Canadian Stern Wannabes Silenced



The Globe & Mail's Tu Thanh Ha reports on the Canadian government pulling the plug on a radio station over supposedly evil content.

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.t 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.

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.

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, 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."



(cultural affairs commentator Andre Arthur)

Posted: Wed - July 14, 2004 at 06:10 PM      

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