Today’s B.C. edition of The Globe and Mail includes the story of the CRTC coming after three Punjabi-language radio stations – and their advertisers. Their alleged misdeed? Broadcasting into Canada without the blessing of the government bureaucrats. From the Globe:

The stations have been called to a hearing this fall and threatened with cease and desist orders. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission says the stations – Radio India, Radio Punjab and Sher-E-Punjab – operate out of Canada but do not hold radio licences for this country. All three broadcast from British Columbia but their signals are transmitted from Washington State.

“There is reason to believe that Sher-E-Punjab, Radio India and Radio Punjab may be carrying on broadcasting undertakings in whole or in part in Canada without licences in contravention of the Broadcasting Act,” writes the CRTC in a notice of hearing. The notice says the stations will be asked to show cause at the October hearing as to why the CRTC should not issue mandatory cease and desist orders. Should such orders be issued, that could trigger court involvement, according to the CRTC.

“The fact that they are broadcasting into Canada and getting Canadian [advertising] business and not complying to regulations in terms of Canadian content and all that, they are infringing the law,” said Patricia Valladao, manager of media relations for the CRTC. She says if they are broadcasting in Canada they should have a licence and fulfill the Broadcasting Act. “So in this hearing, they really have to come to us and explain themselves.”

On its website, Radio Punjab promotes itself as “Broadcasting on AM 1110 from Seattle to Vancouver.” According to the CRTC, it has an arrangement with New Age Media Limited, the licensee of KRPA 1110 AM in Oak Harbour, Wash., to transmit its programming, which is received in Canada. Its offices are in Surrey.

What precisely is the government trying to protect us from? In this age of podcasts, online radio, and satellite radio, the CRTC feels even more heavy-handed, outdated and just plain wrong.

This morning, my iPhone automatically downloaded the Cato Institute’s daily podcast; Green and Gold (a 60-minute ESPN Milwaukee radio phone-in show for the fans of the Green Bay Packers); Canadaland (a Canadian broadcast looking at the media industry); Reliable Sources (a CNN show); and the latest At Issue panel from CBC’s The National. Look at that: two Canadian shows, selected by me because it's good content. And done without Canadian content laws demanding it of me.

The CRTC is trying to stick its taxpayer-funded fingers into a dam that has already sprung a thousand leaks – and will soon crumble completely. Media is readily available to be consumed in any format customers want. If radio listeners don’t want Radio Punjab, Radio India or Sher-E-Punjab, they’ll go out of business. But it shouldn’t be caused by government bureaucrats.

The CRTC is an anachronism that the Harper Government should fix once and for all.