Ottawa DJ Jeff Brown is so upset that Stompin' Tom Connors was left off the bill for this weekend's Live 8 concert in Barrie, Ont., he has launched a personal campaign that has gotten him suspended from his job.

Last week, on the day the Canadian concert lineup was formally announced, Brown began playing nothing but Stompin' Tom on his three-hour radio show on CHEZ 106 in protest.

Brown told Canada AM Monday that it wasn't something he had planned to do.

"It all just kind of happened at about 3:15 on Tuesday when we were going on a rant about Celine Dion representing the country via satellite for Live 8.

"We thought, a true Canadian icon like Stompin' Tom, it's unbelievable this guy's been overlooked. And I made a vow that I was going to play non-stop Stompin' Tom until Bob Geldof and/or Michael Cohl announced they were going to put 'The Stomper' on the bill."

Since the station only had one Connors song in its library -- "Big Joe Mufferaw" -- Brown played it six times in a row until he could get a colleague to rush out and buy more Connors CDs.

Management at the classic rock station weren't crazy about Brown's stunt and pulled him off the air, although he will continue to work as a program director.

Yet with so many listeners calling in to support Brown's campaign, the station later decided to start an online petition to Geldof to get Connors added to the lineup.

"The thing is we've got 7,500 people on this petition," Brown reports. "The response has just been nationwide."

"In my 15 years of radio -- and that includes five years at Q107 in Toronto -- I have never seen response like this for anything. This is a rock station that in a typical hour plays AC/DC, Van Halen, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin.

"It shows how much Stompin' Tom completely transcends every musical format and why he should be on the bill. He is a pure Canadian."

Brown says his station spoke to Stompin' Tom's manager on Friday who told him that Tom never got a call from Live 8 organizers.

But Maureen McTague, publicist for the Canadian portion of Live 8, says Stompin' Tom never asked to be on the bill. She says almost all of the acts that signed on approached organizers, rather than organizers approaching them.

Brown says he thinks Stompin' Tom could do a lot to advance the goals of the Live 8 concerts, which are being held in cities around the world to pressure the Group of Eight leaders to take action to help poor nations deal with debt and poverty.

"Bob Geldof's goal is to raise awareness in the G-8 countries. The Barenaked Ladies on a Saturday afternoon of the long weekend are not what are going to do it. It's a man who can transcend every musical format and a pure genius.

"Any guy who can sing a song about ketchup and potatoes, well, you know..."