TORONTO – An Ottawa radio station is enacting a ban on pop star Justin Bieber’s music, in an effort to send him a message to ‘get help,’ following his Thursday arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence, drag racing and driving with an expired license.
The New Hot 89.9 FM Program Director Josie Geuer said the campaign—dubbed #HotBansBieber—started Thursday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. local time.
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Geuer said her team was particularly worried about the reported drug abuse, since the Top 40 station has a lot of young listeners, and their Bieber ban won’t be lifted until the 19-year-old enters rehab.
“We realize that a lot of them look up to pop icons like Justin Bieber, like Miley Cyrus, like Selena Gomez,” she said. “So it was our way of saying–especially him being a fellow Canadian—it was just our way of saying, ‘Look Justin, we really care. You’re not being a good role model right now, get some help.’”
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The New Hot 89.9 FM reaches 340,000 listeners each week, and brands itself the No. 1 commercial station in the city. Currently, since Bieber doesn’t have any singles on the Top 40 charts, he had been getting about 15 to 20 spins each week on the station—plus airtime for the 10 songs he’d been releasing on his Music Mondays series, said Geuer.
In the station’s 11 years on air, they’ve only banned music from one other pop star: singer Chris Brown. That ban didn’t have a formal campaign, but was enacted in 2009 after Brown was charged with felony assault and making criminal threats against then-girlfriend Rihanna. A photo of Rihanna’s bruised face was posted online and played a part in public appearance and concert cancellations.
“When he publicly apologized, and when Rihanna publicly forgave him, we did the same,” said the program director, noting they would now play his music should his songs make it into the Top 40 chart in future.
Brown was sentenced with community labour and five years formal probation, but there are other examples of singers whose work tops the charts amidst reports of criminal offences, such as R. Kelly and various reports of statutory rape and child pornography.
Geuer said many factors come into play when deciding whether or not to ban a singer, adding “half of our playlist could probably disappear if we banned everyone that did something that was morally questionable.”
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“R. Kelly is not incredibly influential currently. Yes, he has a single with Lady Gaga but he cannot be compared to a Justin Bieber or to what Chris Brown was four years ago. So you’re looking at people who really have a huge amount of impact and influence on others. And those are the ones that we want to send the message to.”
Geuer said she and her colleagues are surprised with how their campaign has blown up, noting it made the front page of celebrity gossip website TMZ and adding she’s been fielding calls from ET Canada and Inside Edition.
“It just seems to strike a chord…Parents are thinking, ‘My daughter looks up to this guy.’ And people his age are torn,” she said. “It’s creating dialogue between parents and children or maybe children amongst each other, just saying, ‘What is acceptable and what’s not?’”
While Beliebers wait to see what the young star will do next, Geuer hopes the message reaches him.
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