Radio stations’ local tunes ultimatum

Legendary jazz musician Don Laka

Legendary jazz musician Don Laka

Published Mar 29, 2016

Share

Lerato Mbangeni

JOHANNESBURG: There is a glimmer of hope for local artists in getting their music played on radio, with the broadcasting regulator now ordering an increase in the local music quota for public and commercial radio stations.

This came a few weeksafter legendary jazz musician Don Laka began his fight with local radio stations two months ago over their lack of local content.

Announcing the change in quotas yesterday, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) said: “A holder of a public sound-broadcasting service licence must ensure that after 18 months from the date of gazetting of these regulations, a minimum of 60 percent of the musical works broadcast in the performance period consist of South African music.”

With regards to commercial stations, Icasa stated: “A minimum of 35 percent of the musical works broadcast in the performance period must consist of South African music.”

This seems to be inspired by the furore caused by Laka, when he began posting statements expressing his concern, also taking to social media.

“The biggest stumbling block and oppressor of our music not to be played is Icasa with its unpatriotic behaviour, by regulating in favour of foreign music,” he said.

Laka complained that the unfavourable regulations lead to millions of rands in royalties leaving the country.

“We have sufficient content in all the genres to commit to a 100 percent quota.”

The Cape Times’s sister paper The Star spoke to local artist Nakhane Toure, whose hit song with DJ Black Coffee was one of the biggest tracks of last year. He questioned wether the low quota was “a joke”.

“I guess I’m happy this has been brought to life, but I feel like we’re still crawling.

“And now there’s no excuse because they can’t say local music isn’t as good as international music. I don’t think it’s something to celebrate, but it’s good that we’re starting somewhere.”

The penalty for non-compliance is a fine “not exceeding” R5 million or 10 percent of the licensee’s annual turnover “for every day or part thereof during which the contravention continued”, said Icasa.

Related Topics: