenzy of over twenty other applicants for what would be Toronto's last open FM signal. Those other applicants included the heavyweights like Moses Znaimer, CHIN and the CBC to lightweights like a small group calling themselves INDIE 88 not to mention Ryerson's attempt to get the signal back. In a surprise upset the CRTC awarded the signal to INDIE 88 last year.
As for PROUD FM; they got nothing, squat, nada, zippo, the big goose egg. At the CRTC hearings last April (which I attended) PROUD FM's testimony included the usual claims that they needed the new, more powerful signal or they would have to go out of business as their 60 watt signal could not go beyond the downtown core. Evanov had been having a good year since they had just been granted a new Gay themed AM station in Montreal. All seemed to be going pretty well until the CRTC Commissioners pointed out that PROUD FM did not actually need to move to 88.1 FM to get a better signal since they could get a signal increase where they were albeit this would be a smaller one than they were shooting for by moving.
This was an important point since the CRTC insists that before an applicant asks for some sort of move or upgrade that they will have exhausted the resources they already have. The representatives from PROUD seemed baffled by the question the Commissioners were asking and they never really recovered. However while PROUD may have been shot down, unlike most of the other applicants they were not completely empty handed as the still had their existing 103 FM signal and a CRTC practically daring them to apply for a signal increase. I'm surprised it took them this long to follow up.
This time their odds should be pretty good. They already have the signal so unlike last time their won't be any other competing bids to fight off. There may still be an issue if the increase turns out to interfere with a neighbouring signal however, but it's too early to see if that is indeed the case. There is also a sneaking suspicion among many that Evanov, who also owns a dozen other radio stations, has no real commitment to the "Gay Themed" format and intends at some point to dump it entirely in favour of some more mainstream format once he has a signal capable of reaching the entire city, more or less.
Wednesday 1 May 2013
FOX North Makes It's Last Stand (maybe)
As some of you may know, especially since I already wrote about it here, last week The SUN NEWS Network (AKA FOX NORTH) was front and center at CRTC hearings asking, nay demanding, that they be added to the basic cable package and that you, yes you, dear cable subscriber be forced to pay for their unwatchable and unwatched "News Channel". So far by all accounts it has not gone well.
To recap; since they went on the air during the last federal election in a blaze of publicity FOX North has has indeed blazed like the mighty Hindenburg, attracting a truly pathetic 14,000 viewers in primetime (that's according to their own figures, other figures put it at half that at some times) and losing a jawdropping 17 million dollars a year. In fact thanks to their shrewdly blended combination of right wing talking points, race baiting, partisan name calling, faux hyper patriotism and talk radio manufactured outrage they have literally managed to attract more complaints than viewers, which must be some kind of milestone.
So seeing their Free Market Pravda crashing before their eyes what can the capitalist zealots at SUN TV's parent company Quebecor Media Inc. (AKA QMI) do? Why demand a subsidy of course, what a silly question.
You might think they might perhaps have a slight, ever so tiny, iota of shame in the darkened regions of whatever passes for their souls. After all this is the same QMI who have been on an unholy jihad against the CBC and any artists who are commie enough to take govt subsidies. This is also the same QMI who have long campaigned against the very existence of the CRTC. This is also the same QMI who's head Pierre Paladeau was in front of the very same CRTC only last year railing against the very existence of the CBC. Of course this is the very same QMI who have been happily taking millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies for years, a fact gleefully revealed by the CBC last year and which I've written about here,. So fuck moral superiority and belly up to the bar QMI and make your best pitch.
Thus far they have found few friends, including conservatives like Andrew Coyne from National Post; or Jonathan Kay from the National Post, or the Post's Scott Stinson, or there's this gem from the conservative Globe & Mail, have been scathing in attacking QMI for their moral double back flip. A few choice comments would include;
From Coyne;;
"Sun TV’s bid for cable shows its invincible sense of entitlement to public money"
"There just aren’t words for this kind of gall. Even by the standards of the cultural sector, it’s breathtaking: proof, yet again, that the only thing you need to succeed in Canadian business is utter shamelessness, coupled with an invincible sense of entitlement to the public’s money. Leave aside its general positioning of itself as the voice for conservative, free-market types, or its constant lectures to others on the need for self-reliance. This is the network that, when it is not talking about itself (sole opposition to the “non-Sun media”) is more or less obsessed with the CBC and its “billion-dollar subsidy.” All forgotten, apparently."
From Kay;
"Sun’s promoters like to cite the network as a plucky analogue to CTV News or CBC News Network. But that’s misleading: As I noted on Levant’s show, Sun News isn’t really about “news” (though it does have several serious journos on staff, including David Akin): Its most popular features, by far, generally consist of right-wing commentary with only the most nominal quantum of news content. As Levant himself admitted in our discussion, he doesn’t even call himself a “journalist.” He’s basically an ideologue and (extremely successful) activist who happens to have a prime-time TV show. And many of his guests — particularly the ones who come on to bash Islam — also are activists, not mainstream news commentators."
"All of which to say: If the CRTC approves Sun News’ application, it will be sending the message that programming that is more or less explicitly aimed at advancing a particular political ideology (as opposed to exhibiting a certain genre, or providing content on a certain subject) is eligible for must-carry status."
"Most astoundingly, in recent weeks, Sun has turned much of its lineup into one giant infomercial for its own CRTC application. (As my colleague Scott Stinson put it, “Sun News is the go-to network for praise of Sun News.”) I know of no precedent for a TV network focusing its primary “news gathering” efforts on its own awesomeness."
From Stinson:
"Sun’s bid for mandatory status, made clear in the channel’s own filings, is because it has failed to marshall those pesky market forces and make a go of it based on consumer demand."
"On Thursday, the news channel’s second anniversary, Ezra Levant, host of its flagship program, The Source, used his full hour to praise himself, his colleagues, and his company, with a little shout out for Freedom thrown in for good measure. Other Sun News hosts came on to tout its general awesomeness, as did the network’s boss. This was right in the middle of the made-for-TV Boston bombing manhunt, which was ignored. (The episode was presumably pre-taped)."
"Before the channel launched, I spoke with an Ottawa professor who said the risk was that it would become a closed loop of information. The same voices constantly telling each how correct they are and how everyone else is wrong. Sounds about right."
And that's just from their FRIENDS! Then there are the legions of enemies that FOX North has made over just the past couple of years since going on air. They would include literally thousands of Natives, Roma, Muslims, Gays, Unionists, Greens, Artists and other assorted "un-Canadian" types that Canada seems to be full of who wrote letters or signed petitions to the CRTC urging them to reject SUN TV's demands. SUN had to be worried about this since they had their nastiest racebaiter, Erzra Levant finally apologize for a droolingly hateful rant about the Roma six months earlier, after of course spending the previous six months insisting that he would never back down to "political correctness". That they had the ability to say with a straight face that the fact that this half-assed apology came on the very same day that SUN TV applied to the CRTC was a total coincidence was a testament to their acting skills. Truly; if there was an Oscar for shameless hucksterism these guys would have more gold statues than Meryl Freaking Streep.
SUN TV TALKS ABOUT IT'S FAVORITE SUBJECT, ITSELF:
Of course people who write letters or even editorials don't get to make those sort of decisions, the CRTC does. And how's that going again?
(from a Globe And Mail report on the hearings);
"At one point, CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais suggested that SUN's Problems may be because "Canadian's may just not want to subscribe. How do you respond?"
"It is inevitable you'll pay for things you don't watch and don't like. That's true for everyone", SUN News vice president Kory Teneycke told the hearing."
You know what? That is a perfectly reasonable answer. That is the same justification for supporting specialty channels like Aboriginal Voices, Vision TV, Weather Channel or various multi-cultural channels. For that matter it's the reason we have a CBC, or a TVO, or an NFB, or Campus/Community Radio. For that matter it's also the same argument for having taxes at all, or union dues.
However, at the risk of pointing out the blindingly obvious; it's an argument that SUN and QMI have contemptuously dismissed for years. The Free Markets must rule damn it! The invisible hand is never wrong! Freedom! Liberty! Get a job you commie pinkos! Ayn Rand, Adam Smith, Thatcher! And so there, take that!
Unless the market decides it doesn't want to be seduced by their wares. Then it's time to breakout that begging bowl.
However; utterly brazen serial hypocrisy, however nauseating, is not grounds for the CRTC to reject the application.
Luckily the CRTC did set criteria in 2010 for applicants;
1. "That the channel makes "an exceptional contribution to Canadian expression and reflects Canadian attitudes, opinions, ideas, values and artistic creativity"
That's a little vague but the thousands of complaints that SUN TV has generated in a short period of time make that highly questionable. SUN TV is openly and proudly the propaganda wing of the Conservative Party, period, there is no point in pretending otherwise. It is a right wing Pravda with less ballet and chess coverage.
2. "That it contributes, in an exceptional manner, to the overall objectives for the basic cable service and specifically contributes to one or more objectives of the Broadcasting Act, such as Canadian identity and cultural sovereignty, ethno-cultural diversity, including the special place of Aboriginal peoples in Canadian society, service to and the reflection and portrayal of persons with disabilities, or linguistic duality, including improved service to official language minority communities"
That's not vague at all and there is no way that SUN TV can claim they have even paid lip service to this one. In fact QMI has always been open in it's sneering contempt for pinko ideas about "diversity" even before they decided to declare war on the Indians, Muslims, Roma and Gays. That may finally come back to bite them in the ass. Payback's a bitch.
3. "That it makes exceptional commitments to original, first-run Canadian programming in terms of exhibition and expenditures"
SUN seems to think they have that one nailed and they may be right since once again it's so vague that even with the shockingly shoddy production values normally seen on SUN NEWS it wouldn't hard to claim Canadian Content. Still quality should count for something and SUN TV seriously looks like a cross between the old "Rocket Ship Seven" children's show and a lottery draw done on the set of the original Tron. So that gives them at most two out of three, which is probably not enough for the CRTC who take their guidelines seriously even if QMI does not.
On top of this the CRTC Chair asked a question I actually hadn't thought of, but should have; Jean-Pierre Blais asked why SUN NEWS wasn't being offered on basic cable on Videotron, the Quebec cable provider owned by QMI itself. According to a tweet sent out by Michael Hennessy (who was presumably at the hearings) QMI "had no answer" to this question. The Toronto Star's Heather Malick described SUN VP Kory Teneycke as "pinned to an invisible wall, suffering from a case of dry mouth terror that would have embarrassed Marco Rubio"
He should be worried. That is a devastating question for a number of reasons. First the CRTC always wants to know that an applicant has exhausted all possible options before coming to them demanding help. At the previous hearings about the vacant 88.1fm frequency in Toronto one of the applicants, PROUD FM, was asking to move from their 60 watt signal at 103 fm to 88.1fm to improve reception. However at the hearings it was pointed out that PROUD FM in fact already had clearance to improve their current signal and had not done so and this probably sank their otherwise decent chances. QMI's failure to carry their own channel on their own cable service is just bizarre. As is the fact that they were apparently not expecting the question. It also raises the obvious question in that if QMI doesn't believe in their own product why should anyone else?
Mind you SUN News wasn't totally out of arguments, no siree. They are also arguing that they need to be on basic cable because most of their audience are seniors who don't have cable. That's right; as we always suspected the SUN News audience is literally dying off. However it should be pointed out that SUN News has the same audience of elderly white bitter-enders, conspiracy theorists, obsessed homophobes, paranoid Islamophobes, bigots, gun nuts, Ayn Rand cultists and shut-ins that FOX South has, and they seem to be able to stay in business. But that is in The Exited States of America, so maybe there is just no audience here in Great White Canuckistan, at least not enough to keep SUN News afloat. It's a shame really. So sad.
So, assuming that SUN News gets turned down, which seems increasingly likely but certainly not definite, then what?
QMI has stated that if they don't get basic cable carriage they will go out of business. But before you get your hopes up you should note that CRTC applicants always claim that if they don't get what they want they will shut down. At the afore-mentioned CRTC hearings on the vacant 88.1 fm frequency in Toronto PROUD FM and CARN FM both swore they would go out of business if they didn't get the signal. They didn't get it and they are still on air. As the CRTC pointed out they could be carried on their own Videotron provider in Quebec, they are also being carried on SHAW in Ontario and elsewhere. Also little noticed, they are also asking to be carried as an over-the-air analog signal which they started out with, that way they could be picked up with a standard antenna for free. I actually have no particular objection to that one. Assuming there are no technical barriers they should get the OK on that since it doesn't ask the CRTC for any special favours nor does it cost anybody anything.
If SUN News bites the dust it would be a hugely embarrassing belly flop for QMI, not mention a hugely hilarious one. It would also be a blow to the Conservative Party who they serve. Since there is to be a Federal election in about two years with the hated spawn of Trudeau on deck verses their hero Harper, plus elections to be held in Ontario and Toronto featuring their even more beloved Rob Ford and Tim Hudak along with the possibility elections in Quebec and Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and BC. I'm betting QMI will stick it out even if they have to keep SUN TV as a loss-leader. I could live with that. Besides SUN is always good for some comic relief, as long as we are not forced to pay for it. Then it's less funny.
To recap; since they went on the air during the last federal election in a blaze of publicity FOX North has has indeed blazed like the mighty Hindenburg, attracting a truly pathetic 14,000 viewers in primetime (that's according to their own figures, other figures put it at half that at some times) and losing a jawdropping 17 million dollars a year. In fact thanks to their shrewdly blended combination of right wing talking points, race baiting, partisan name calling, faux hyper patriotism and talk radio manufactured outrage they have literally managed to attract more complaints than viewers, which must be some kind of milestone.
So seeing their Free Market Pravda crashing before their eyes what can the capitalist zealots at SUN TV's parent company Quebecor Media Inc. (AKA QMI) do? Why demand a subsidy of course, what a silly question.
You might think they might perhaps have a slight, ever so tiny, iota of shame in the darkened regions of whatever passes for their souls. After all this is the same QMI who have been on an unholy jihad against the CBC and any artists who are commie enough to take govt subsidies. This is also the same QMI who have long campaigned against the very existence of the CRTC. This is also the same QMI who's head Pierre Paladeau was in front of the very same CRTC only last year railing against the very existence of the CBC. Of course this is the very same QMI who have been happily taking millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies for years, a fact gleefully revealed by the CBC last year and which I've written about here,. So fuck moral superiority and belly up to the bar QMI and make your best pitch.
Thus far they have found few friends, including conservatives like Andrew Coyne from National Post; or Jonathan Kay from the National Post, or the Post's Scott Stinson, or there's this gem from the conservative Globe & Mail, have been scathing in attacking QMI for their moral double back flip. A few choice comments would include;
From Coyne;;
"Sun TV’s bid for cable shows its invincible sense of entitlement to public money"
"There just aren’t words for this kind of gall. Even by the standards of the cultural sector, it’s breathtaking: proof, yet again, that the only thing you need to succeed in Canadian business is utter shamelessness, coupled with an invincible sense of entitlement to the public’s money. Leave aside its general positioning of itself as the voice for conservative, free-market types, or its constant lectures to others on the need for self-reliance. This is the network that, when it is not talking about itself (sole opposition to the “non-Sun media”) is more or less obsessed with the CBC and its “billion-dollar subsidy.” All forgotten, apparently."
From Kay;
"Sun’s promoters like to cite the network as a plucky analogue to CTV News or CBC News Network. But that’s misleading: As I noted on Levant’s show, Sun News isn’t really about “news” (though it does have several serious journos on staff, including David Akin): Its most popular features, by far, generally consist of right-wing commentary with only the most nominal quantum of news content. As Levant himself admitted in our discussion, he doesn’t even call himself a “journalist.” He’s basically an ideologue and (extremely successful) activist who happens to have a prime-time TV show. And many of his guests — particularly the ones who come on to bash Islam — also are activists, not mainstream news commentators."
"All of which to say: If the CRTC approves Sun News’ application, it will be sending the message that programming that is more or less explicitly aimed at advancing a particular political ideology (as opposed to exhibiting a certain genre, or providing content on a certain subject) is eligible for must-carry status."
"Most astoundingly, in recent weeks, Sun has turned much of its lineup into one giant infomercial for its own CRTC application. (As my colleague Scott Stinson put it, “Sun News is the go-to network for praise of Sun News.”) I know of no precedent for a TV network focusing its primary “news gathering” efforts on its own awesomeness."
From Stinson:
"Sun’s bid for mandatory status, made clear in the channel’s own filings, is because it has failed to marshall those pesky market forces and make a go of it based on consumer demand."
"On Thursday, the news channel’s second anniversary, Ezra Levant, host of its flagship program, The Source, used his full hour to praise himself, his colleagues, and his company, with a little shout out for Freedom thrown in for good measure. Other Sun News hosts came on to tout its general awesomeness, as did the network’s boss. This was right in the middle of the made-for-TV Boston bombing manhunt, which was ignored. (The episode was presumably pre-taped)."
"Before the channel launched, I spoke with an Ottawa professor who said the risk was that it would become a closed loop of information. The same voices constantly telling each how correct they are and how everyone else is wrong. Sounds about right."
And that's just from their FRIENDS! Then there are the legions of enemies that FOX North has made over just the past couple of years since going on air. They would include literally thousands of Natives, Roma, Muslims, Gays, Unionists, Greens, Artists and other assorted "un-Canadian" types that Canada seems to be full of who wrote letters or signed petitions to the CRTC urging them to reject SUN TV's demands. SUN had to be worried about this since they had their nastiest racebaiter, Erzra Levant finally apologize for a droolingly hateful rant about the Roma six months earlier, after of course spending the previous six months insisting that he would never back down to "political correctness". That they had the ability to say with a straight face that the fact that this half-assed apology came on the very same day that SUN TV applied to the CRTC was a total coincidence was a testament to their acting skills. Truly; if there was an Oscar for shameless hucksterism these guys would have more gold statues than Meryl Freaking Streep.
SUN TV TALKS ABOUT IT'S FAVORITE SUBJECT, ITSELF:
Of course people who write letters or even editorials don't get to make those sort of decisions, the CRTC does. And how's that going again?
(from a Globe And Mail report on the hearings);
"At one point, CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais suggested that SUN's Problems may be because "Canadian's may just not want to subscribe. How do you respond?"
"It is inevitable you'll pay for things you don't watch and don't like. That's true for everyone", SUN News vice president Kory Teneycke told the hearing."
You know what? That is a perfectly reasonable answer. That is the same justification for supporting specialty channels like Aboriginal Voices, Vision TV, Weather Channel or various multi-cultural channels. For that matter it's the reason we have a CBC, or a TVO, or an NFB, or Campus/Community Radio. For that matter it's also the same argument for having taxes at all, or union dues.
However, at the risk of pointing out the blindingly obvious; it's an argument that SUN and QMI have contemptuously dismissed for years. The Free Markets must rule damn it! The invisible hand is never wrong! Freedom! Liberty! Get a job you commie pinkos! Ayn Rand, Adam Smith, Thatcher! And so there, take that!
Unless the market decides it doesn't want to be seduced by their wares. Then it's time to breakout that begging bowl.
However; utterly brazen serial hypocrisy, however nauseating, is not grounds for the CRTC to reject the application.
Luckily the CRTC did set criteria in 2010 for applicants;
1. "That the channel makes "an exceptional contribution to Canadian expression and reflects Canadian attitudes, opinions, ideas, values and artistic creativity"
That's a little vague but the thousands of complaints that SUN TV has generated in a short period of time make that highly questionable. SUN TV is openly and proudly the propaganda wing of the Conservative Party, period, there is no point in pretending otherwise. It is a right wing Pravda with less ballet and chess coverage.
2. "That it contributes, in an exceptional manner, to the overall objectives for the basic cable service and specifically contributes to one or more objectives of the Broadcasting Act, such as Canadian identity and cultural sovereignty, ethno-cultural diversity, including the special place of Aboriginal peoples in Canadian society, service to and the reflection and portrayal of persons with disabilities, or linguistic duality, including improved service to official language minority communities"
That's not vague at all and there is no way that SUN TV can claim they have even paid lip service to this one. In fact QMI has always been open in it's sneering contempt for pinko ideas about "diversity" even before they decided to declare war on the Indians, Muslims, Roma and Gays. That may finally come back to bite them in the ass. Payback's a bitch.
3. "That it makes exceptional commitments to original, first-run Canadian programming in terms of exhibition and expenditures"
SUN seems to think they have that one nailed and they may be right since once again it's so vague that even with the shockingly shoddy production values normally seen on SUN NEWS it wouldn't hard to claim Canadian Content. Still quality should count for something and SUN TV seriously looks like a cross between the old "Rocket Ship Seven" children's show and a lottery draw done on the set of the original Tron. So that gives them at most two out of three, which is probably not enough for the CRTC who take their guidelines seriously even if QMI does not.
On top of this the CRTC Chair asked a question I actually hadn't thought of, but should have; Jean-Pierre Blais asked why SUN NEWS wasn't being offered on basic cable on Videotron, the Quebec cable provider owned by QMI itself. According to a tweet sent out by Michael Hennessy (who was presumably at the hearings) QMI "had no answer" to this question. The Toronto Star's Heather Malick described SUN VP Kory Teneycke as "pinned to an invisible wall, suffering from a case of dry mouth terror that would have embarrassed Marco Rubio"
He should be worried. That is a devastating question for a number of reasons. First the CRTC always wants to know that an applicant has exhausted all possible options before coming to them demanding help. At the previous hearings about the vacant 88.1fm frequency in Toronto one of the applicants, PROUD FM, was asking to move from their 60 watt signal at 103 fm to 88.1fm to improve reception. However at the hearings it was pointed out that PROUD FM in fact already had clearance to improve their current signal and had not done so and this probably sank their otherwise decent chances. QMI's failure to carry their own channel on their own cable service is just bizarre. As is the fact that they were apparently not expecting the question. It also raises the obvious question in that if QMI doesn't believe in their own product why should anyone else?
Mind you SUN News wasn't totally out of arguments, no siree. They are also arguing that they need to be on basic cable because most of their audience are seniors who don't have cable. That's right; as we always suspected the SUN News audience is literally dying off. However it should be pointed out that SUN News has the same audience of elderly white bitter-enders, conspiracy theorists, obsessed homophobes, paranoid Islamophobes, bigots, gun nuts, Ayn Rand cultists and shut-ins that FOX South has, and they seem to be able to stay in business. But that is in The Exited States of America, so maybe there is just no audience here in Great White Canuckistan, at least not enough to keep SUN News afloat. It's a shame really. So sad.
So, assuming that SUN News gets turned down, which seems increasingly likely but certainly not definite, then what?
QMI has stated that if they don't get basic cable carriage they will go out of business. But before you get your hopes up you should note that CRTC applicants always claim that if they don't get what they want they will shut down. At the afore-mentioned CRTC hearings on the vacant 88.1 fm frequency in Toronto PROUD FM and CARN FM both swore they would go out of business if they didn't get the signal. They didn't get it and they are still on air. As the CRTC pointed out they could be carried on their own Videotron provider in Quebec, they are also being carried on SHAW in Ontario and elsewhere. Also little noticed, they are also asking to be carried as an over-the-air analog signal which they started out with, that way they could be picked up with a standard antenna for free. I actually have no particular objection to that one. Assuming there are no technical barriers they should get the OK on that since it doesn't ask the CRTC for any special favours nor does it cost anybody anything.
If SUN News bites the dust it would be a hugely embarrassing belly flop for QMI, not mention a hugely hilarious one. It would also be a blow to the Conservative Party who they serve. Since there is to be a Federal election in about two years with the hated spawn of Trudeau on deck verses their hero Harper, plus elections to be held in Ontario and Toronto featuring their even more beloved Rob Ford and Tim Hudak along with the possibility elections in Quebec and Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and BC. I'm betting QMI will stick it out even if they have to keep SUN TV as a loss-leader. I could live with that. Besides SUN is always good for some comic relief, as long as we are not forced to pay for it. Then it's less funny.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)