Should radio edited songs be played on radio?

27 Apr 2008 | by A.K.A., Contributing Writer

This issue has turned into a potentially divisive one especially in light of PR pounding that dancehall is taking in recent times with the withdrawal of Red Stripe as a corporate sponsor of Reggae Sumfest and the strict enforcement of the 2 a.m. shutdown time by the police.

DJ_Flamze.jpgShould dancehall clean up its image or should radio stations enforce a rule en bloc that no edited songs be played on air.

Penthouse producer Donovan Germaine feels that there needs to a move away from the playing of songs with sexually suggestive content and edited expletives on radio.
"There needs to be a greater balance, a lot of good reggae songs never get any recognition or airplay. They never get to radio because dancehall songs with numerous edits and questionable sentiments dominate. I have spoken to all the programme managers about this editing business," Germaine, the former manager of Buju Banton, said.

IRIE FM, the country's leading station has already taken a tough stance on the issue.

Effective January 1, 2006, the Ocho Rios, St. Ann-based roots rocking reggae radio banned "all music containing beeps or edits" to remove curse words. But there has been a flouting of that law by various disc jocks since then. However, during the last four months, the reins have tightened once again.

"For the most part, we prefer if our disc jockeys don't play songs which require edits, but for the most part, we allow songs with clean edits. The problem is that if there is a song that requires more than one edit, you run the risk of losing the essence of the song anyway," Mrs. Williams-Green said.

She also pointed out that artistes must recognize that they have a responsibility to the society "to be more creative and conscientious in what they produce for the public".

The use of 'edited material' on air is a slippery slope that has undone several radio disc jocks with slip-ups resulting in expletives being blasted in the homes of the unsuspecting public. A radio disc jock who spoke on condition of anonymity told One876Entertainment.com that he had asked a friend to fill in for him during his prime time afternoon slot a few years ago with catastrophic results.

"Imagine my shock when I was listening to him play and I heard a song play with two expletives in it. He got a two week suspension and I got a strongly worded memo from my bosses at the station," he said.

Earlier this year, popular ZIP 103 FM disc jock ZJ Liquid received a two week suspension from the radio station after complaints from the Broadcasting Commission suggested that he had breached the regulations and code act during his stint called Fresh to Death Wednesdays on November 7, 2007. According to reports Liquid played a song that had expletives and sexually explicit that was mistaken for an edited version.

DJ Flamez of RJR believes that "radio edited songs tend to imply that people are not intelligent enough to decipher what the bleeped out words are".

"As such, producers need to start clamping down on artistes, who appear to be incapable of writing more intelligent lyrics, to start doing so. Send the message loud and clear, songs containing expletives should not be edited to suit radio, those songs have a place; if they must be recorded. Their place should be strictly in the dancehall where you have an adult audience," she said.

DJ Flamez called out her peers to take a stance and speak out against the playing of these songs on air.

"Any song that contains bleeped out words in 5 or more sentences should not be allowed to play on air, period. And that's the stance that radio personalities need to take as professionals," she remarked.

What Do You Think???