OTTAWA – Last summer, after rehearsing in Toronto in preparation for their world tour, the Rolling Stones kept up with their tradition of playing a local club before decamping.
But back in August, when the Stones were playing live at the Phoenix in Toronto, Corus Radio’s Q107 also aired a live Stones gig… on tape.
The move resulted in listener confusion and a handful of complaints to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.
"The CBSC Ontario Regional Panel examined complaints about the broadcast and concluded that Q107’s failure to clearly indicate that the concert it aired was pre-recorded and not a broadcast of the live concert taking place that evening at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto constituted a breach of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics," says a decision from the CBSC Wednesday,
"Q107 advertised that it would be airing a live Rolling Stones performance at precisely the same time. Q107’s promotions of the broadcast referred to the ‘live’ Rolling Stones broadcast. Also, during the actual broadcast of the concert, the host continually mentioned the Phoenix Theatre show that was taking place at that same time and referred to the broadcast as ‘live Stones’. Moreover, those comments were made with the sounds of a crowd cheering and instruments being tuned in the background. All of this left the distinct impression that the concert broadcast by Q107 was in fact the Phoenix show that was taking place that evening. In fact, it was a pre-recorded live Rolling Stones performance from three years earlier."
The panel determined that Q107 breached Clauses 6 and 12 of the CAB Code of Ethics for its unfair, improper and misleading broadcasts
