Canadian content rules are about to deprive Canada of an innovative new broadcast service, known as pay radio, that is poised to become the Next Big Thing in the United States. The irony is that the service is being developed by a Canadian entrepreneur who would like nothing better than to launch a legal pay radio business in his own country.

Satellite service has three big hooks: Each company will deliver up to 100 channels of widely varied music and information; many channels will be commercial-free; and the companies promise that you can drive anywhere in the United States and still get all the channels. . . . The market for satellite radio or pay radio, as it's been called, is huge, says David Margolese, chairman and chief executive of New York's CD Radio.

The more than 600 station representatives attending the conference were also told a market test will begin this fall for another proposed joint venture with a small California engineering firm known as CODART. If the marketing test with KQED-FM in San Francisco is successful, NPR stations could launch a new overnight pay radio service within 12-to-18 months.