The local entertainment fraternity is singing praises today, following the announcement by one of Barbados’ radio stations that it would air 100 per cent Barbadian content.
The decades-old call for more local content on the airwaves was answered when the state-owned Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC TV8) announced on Monday evening that its radio station, 94.7 FM, would be doing just that.
In a reaction today to the news, the Copyright Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Incorporated (COSCAP) and President of the Barbados Association of Calypsonians and Artistes (BACA) Sean Apache Carter lauded the efforts.
Since its launch almost a year ago, BACA has been one of the most recent voices to join the longstanding call for more local content on the airwaves.
It was after a meeting between Minister of Culture John King and stakeholders at the start of this year that a decision was taken that one of the state-owned radio stations would work on becoming a 100 per cent local content station before the end of the year.
Carter told Barbados TODAY it was long overdue but “definitely welcomed”.
“We are very pleased it has happened and that it has happened at this time. We applaud minister John King and all who were involved,” he added.
“From the conversations I had with the minister and the programme manager it is not going to be only music. It is going to be Bajan content,” he said, adding that BACA members were already happy with what they have been hearing.
BACA is expected to have a radio show on the new-look station, exposing the work of its members.
Carter said the next step was to ensure that the CBC gets up-to-date with its royalty payments.
Speaking to Barbados TODAY this afternoon, Chief Executive Officer of COSCAP Erica Smith lauded the change. “It serves as an indication of an appreciation of the need to provide a platform for local content,” she said.
However, the non-profit, membership organisation said it was hoping the content would be varied and that the music would be diverse, covering all genres “across the ages”.
Smith said in addition to the “local” station, COSCAP was hoping other radio stations would continue to carry local content “as each station attracts different demographics and the widest audience should be sought”.
The island’s main music industry association also warned that royalties should be paid to local artistes once their product is used.
“A local radio station could certainly provide tremendous value in terms of exposure and promotion. But to be clear, if the intention is to create a revenue source in terms of copyright royalties then we need to understand how royalties are generated and paid,” said Smith.
“It is our hope that the creation of this platform will redound financially and otherwise, for local content creators,’ she added.
The radio station is required by law to obtain a copyright licence and pay licence fees to COSCAP and submit performance logs of all the music broadcast.
COSCAP would then deduct administration fees and process the performance logs so that it knows the copyright holders to whom royalties must be paid for the use of their music. If the music user is not paying licence fees, then no royalties can be paid by COSCAP to its members and affiliates.
“Once licence fees are paid, then the amount an individual COSCAP member is paid will depend on one, the level of accuracy in the performance logs in reporting the actual use of the members’ songs; two, he number of times the songs have been reported as having been broadcast; three, the number of songs the COSCAP member has being broadcast and four, the number of persons who share rights in the songs,” Smith explained.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb
