Posted on 07/14/2004 10:51:58 AM PDT by Grig
Montreal — In a Canadian first yesterday, federal regulators yanked the broadcasting licence of CHOI-FM, Quebec City's most popular radio station, because of a long-running pattern of offensive comments by its morning hosts.
Setting the stage for a fierce debate over freedom of speech and the power to regulate airwaves, station owner Patrice Demers vowed to go to court to save his $25-million, 35-employee business.
“You just witnessed an act of censorship that is totally unjustified and incomprehensible,” he said.
“I will probably lose $25-million because I stood by my hosts and gave them freedom of speech.”
It is only the sixth time since its creation that the CRTC has not renewed a licence. But until now no station had been banned solely for airing crude comments.
“This is the first time that the non-renewal is based on a pattern of verbal content as exclusively as this one is,” Charles Dalfen, chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, said in an interview.
While the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has been cracking down on American stations, Canadian broadcasters tend to police themselves.
After a previous string of complaints, CHOI agreed to join the industry's watchdog. However, the CRTC said the hosts' behaviour only got worse.
“This was a unanimous decision of the panel. We felt there were no other options,” Mr. Dalfen said.
In the world of CHOI, one could muse about gassing psychiatric patients, remark on a famous woman's breasts and encourage people to steal satellite TV signals.
The controversy centres on Jean-François (Jeff) Fillion, who hosts the 6 to 10 a.m. slot, and André Arthur, of the smaller sister station CKNU, who co-hosted a now-defunct 30-minute segment with Mr. Fillion.
Mr. Arthur, he of the many clashes with the CRTC and libel lawyers, has filled airwaves for three decades with his sharp-tongued comments. Mr. Fillion, who cites Howard Stern as a model, has been a star only since 1998.
The pair have ardent supporters who feel that they rightly scare the city's elite. But while few of their targets would claim sympathy for the two hosts, there were concerns over the CRTC decision.
“Does that justify closing a station? I'm not sure,” said one Quebec City personality who had been attacked by Mr. Fillion. “I feel no grief for him but just because one guy acts like an idiot, it's too bad the station is paying for it.”
Marc-André Blanchard, an expert in media law, said the CRTC has set a bad precedent. “There shouldn't be that type of government authority over whether or not an enterprise should live, based on content,” the lawyer said.
In a separate notice, the CRTC opened applications for a new Quebec City station, saying that it already received bids. Mr. Demers called the move “odious.”
Licences normally last seven years but CHOI got only a two-year renewal in 2002 because there had been 47 complaints.
The station promised to regulate itself, to stick to a code of ethics and to become a member of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, the industry's watchdog.
But the bad behaviour continued and 45 new complaints arrived, the CRTC ruling said. “In view of the licensee's inflexible behaviour, its lack of acceptance of its responsibilities and the lack of any demonstrated commitment to rectify the situation, the Commission cannot reasonably conclude that [the station] will comply . . . if its licence is renewed.”
CHOI's licence expires Aug. 31. The money-losing station sat last in ratings when Mr. Demers bought it in 1996. Since then, it ranked first, with up to 300,000 listeners.
Mr. Fillion's show has 80,000 listeners and he was the top morning man, in part because his rival, FM 93's Robert Gillet, was charged in a teenage prostitution scandal, handing much fodder to the CHOI hosts.
Even after CHOI joined the CBSC, Mr. Fillion was on air saying about a psychiatric patient: “Why don't they just pull the plug on him? He doesn't deserve to live. The guy's a freaking burden on society.”
About a female TV host, he talked of “her incredible set of boobs” and added that “the size of the brain is not directly proportional to the size of the bra.”
Mr. Arthur, commenting on foreign students at a local school, opined that “in Muslim countries and countries in Black Africa, the ones who are sent abroad to study are the sons of people who are disgusting . . . the sons of plunderers, cannibals.”
The CRTC's decision, while a surprise, comes against a backdrop of heightened concern among politicians, regulators, lobby groups and some broadcasters about “indecent programming” on radio, television and the Internet.
Less than six weeks after Janet Jackson had her famous “wardrobe malfunction” at the Super Bowl, Texas-headquartered Clear Channel Communications yanked veteran shock-jock Howard Stern's syndicated show from six of its radio stations, denouncing the program as “vulgar, offensive and insulting.”
Earlier, the FCC fined the stations a total of almost $500,000 (U.S.) for “knowingly and willfully broadcasting obscene material.” Another Clear Channel employee, Todd Clem of Florida, better known as Bubba the Love Sponge, also lost his eight-year-old radio program around the same time because he participated on-air in a “sexually explicit conversation.”
Last month the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate passed the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act, which increased tenfold the penalties the FCC is allowed to levy against stations airing indecent material. Previously, stations had to pay $27,500 each time they aired indecent programming. Now broadcasters are facing a maximum fine of $275,000 per offending episode, to a maximum of $3-million per day.
With reports from Louise Gagnon and James Adams
The decision can be read at http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/eng/decisions/2004/db2004-271.htm
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Censorhsip is bad new I don't care where it happens.Especially in radio where all you have to do is change the channel.
This station is a right-wing Conservative station. Maybe that is why they are a target.
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