A Torontonian in Kentucky: CanCon Rules

This December I've hit the road to drive cross the U.S. of A. and as such, have been a little light on posts. After all, Canadian Content (let alone good WIFI) is hard to come by down here...

Spending a fair bit of time tuning in and out of local radio roday I was quickly proved wrong about content.

Radio here plays a ridiculous amount of CanCon (ie. what is considered 'legally' Canadian music by the CRTC).

Some of it was our darlings Celine and Brian Adams, some of it, painfully, Nickelback, but other times the speakers blasted out some Nellie Furtado, Emm Gryner, Diana Krall, Leonard Cohen, Sum 41 and even the Tragically Hip.

At one point (driving in Kentucky) we heard 3 Canadian artists in a row on a Nashville, Tennessee station.

With all the bitching Canadian broadcasters do about being 'forced' to support Canadian artists by filling content quotas (which they subsequently do by loading up on Ms Dion), seeing equivalient American stations (ie. The Mix 92.9 FM) play plenty of it quite voluntarily was refreshing to a radio girl's ears.

Here's to our Canuck artists and to the hope that one day Canandians (and our broadcasters) will come to realize that some of the greatest music being made today is homegrown, not imported.