shadowm@reicore:~/src/irker$ git diff
diff --git a/irkerd b/irkerd
index a9c6eed..d18cd18 100755
--- a/irkerd
+++ b/irkerd
@@ -404,7 +404,7 @@ class Irker:
                 if type(message) not in (type(""), type(u"")):
                     self.logerr("malformed request - unexpected message type: %r" % message)
                 else:
-                    if isinstance(channels, unicode):
+                    if type(channels) in (type(""), type(u"")):
                         channels = [channels]
                     for url in channels:
                         if not type(url) in (type(""), type(u"")):