MUSIC-JAMAICA: No Payment, No Play

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Howard Campbell

KINGSTON, Dec 24 1996 (IPS) - The dominance of dancehall on Jamaican radio stations has prompted frustrated musicians and producers of other musical genres to accuse disc jockeys of accepting bribes from the producers of what they call sub-standard songs.

“It’s very frustrating to spend a lot of money in the studio trying to make a quality record and not hear it on the radio,” says Pablo Moses, a veteran musician. Moses was one of the top reggae performers here in the 1970s but now he hardly ever gets any airplay.

“To get your music played you have to pay a man,” he alleges.

Dancehall these days is dominant on Jamaica’s airwaves, controlling the play lists of most dj’s, especially in the afternoon prime time slot when the talk shows give way to music radio.

It is unlikely you will hear the likes of reggae legendary Bob Marley during that period. Songs by current cultural icons Buju Banton and Capleton provide the only break from the “guns and girls” theme of their fellow deejays.

The station that has come in for the biggest criticism is the all-reggae IRIE-FM. Much of that criticism stems from the fact that IRIE’s play list has recently taken what many say is a noticeable dancehall bias, in contrast to six years ago when it started out with an across-the-board format that heard sounds ranging from ska to rocksteady and roots reggae.

That format has taken a back seat to the rhythms of dancehall which now accounts for nearly 80 percent of the station’s play lists. It is a move that has given rise to cries of payola.

Programme Manager Andrea Williams of IRIE denies the charges that employees would be receiving pay for play. “That’s not something I know of.”

“Dancehall is what’s happening now,” is her explanation for the shift in programming.

But Hugh Crosskill, Managing Director of Radio Jamaica, says he is investigating the charges of payola.

“It’s certainly something I am aware of but it’s difficult to detect because there’s no hard evidence,” he says. “We have put in place a committee to screen all play lists to determine whether songs are being promoted.” Should the committee rule in the affirmative, says Crosskill, guilty parties face “immediate dismissal”.

Crosskill’s hard-line policy has not gone unheeded by disc jockeys like Richard Burgess whose highly-rated dancehall- dominated ‘The Beat’ programme has been the target of much criticism. Burgess admits that he is continuously approached by producers to get their records on the air, but insists his hands are clean of the payola dollar.

“I am always being asked to bust (promote) a singer or a label but I stay true to my job,” he says, adding that he is aware that he is one of the disc jockeys considered corrupt.

But, “I can’t worry about what people say,” he says.

Allan Cole, former manager of Bob Marley, says the phenomenon is nothing new.

In the 1970s, he recalls, “the major companies used to control the disc jockeys and as an independent producer it was hard to get airplay.”

The physical tactics of Marley’s aides (among whom Cole) against dj’s more inclined to play music from the established labels are well-documented. Those methods were necessary in those days, Cole says, to open new doors for the independent distributor in Jamaica.

“We had to get rough with them and shake them up. What we did helped revolutionise the business,” Cole says.

Charges of payola are not limited to radio stations. Newspaper journalists have also come under fire for alleged unscrupulous practises which include questionable record charts and padded interviews.

But, as is the case in radio land, no action can be taken until there is proof of such behaviour. Until then, says Cole, it will be business as usual.

“It’s something you cannot stop because you can’t see when them (disc jockeys) taking the money,” he says.