This Globe story talks about the coming rebirth of CBC Radio 3 on the Sirius satellite network.

An excerpt:

Is public broadcasting relevant in a 500-channel universe? Will Canadian-content quotas survive in the age of digital downloads, Web-based streaming and mobile music?

As federal cabinet committees huddle and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission decides whether to put its review of conventional radio on hold, CBC Radio is quietly building a bold new satellite station that might shed some light on these hotly contested national debates.

CBC Radio 3 is a souped-up revamp of the network's award-winning on-line magazine and various music sites that went on hiatus last spring. It will be available to satellite subscribers when Sirius Canada begins offering its services next month.

According to the licences granted last June by the CRTC to Sirius and Canadian Satellite Radio Inc., the two satellite operators must offer at least eight Canadian-produced channels with 85 per cent Canadian content and a maximum of nine foreign channels for each Canadian channel. But other than sports, very little has been revealed about the Canadian content.

Based out of Vancouver, CBC Radio 3 will operate as a 24-hour music station that plays independent Canadian artists across all genres, from rock and hip-hop to electronica and alt-country.

"This is an unprecedented opportunity to get a lot of Canadian artists on radio, not just in Canada, but also exported to the United States," says executive producer Steve Pratt, a former executive with Chum Canada's MuchMusic.

Although many cultural lobbyists have expressed concern about satellite radio making Canadian-content regulations impossible to control, Pratt says the current iPod craze proves that the music-consuming masses are dissatisfied with private commercial radio and hungry for new options.

The story says the weekly Radio 3 podcast has been downloaded 660,000 times since June, making it the most popular in the country.