It should come as no surprise to anyone who’s remotely plugged in to pop culture that most of the hottest bands on the planet right now are Canadian, but you’d almost never know it by turning on the radio. Sure, you can hear The Arcade Fire sandwiched between all the Shania-and-Celine caterwauling on CHUM-FM, but the Montreal indie band had to become one of the biggest acts around before being added to the playlist, not the other way around.

So much for CanCon, the much-vaunted nationalistic beacon that was supposed to level the playing field in a market saturated by the American mainstream. It’s argued that the Canadian content rules governing radio helped foster homegrown indie artists, but that heyday is long over. These days, stations begrudgingly meet their CanCon obligations by filling their airwaves with processed cheese (see Avril, Sum 41, et al).

Some are touting satellite radio, a fairly new technology that allows for static-free, commercial-free broadcasting across a huge range (unlike conventional radio), as a possible solution to curbing the banality.

A controversial ruling in June by the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) granted licences for satellite radio service to two groups: Sirius Canada Inc. and Canadian Satellite Radio. The CRTC required the two licence holders to provide only ten per cent Canadian content on their stations, whereas AM and FM stations must provide 35 per cent CanCon.

Conventional stations aren’t happy with the decision, saying that it makes for unfair competition. And yet, many Canadian and independent artists are hailing satellite radio as the next frontier, arguing that it’ll give their music a wider audience (the signal can be picked up across North America), especially seeing that most of them don’t even get played at home in the first place.

But others aren’t so sure-Metric frontwoman Emily Haines among them. During a recent chat, she expressed concern over the issue, saying that it seems to be a catch-22: yes, many independent artists might finally get some exposure, but with such a low CanCon quota, others might fall through the cracks.

So the CRTC decision raises more questions than it does answers. Not surprising, given the organization’s continuing inability to decisively regulate emerging technologies. So while we wait to see how satellite radio plays out in Canada, may we suggest a simpler option: check out your indie-friendly campus stations (see our CIUT feature, pg. 7) or online sources like the remarkable CBC Radio 3 website.

Here’s hoping that those bringing satellite radio here understand one basic fact about communications: if the airwaves don’t speak to us, we’re going to tune out.