Tricia Spence

The voice of radio seems to have changed tune since the ban implemented on all 'daggering' songs, and songs that utilise bleeping, by the Broadcasting Commission. Now, many persons are complaining that radio is playing less Jamaican music and has developed a more international sound.

Artistes aren't the only members of the entertainment fraternity suffering from the ban by the Broadcasting Commission, as radio jocks seem to be having a hard time finding enough 'clean' music to fill the slots. When the STAR spoke to a few diehard radio listeners, most were complaining that radio has got boring. One listener, Cynthia, commented, "all that's on the radio now is pure R&B, rock and pop music, there is no vibe no more, no upbeat music, it's boring".

Under the ban, a majority of new dancehall songs can no longer be played on radio due to their content. For Tricia 'DJ Sparks' Spence, who plays on IRIE and ZIP FM, she believes there needs to be a middle ground where the ban is concerned. Spence says until that middle ground is found, in the interim, it is excepted that more foreign music and less dancehall will be played on air. Since the ban, DJ Sparks has been playing the usual rock, hip hop, pop, reggae and a sparing amount of dancehall.

Target market

While she believes most radio jocks can find other songs to play on radio, she says, "we are selectors and a good selector will be versed in all genres. However, what's going to pose a problem is when you have a target market, 'x', now you have to play 'x' minus one; what does that do? It forces the listeners to accept what's given or find an alternative". Spence believes the measures are a little too extreme and don't apply to all genres of music and, to some extent, stifles the dancehall.

For FAME FM DJ Colin Hines, he agrees in principle with the ban by the Broadcasting Commission, but believes it should have been applied years ago and it should apply to all genres of music. Hinds believes that instead of radio having a symbiotic relationship with dancehall, radio has become dancehall. He commented: "the problem is that somewhere along the line you have disc jocks who were less formally trained and more dancehall, street selectors playing on air where you hear a replication of what you hear at Passa Passa and Bembe ... radio should go back to being more disciplined and send a message to the artistes to rewrite songs to make them air friendly."

He continued: "there is nothing wrong with the dancehall music, there is nothing wrong with a song like Rampin' Shop, it's a song that I love but it shouldn't be played on the radio, but in the dance." For Hines, his playlist hasn't really been affected by the ban as he says: "I am not suffering, I'm quite fine, there are loads of songs fi play, loads of clean enough music. I am suspecting that there are disc jocks who probably will have a problem cleaning up their playlists and thinking what am I gonna play now? but the sensible DJs will just have to do a little shuffling around."

*Name changed upon request

The Captain Colin Hines - Contributed photos