Have we considered that cost might be a factor. Do the radio stations have to play royalty each time a sound is played and does it cost more in royalties for local sound as apposed to over and aways songs, among other things? Just thinking out loud.

@to the point

What ever the problem it can be resolved with collaboration between stakeholders. Have you considered the prize if the market for local artistes is expanded say by 30/40%?

@Onions

Don’t trivialize the conversation with red herring. She fits nicely in the 5%. We have been bred to value foreign most.

David
You kiddin right……I love Celine Dion….ya mean is only CD’s fa me?
So my radio go be off.. What about the radio stations bread n butter if people keep theirs off too ?

@Miller

Only in Barbados we have to manage a transition to appreciate our own. You know why? Our taste has been conditioned by empty headed DJs who you would not allow to court your sons and daughters. In Trinidad and Jamaica this conversation is a non starter.

Not a subject that I know a lot about, but Antonio Rodriguez | July 16, 2012 at 9:59 AM makes sense to me.

I agree we must do something, and there is a simple solution but the results will take longer to achieve…longer than the overnight solution that most perople seem to want.

@Antonio

This is why we need a more urgent conversation to begin. We can argue whether 95% or 60% but this is why we need to keep sight of the prize. Starting the collaboration to fuel the movement must begin. We have been talking for too long. A good start will be for the many interest groups to come together and hammer a common position.

@Caswell

You can only like what you have heard.

Do you know how many songs are not played?

Do you understand how songs make the rotation in Barbados?

@ David.. This piece resonates with me because I actually wrote a similar one about three weeks ago,but chose not to submit it,for fear of people thinking that I was trying to hog the site.It all started one night when my job took me from Saint James New York to Nashua New Hampshire,a distance of app.235 miles.The duration of this trip is four and a half hours,and for its entirety I listened to the flag ship station of the Government owned entity called the CBC.Let me say that I made that choice for heathens such as myself no longer tune in to VOB at night.For those four and one half hours not one calypso,on a day that it was announced on Fireworks that so far for the season there were 250 new calypsos.Thats where the minister needs to start.

@Onions

Have you ever been apprised of the songs rotated at a radio station, repetition, repetition.

The other point you are missing is that by enabling the environment musicians will be encouraged to produce, people will be encouraged to listen, more exposure for local talent etc.

It is the domino effect Onions. You need to remove yourself from the comfort zone i.e in a box.

HAMILTON HILL

You again …? You like you trying to hog the show. HA HA HA … You have exposed VOB for what it is worth. All talk and no show, particularly if there is a cost element involved …! Could you really imagine a company like this owning a TV station? Granted CBC is the pits, no tallent, but VOB will import every shite, every shite, including the Shouth bound portion of North bound cows (ha ha ha .. I luvs that phrase). I be no big fan of Tony Marshall but I will admire him for one thing in recent times and that is that he stood up to the VOB seniors and demanded a remuneration that better reflects his popularity on the airwaves. That is what truly talented people do. He was dropped from hero to zero in seconds. A similar thing happened to Lil’ Rick … man they tried to drag his name through the mud.

I hesitated; then decided to take you up on the challenge, David.
There is enough local muisc – all genres – to fill 24 hours, over 365 days. There are, however, a few things we need to decide:
1. What is “local” music? Does Rihanna – born in Barbados, but recording and producing music overseas – qualify as “local”? [Her royalties are sent overseas to the producers and writers of her music]
2. If what we want to do – by going 95% local – is to increase the royalties that remain in Barbados, then we need to get all local artistes to register with COSCAP [many are not so registered], and to have proper labelling of material sent to radio stations [many cd’s – especially those rushed for crop Over – are not].
3. What – if anything – will be the penalty for non-compliance? If the penalty is small [$500.00 or even $1,000.00], so people will pay the penalty and do whatever they feel like [this happens in some places where there is a quota].
4. Does the 95% relate to music alone? Or will it include radio dramas or spoken-word recordings?

There are some Barbadians who do not recognise local talent who produce music other than kaiso/soca. In Gospel, for example; or even jazz or rock.
Another challenge – although not a very difficult one – is the sourcing of music produced in the pre-1980’s that may have been on 45 rpm records, cassettes or reel-to-reel tapes. I add this because there are radio stations that operate today without turn-tables, cassette players and even cd players [because of the current use of computers]. If those stations did not transfer such songs to their computer files, and are unable to source that material – in a quality suitable for broadcast on today’s high-quality stereos – they will find themselves at a disadvantage, and decalre that they are unable to fulfill the 95% quota.

Just my 2 cents.

No problem David.

And , if I may add this as well, some of the newer artistes seem to prefer to use the internet to promote their muisc. This means that the quality of production – although suitable for on-line play – may be of a lesser quality than a made-for-radio production, and that difference will be heard when played alongside each other.

There is enough local music to satisfy the rotation of any station in Barbados.Problem is will it satisfy the local audience?We were always lovers of anything foreign.I still remember that afternoon in Queen’s Park when as a youth I listened to hard back bajan men trying to convince others that Bernard Julien was better than Garry sobers.To this day that troubles me,but that’s who we are.

David

Why you always come across as brown nosing these celebrities when they happen to pass through …? Why you don’ try brown nosing me fah a change … Ha ha ha .. listen don’ tek me serious yah …!

look the man is a idiot OK.
simple.done.

We determine what is local music and we play local music
Radio stations people are unpatriotic and always look for excuses
Radio Station people are anti Barbadian
They understand Tokenism and play music at Crop Over like you take medicine–endure it and rejoice when its over

Radio STATIONS in Barbados ?
For years I have recommended one thing for them: it would make Guy Fawkes very happy.

Radio Stations on- Air people promote themselves and their music
Who aint producing and recording local music putting on shows and only playing the music they and their friends produced and record or the music they play at shows
Larry Mayers
Admiral Nelson
Cupid
Versee-Wild–(He is the worse)
Bubbles and the rest of them
Frigging UNDESIRABLES !

Peter Coppin is the only one who has any credibility as a Producer and a Radio Jock.

AND
Payola is a Big thing Now
You have fe pay if yuh want play

Tell Dennis Johnson to talk about that

@Professor:
I have worked in radio since December 1994. I have heard the accusations of payola ever since then. I have never been paid; approached; or offered any payment or inducement in all those years. I have asked [when I was a Programme Director] to be provided with any proof or evidence to convict those so accused; and no one came forward.

So, what would you like me to “talk ’bout” Prof?