Left: Music video director Ras Kassa. Right: Cordel Green, executive director of the Broadcasting Commission. - Contributed

"You can't have disc jocks playing their own songs on the radio, as well as producing and playing their own production, that is not objectivity."

Ras Kassa says that the local music industry is not credible. According to the international video director, disc jockeys should not be allowed to produce, record and play their own material on the radio.

The video director expressed that the radio stations are in a sad state.

"If I was to produce music I would have to own my own radio station, because you can't have disc jocks playing their own songs on the radio, as well as producing and playing their own production, that is not objectivity," he expressed.

According to the video director, the music industry is competitive. Therefore, if the disc jockeys are producing and recording songs of their own, the artistes and regular producers will be at a big disadvantage.

"Some of them just want to be in the hype, the industry has too much groupies," he told THESTAR.

But Ras Kassa has not been the only person to raise concern about producer-disc jocks on radio, who play their own material on air.

In an article published in The Sunday Gleaner (August 8, 2011), Broadcasting Commission executive director Cordel Green said there was, indeed, a growing concern. He was quoted as saying, "The approach we have taken to this thing and we hope it works - if it doesn't, then we have to come back to the matter - is that the management of radio stations must be responsible for the treatment of, let's call it for the time being, connected content, that there must be first of all a declaration of connected content," Green said.

From there, the onus will be left to the radio stations to monitor these producer-disc jockeys and their content, and failure to do so could attract a fine of up to $5 million.