Pierre Juneau, Champion of Canada's Pop Music Industry, Dies at 89 OTTAWA - Pierre Juneau, who helped create Canada's pop music industry when, as a member of Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau's government in 1970, he required radio stations to broadcast more Canadian music, died on Tuesday in Montreal. The National Film Board of Canada, where Mr. Juneau began his career, said the cause was heart failure. A formal man who studied philosophy at the Institut Catholique de Paris, Mr. Juneau was the antithesis of the hip pop music executive of the 1960s and "70s, and his championing of the industry stemmed more from Quebec's reform politics than from any fondness for hit songs on AM radio. Still, Anne Murray and her song "Snowbird" owe much of their success to him. After becoming prime minister in 1968, Mr. Trudeau, a Liberal, overhauled the country's broadcasting laws and introduced a new regulator, the Canadian Radio-television Commission. Mr. Juneau, a former member of the Canadian film board, was the founding chairman. The two had been among a group of liberal intellectuals in Quebec who had sought political change in the province but opposed its separatist movement. In the late "60s, many Canadian radio stations were owned by foreign corporations, mostly American. Some were little more than another way into the American market. CKLW, an AM station in Windsor, Ontario, owned by General Tire and Rubber of Akron, Ohio, became a major market force in neighboring Detroit by broadcasting hit singles from the United States and coyly referring to its location as "the Motor City," a description that fit either community. It was an era when radio airplay largely determined record sales, and Canadian bands and musicians found themselves largely shut out. With the government's backing, Mr. Juneau moved to require Canadian ownership of radio and television stations. One controversial step was to set a minimum amount of Canadian music or programming that stations would be required to broadcast. For AM stations, that meant about 30 percent of the songs played. In a 1971 speech, Mr. Juneau said Canada's cultural identity was at stake. "To obliterate real works of the Canadian imagination is to obliterate ourselves," he said. Trina McQueen, a former executive at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation who worked with Mr. Juneau, said he had been influenced by the role that French-language television and radio stations played in shaping Quebec's identity and wanted to emulate that for English-speaking Canada. Private broadcasters fought the plan, arguing that there were not enough Canadian records to meet the quota. Indeed, when the content rules came into effect, "Snowbird," the 1970 single that made Anne Murray a star, was played so frequently by so many stations that even her fans may have tired of it. Musicians like Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young also received more airplay. Moreover, radio's newfound need for Canadian recordings swiftly led to record contracts and a larger fan base for Canadian musicians. The Canadian music industry named its annual award the Junos in Mr. Juneau's honor. Mr. Juneau, who was born on Oct. 17, 1922, in Verdun, Quebec, became the president of the government-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1982. Two years later, Brian Mulroney, a Progressive Conservative who was no fan of the CBC, became prime minister and requested Mr. Juneau's resignation. Mr. Juneau refused, asserting that the CBC should be independent of politics, and remained in the post. While Mr. Mulroney's government did cut the CBC budget, Mr. Juneau was still able to replace American and British programming in its prime-time schedule with Canadian shows and to establish an all-news cable channel. He is survived by his wife, Fernande Martin; his sons, André and Martin; a daughter, Isabelle; nine grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. Correction: February 25, 2012 Because of an editing error, an obituary on Friday about Pierre Juneau, who as head of a Canadian broadcast commission helped revitalize the country's pop music industry by requiring radio stations to play more music by Canadians, erroneously included, in some editions, one performer among Canadian performers whose music received more airplay. Neil Diamond is American. It also misstated the year Brian Mulroney became prime minister. It was 1984, not 1982.