Quebec radio plays too much English music: ADISQ
French stations skirting CRTC rules, association says
By Brendan Kelly, The Gazette
Do Quebec’s francophone Top 40 radio stations play enough French-language music? Are listeners here getting their proper daily diet of Coeur de pirate, Marie-Mai and Éric Lapointe?
This is the question du jour in the local music biz. The stations have to follow Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission rules that require them to play 65 per cent French-language musical content over the course of the week and 55 per cent in prime time, which is defined as between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.
At first glance, that sounds like plenty of French tunes. But the association that represents the province’s record labels is on a campaign to try to make stations like CKOI and NRJ spin more franco discs. The Association québécoise de l’industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la vidéo (ADISQ) is convinced these stations are trying to get around the CRTC rules and are actually playing a lot more Lady Gaga and Katy Perry than they should be.
That’s why ADISQ recently filed a formal complaint with the broadcast regulator, alleging these Top 40 outlets are using medleys – or as they call them, “montages” – of English songs to skirt the rules. The short version of the ADISQ argument is that stations like NRJ and CKOI will air a montage of English songs that could run as long as 55 minutes and count it as only one song for the purposes of the CRTC rules (which measure the francophone content by songs rather than minutes of music).
This is the question du jour in the local music biz. The stations have to follow Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission rules that require them to play 65 per cent French-language musical content over the course of the week and 55 per cent in prime time, which is defined as between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.
At first glance, that sounds like plenty of French tunes. But the association that represents the province’s record labels is on a campaign to try to make stations like CKOI and NRJ spin more franco discs. The Association québécoise de l’industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la vidéo (ADISQ) is convinced these stations are trying to get around the CRTC rules and are actually playing a lot more Lady Gaga and Katy Perry than they should be.
That’s why ADISQ recently filed a formal complaint with the broadcast regulator, alleging these Top 40 outlets are using medleys – or as they call them, “montages” – of English songs to skirt the rules. The short version of the ADISQ argument is that stations like NRJ and CKOI will air a montage of English songs that could run as long as 55 minutes and count it as only one song for the purposes of the CRTC rules (which measure the francophone content by songs rather than minutes of music).
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