With the snowballing success of artists like Feist, Arcade Fire and Tegan & Sara, it's no secret that tons of great music comes from Canada.
A friend just turned me on to a Canadian indie rock radio station CBC Radio 3. They describe themselves thusly:
CBC Radio 3 is available 24/7 on satellite radio. Beamed across North America on channel 94 of the Sirius Satellite Radio network, the station features artists from across the country in multiple genres, including rock, pop, hip-hop, electronica, and alt-country.
Radio 3's podcast is truly unique: it's full of amazing, 100% Canadian music from new and emerging artists. This is great news for music fans, and it's even better news for independent Canadian musicians. We are extremely excited about the potential for exposing Canadian artists to a wider international audience and are proud to be one of the top podcasts worldwide.
Listening over the past two days, I've heard a ton of new music and have been fully entertained by the DJs' banter. The fact that they're also blogging, podcasting and broadcasting on satellite radio shows they're embracing all the new technology at their fingertips, which surely helps spread their music and message a lot further.
Why doesn't Austin have a forward-thinking radio station that embraces new technology like this? Do we? Austin, of all cities, really should. We claim to be the "live music capital of the world" and we have amazing talent here, but even our best musical outlets - "Austin City Limits", SXSW, the ACL Fest, we even have our own local access music channel - haven't mastered the technology to become accessible and relevant year-round and worldwide. I've seen a few stations who understand the importance of a good web presence and adventurous programming but I don't see a clear winner yet. Who or what will step up to be the outlet that gives the world access to Austin or Texas music? I'll keep investigating and let you know when I find one.