Group seeks changes to radio’s CanCon rules
TORONTO – A group representing Canadian indie bands is calling on the CRTC to change its Canadian content regulations for radio, in order to promote lesser-known artists.
Under current regulations, radio stations must play 35 per cent Canadian content between 6 a.m. and midnight. There is no distinction between playing music by international superstars like Shania Twain or Avril Lavigne and spinning a tune by independent artists like Montreal’s Arcade Fire.
The Toronto-based Indie Pool, which says it represents more than 40,000 indie artists in Canada, wants developing artists to get more CanCon “weight” than established ones, so that up-and-comers are not squashed by the big stars.
“The reason why CanCon is failing is because it worked,” Gregg Terrence, the group’s president, told CBC News. “It succeeded so much that Canadian radio can get away with just playing our international stars over and over again to reach their CanCon quotas.”
Terrence is proposing that stations get one-and-a-half Canadian content credits for playing an unsigned artist but only three-quarters of a credit for playing music by the likes of Celine Dion, Avril Lavigne, Neil Young or Rush.
“The program directors have no ammo to take to their bosses and say ‘That’s why I’m playing this cool local band; that’s why I’m playing Arcade Fire,'” he said.
So far, both the CRTC and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters have shown a positive response to the idea.
“The issues he’s bringing up are excellent issues,” said Nick Ketchum, the CRTC’s director of radio and television policy. He said Terrence’s proposal will be considered when Canada’s broadcast regulator holds its next radio review in 2006.
However, the idea has drawn criticism from some stations.
“It’s impossible to make new classic rock,” said Dave Farough, program director of Toronto’s classic rock station Q107.
While stations like his do end up playing what seem like the same old Canadian tunes in order to meet the CRTC’s requirements, “they play music people know and love. Why should we be penalized for that?” he said.
Canada’s content regulations date from the 1970s, when the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission required that domestic TV and radio stations broadcast a certain percentage of Canadian-produced programming. Stations judge a song against the “MAPL” system, which looks at whether the composer, artist and lyricist are Canadian and if it was recorded or performed in Canada.
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