Air Queer-merica

[January 19th, 2005] At the end of 2003, NYC-based Sirius Radio had 261,061 national subscribers, which is close to the number of PDX-ers who listened to Bob Edwards' Morning Edition on National Public Radio. By the end of last year, Sirius' national audience had tripled to more than a million listeners.

So what's the deal?

Two words: Howard Stern. The "King of All Media" made the jump from broadcast to satellite radio last October. That's when he signed a half-billion-dollar deal with one of the two companies that currently offers this service (the other one is the more established XM, which offered Edwards a show after NPR canned him).

With 65 channels devoted to music-and 55 to sports, news, talk and weather-Sirius caters to most tastes, including mine. When I bought it as a gift for my partner, Juan, I never expected to be tethered to it, especially not its queer content.

Now, I won't tune into the hetero-ific all-Elvis station, ESPN, FOX News, or even Stern's new show (which kicks off in '06). But already, I spend way too much time with queer-friendly outlets the Strobe (disco) and Broadway's Best (show tunes), as well as OutQ, the only nationwide 24/7 source of news, gossip and entertainment geared toward the queer community.

"It's an exciting time," says Derek Hartley, 35, who's one-half of OutQ's drive-time duo, Derek and Romaine. Their show airs weekday afternoons in between other nationally known queer voices, including Michelangelo Signorile, Frank DeCaro and John McMullen.

"I've already know what it's like to be in the middle of a social and cultural revolution around technology," says Hartley, who worked for Internet giant America Online during the booming '90s. "I'm experiencing that same kind of feeling at Sirius."

That feeling extends to Derek's show. The first night I listened, Derek and Romaine (Patterson) trashed, of all people, P-town's jazzy chanteuse Mary Kadderly. They called her latest album, Lucky Me, "a labor-inducing piece of shit"-something they could never do on our post-Nipplegate, FCC-controlled airwaves. It wasn't that it was shocking to hear the s-word on the radio (or the fact that Kadderly's album is actually pretty good), as much as it was shocking to hear something provocative from openly queer radio jocks.

"We would never say anything on our show that we didn't believe in," says Hartley, who considers himself less a queer shock jock than someone who just tells it like he sees it. "I think what's universal about our show is how we approach things from the fact that we're people just like all of our listeners are people, whether they're gay, bi, trans or straight-it doesn't matter to us."

In between talking frankly about his own "normal" sex life, Hartley and his cohorts believe they are providing a service to out-lying queers who aren't very out, while helping straight listeners understand more about the gay experience.

I think what sets queer radio apart is the very real, very immediate voice. It's dynamic and interactive. And now, pay-to-listen radio offers an outlet for queers, without having to apply for an FCC license.

Queer radio might not necessarily be very good yet, but it looks like it's here to stay. And for that, one day we might even have Howard Stern to thank. Who'd ever believe that?