For those of who who don’t know, the Catholic Channel is one of the many offerings of Sirius Satellite Radio. The Archdiocese of New York is also involved.  (Cardinal Egan has a program on Thursdays at 1). It’s been in operation for over a year, and bills itself as a “Catholic lifestyle channel.” It’s mostly talk shows (as opposed to educational offerings that, say EWTN is heavy with) with hosts and guests, etc.

I know some of the people involved and have done a few guest gigs myself. (I was a regular weekly guest on Lino’s for a few months) The only place we have it is in Michael’s car, so I really don’t listen to it much.
But this is pretty amazing.  I didn’t hear it, but Michael told me that Deepak Chopra was a guest on one of the programs yesterday, on for a long time, promoting his new book The Third Jesus, with his perspective being treated uncritically, at least in the chunk he heard.
Are you kidding me?
Look. EWTN has its strengths, but it’s hard to deny, at least in my mind, that Catholic pop culture could use an alternative – heck, several alternatives to the particular angle and style of EWTN.  There’s a lot going on in the Catholic world that doesn’t get EWTN play – in a way, I think the Omaha Catholic station KVSS provides a good hint of what I’m talking about. In fact,  good local Catholic radio does indeed expand on that media apostolate in increasingly interesting ways. 
Catholic Radio International is also doing some interesting stuff.
We need more, more more. We need NPR/BBC type shows with good reporting and discussions with a Catholic angle. Desperately. We need explorations of how the faith is being lived out around the country, around the world. We need all of it – and more of it – literary discussions, chats about saints, indepth reviews and discussions of the arts that don’t come with the expectation of a “rating” attached, catechesis, catechesis, catechesis….music..the kinds of discussions that folks are having on blogs, bishops who are willing to come on and teach and answer tough questions…we need it all.
(Which can’t happen without money and can’t happen under hierarchical control. It just can’t. So there’s the rub. The other rub being the ideological divisions within Catholicism in this country in which between NCR(egister) and NCR(eporter), never the twain shall meet.)
But I’m thinking what we don’t need on Catholic channels are New Age entrepeneurs flacking their wares in an uncritical environment.
 But, you know….Chopra also has a show on Sirius, of course. 
Ah, the tangled webs we weave.  If it’s not a bishop, it’s a suit telling you what to do.  Whaddya gonna do? Seriously?