QUEBEC CITY – Infamous radio talk show host Jeff Fillion, who made his reputation with insult and ridicule on the airwaves of top-rated CHOI-FM, has signed an enriching five-year deal to do his weekday morning show on XM Satellite Radio.
The contract, for a reported $1 million-plus, is not quite in the same stratosphere as the $500 million, five-year deal bestowed on the controversial Howard Stern by competitor Sirius Satellite Radio. Nonetheless, for the much smaller French-language market, the agreement is considered lucrative.
The deal allows Fillion to keep broadcasting on his own Internet pay-radio site, www.radiopirate.com, launched March 17, about a year after CHOI’s then-owner, Genex Communications, pushed him off the air, as reported here and here by Cartt.ca. To date, the site has attracted about 7,500 subscribers at $5.99 a month, says Fillion.
“I feel great because it’s a dream come true, I guess,” Fillion told Cartt.ca. "”I remember a few years ago, when the project hadn’t yet started in the U.S. and I was reading about it, I said that one day, I have to be on satellite. It was maybe about a year before negotiations started with Howard Stern and I was dreaming about it already.
“It’s a great venture. It’s Radio Pirate and XM working together, and I’m very happy. I wanted to be with them and not anybody else because they were understanding of Radio Pirate and they wanted to build with it.”
André Di Cesare, vice-president of XM Quebec, said the network signed Fillion because he’s “one of the last of a breed of radio men. I think he is a person who really knows radio, and has known for a long time where radio is going.
“He’s always said that satellite radio is important and that web radio would be important in the future. That’s one of the great reasons why [we wanted him]. And he’s got people who want to listen to him throughout North America.”
Fillion’s show, “le Monde parallèle de Jeff”, will start bouncing off XM’s satellite Sept. 4th, and will be heard on its Sports Plus channel, XM 172, one of XM’s four French-language stations.
That may seem as an odd place for a show with a good dose of politics and current affairs. But Fillion likes sports too, and handles all his subjects in a way that has consistently appealed to a young, male demographic.
Di Cesare said he’s not worried about Fillion’s style, which in the past brought sanctions from the CRTC for “relentless use of the public airwaves” to make “crude and offensive” comments.
“I think Jeff has learned from the past what limits he should go to. I think he knows what he has to do to stay on the air. He told me his past experience showed him the limits, and I believe him.”
Fillion said he’s learned from a succession of lawsuits to be more prudent.
“I’ve said it’s like being a Formula One driver. You have to drive 70 laps with good times and good driving throughout. Sometimes, in one Grand Prix, you have an accident. It can happen. But usually if you drive well, you won’t have any problems. That’s the way I want to drive the show.”
Glenn Wanamaker is Cartt.ca’s Quebec editor.
