Off the Air

There was a time when that 70’s show was not a sit-com on TV but a young brash TV station broadcasting on channel 79 in Toronto.

Friday nights at 11pm a whole new demographic got up and turned the dial to channel 79. I know every Friday night my own grandmother turned a 20 minute drive from work into a 10 minute affair so that she wouldn’t miss much of City-TV’s Baby Blue Movies on 79. I was always banished to the upstairs bedroom so I cannot attest to how raunchy the Baby Blue Movies actually were, but I know my Grandparents were hooked.

My father’s father was the most polite and respectful man I ever knew. He lived by the motto, "there is no excuse for rudeness." I never heard him raise his voice or say an unkind thing to anyone, whether they deserved it or not. Grandpa got hooked watching a talk show on City-TV called the "The Shulman File". Dr. Morton Shulman was a figure of some controversy. I remember he once had a woman on his show who wrote a best-selling diet book. Shulman looked her straight in the eye and said to the effect– "You’re a fat broad, what do you know about successful weight loss? Why should I or anyone else buy your book?"

Shulman was confrontational, offensive, and often down right hilarious. He said all the things his viewing audience didn’t say in every day polite conversation but often thought inside the secrecy of their own heads. Of course, Dr. Shulman’s show was broadcasted in another place and time. Long before the devotees of PC speech drafted their laws and made offensive and vulgar speech a crime.

Now the CRTC Commission yanked the broadcasting license of CHOI-FM, Quebec City’s most popular radio station because of offensive comments by CHOI-FM’s hosts.

Here’s a sample:

About a female TV host Mr. Fillion commented on "her incredible set of boobs" and advised listeners that "the size of the brain is not directly proportional to the size of the bra". The TV host may or may not have incredible boobs, I am not really much of a judge of that kind of thing, but I know I can make a compelling argument that "the size of the brain is not directly proportional to the size of the bra". If the TV Host finds this offensive, it is time for another line of work. Anyone who chooses to be in the public eye with a thin skin needs to buck up.

Or how about this on 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."

Or this:

"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."

This is talk radio, and if the truth be told, CHOI-FM went from a money losing proposition in 1996 when Patrice Demers bought the station to the top of the listening dial in the Quebec City market. 300,000 Quebecers tune in to CHOI-FM. There has been on 47 complaints lodged with the CRTC since 2002 against the station. Do the math. That’s less than 1% of the total audience. I hate it when people pick their nose on the subway but I am not calling for their arrest. I look away. Out of the 47 who are complaining, they need to learn to lean over and switch the dial -- or how about turning the radio off? If anyone feels slandered, there already exists a remedy for this from the courts.

What is really frightening, is what you find going to the CRTC website. There is a whole section on gender policy. When Jean Augustine, was Minister of State for Multiculturalism, she said "the government will not tolerate statements that create dissonance in our society and disrespect for others." She wasn’t kidding. There is whole code to back her up.

Ask yourselves why should the value judgment of political appointees and government bureaucrats be the deciding factor in what the public sees and hears on the airwaves? You can not legislate good taste.

Let’s try the radical, let the market decide.