TORONTO – It’s too bad CRTC commissioners weren’t here to see this.
During May’s commercial radio review, commissioners will host an orderly procession of industry stakeholders, from musicians to record producers to broadcasters to industry associations. They’ll all make their points in front of the Commission, answer questions and then go home to wait some months for a decision.
Yesterday though – in a packed, hot (-tempered, sometimes) room – broadcasters and producers went at each other in a highly-charged, eminently entertaining hour of running ideas up the flagpole and see who salutes… or moons… or kicks over the pole.
The panelists were Rob Braide, general manager of Standard Radio Montreal; Solange Drouin, general manager of ADISQ (Association Quebecoise de l’Industrie du Disque du Spectacle et de la Video); Cori Ferguson, president of CIRPA (Canadian Independent Record Production Association); Robert Lanni, co-president of Coalition Entertainment Management, and; Rael Merson, president of Rogers Broadcasting.
With submissions to the CRTC on the radio review due March 15, Braide said that the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, which he chairs, has not finalized its position yet. But you can count on Canada’s broadcasters asking for a cut in the 35% Canadian content the current regulations say they must play on Canadian radio.
But, the CAB won’t be looking for just a straight cutback and instead will be pushing a new points system where broadcasters will get additional credit for playing new Canadian artists instead of the same ol’ same ol’. "So we get more Blackie and the Rodeo Kings and less April Wine," said Braide. Broadcasters need these regulatory incentives, he added.
Stable funding for FACTOR (the Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Records) was also discussed as was the level of cash flowing into and out of the Radio Starmaker Fund.
When it came to these two funding agencies, broadcasters Braide and Merson showed there’s even a divide among broadcasters. Merson said all he wants is a stable number for which he has to cut a cheque each year, some transparency in accounting for where it is spent, and that Rogers doesn’t really want to have much to do with it beyond that. "I think the radio industry should step out of the organizations," he said, freeing up the content-building groups to spend as they see fit.
Braide, on the other hand, said Standard wants to look at the level of funding, perhaps even cutting it, but staying intimately involved in the growth and promotion of new Canadian content. Braide added it was time to look at potentially extending funding "to anyone who pays taxes in Canada.
"I want, and Standard wants, a direct role so that we’re part of the partnership with the music industry," he said. "We want to be involved, to work with the recording industry so that we all stay strong."
Drouin, however, asked the main question that didn’t quite get answered during the hour-long panel when she pointed out that broadcasters – who say they’d like to play more new Cancon, as Braide did – don’t need any incentives to play more diverse music. They could simply do it, if they wanted.
She also mentioned her group is likely to go to the radio review with a request to raise the level of Canadian content required from 35% as it stands now to 50%.
Both Merson and Braide stepped around the question, talking about how satellite radio and those distributing audio over the Internet get to play by a looser (satellite) or non-existent (Internet) set of rules, which means Canadian commercial radio stations need more flexibility, part of which may be a two to three percentage point decrease in the level of required Cancon, said Braide, who’s employer is a part-owner of Sirius Canada.
Pierre Borduas, program director for XM Canada’s French channels Sur La Route and Air Musique, spoke up to say, "it makes me laugh that Canadian broadcasters only have to play 35% Canadian content. It’s ridiculous with the talent base we have in Canada." He added that one of its Canadian channels (channel 52, called "Unsigned") actually plays 98% Cancon. "We’re playing everything we get of substance… 35% is ridiculous."
To which Braide said: "Why don’t you take down all those American signals then?"
SOCAN vice-president Paul Spurgeon rose to again ask Braide and Merson to answer Drouin’s question: If broadcasters really do want to play more new Canadian acts, why don’t they just take the risk and play them and forget asking the Commission for new incentives?
(An earlier version of this story said it was XM’s v-p programming Ross Davies who asked this question. Cartt.ca regrets the error.)
Because of all the new technology platforms (the word iPod was said dozens of times) and competition (Yahoo!, Google and Amazon.com are all rumored to be readying competition for iTunes), incentive is required to mitigate the risk of playing new acts – which might result in lower ratings for radio, said Merson and Braide.
So, said Braide, broadcasters will be asking for incentives and a "reduction of two to three percent" in Cancon. "Give us something that will allow us to maintain our audiences," he said.
"Customers want three things," said Merson, "choice, convenience and control… the era of telling consumers what they’re going to get and how is completely over. They don’t take orders from us any more."
Turning to Drouin, he was more pointed, saying "you asked for 50% – the consumers don’t want that."
But look for the musicians and producers and such to fight tooth and nail against any reduction, at all. "As soon as you start reducing it, it opens the door for it to be gone completely at some point," said Lanni.
"People get pretty scared when you start talking about reductions," added session moderator Jake Gold, Canadian Idol judge and president of The Management Trust.
"Show us the increase in (CD) sales from going from 30% to 35% in the first place. You can’t," said Braide.
Bryan DePoe, PD at Toronto’s EZ Rock, probably put it best when he said, "we’re doing the best we can with the business we have in the era we’re in. If there was a business plan that worked at 100% (Cancon), believe me, we would already be doing it."
And the reason why radio doesn’t take more risks on new Canadian acts, said Braide? "People listen to radio to hear familiar songs." I heard some booing and hissing from the crowd after that comment.
Drouin, however, said that with all of what’s now available online that it’s about time the CRTC reviewed its decision in 1999 to not regulate the Internet, since it’s now having "a material impact on broadcasting," in Canada, she said.
"If (Canadian broadcasters) are regulated (the web) should be regulated, too."
Left unsaid was how in the world that would be possible short of Chinese-type web reforms – not to mention how a government could weather the Force 5 storm of protest that would ensue.
The Commission will be getting an earful in May.
