Should radio edited songs be played on radio?

27 Apr 2008 | by A.K.A., Contributing Writer

This issue has turned into a potentially divisive one especially in light of PR pounding that dancehall is taking in recent times with the withdrawal of Red Stripe as a corporate sponsor of Reggae Sumfest and the strict enforcement of the 2 a.m. shutdown time by the police.

DJ_Flamze.jpgShould dancehall clean up its image or should radio stations enforce a rule en bloc that no edited songs be played on air.

Penthouse producer Donovan Germaine feels that there needs to a move away from the playing of songs with sexually suggestive content and edited expletives on radio.
"There needs to be a greater balance, a lot of good reggae songs never get any recognition or airplay. They never get to radio because dancehall songs with numerous edits and questionable sentiments dominate. I have spoken to all the programme managers about this editing business," Germaine, the former manager of Buju Banton, said.

IRIE FM, the country's leading station has already taken a tough stance on the issue.

Effective January 1, 2006, the Ocho Rios, St. Ann-based roots rocking reggae radio banned "all music containing beeps or edits" to remove curse words. But there has been a flouting of that law by various disc jocks since then. However, during the last four months, the reins have tightened once again.

"For the most part, we prefer if our disc jockeys don't play songs which require edits, but for the most part, we allow songs with clean edits. The problem is that if there is a song that requires more than one edit, you run the risk of losing the essence of the song anyway," Mrs. Williams-Green said.

She also pointed out that artistes must recognize that they have a responsibility to the society "to be more creative and conscientious in what they produce for the public".

The use of 'edited material' on air is a slippery slope that has undone several radio disc jocks with slip-ups resulting in expletives being blasted in the homes of the unsuspecting public. A radio disc jock who spoke on condition of anonymity told One876Entertainment.com that he had asked a friend to fill in for him during his prime time afternoon slot a few years ago with catastrophic results.

"Imagine my shock when I was listening to him play and I heard a song play with two expletives in it. He got a two week suspension and I got a strongly worded memo from my bosses at the station," he said.

Earlier this year, popular ZIP 103 FM disc jock ZJ Liquid received a two week suspension from the radio station after complaints from the Broadcasting Commission suggested that he had breached the regulations and code act during his stint called Fresh to Death Wednesdays on November 7, 2007. According to reports Liquid played a song that had expletives and sexually explicit that was mistaken for an edited version.

DJ Flamez of RJR believes that "radio edited songs tend to imply that people are not intelligent enough to decipher what the bleeped out words are".

"As such, producers need to start clamping down on artistes, who appear to be incapable of writing more intelligent lyrics, to start doing so. Send the message loud and clear, songs containing expletives should not be edited to suit radio, those songs have a place; if they must be recorded. Their place should be strictly in the dancehall where you have an adult audience," she said.

DJ Flamez called out her peers to take a stance and speak out against the playing of these songs on air.

"Any song that contains bleeped out words in 5 or more sentences should not be allowed to play on air, period. And that's the stance that radio personalities need to take as professionals," she remarked.

What Do You Think???

which song yuh hear edit, dem might edit out the fu but u can still here the ck

yes

dats y dem call it Radio version

me think so

It's called Radio edited for that purpose.

lol@ cat its an obvious question duh!!!!!!!! kids listen d radio 2

I don't play edit tunes on my radio show, I play the raw tune!!! I give a verbal language warning & that's apparently all I need to do, so long as I don't over do it & have too many complaints, it is all good. That is community radio in Byron Bay Australia tho. Commercial radio is different again & most stations here wouldn't touch these tunes either way. For elsewhere I can't really comment.

badmind

not mzja radio

bwoy dem soon seh nodoby cant deejay again

i play on the radio 6 days a week and really feel say certain tunes what have too much editing nuh really need fi play still cau it makes the song sound like garbage wen it play bare reverse and bleep. And if dem ah go edit a tune dem can edit it betta than they do still. I'm not only talking about dancehall but hip hop too cau nuff tune play and mi a say damn dem really tink say kids nuh know weh dem a try blank out?

i think it shouldnt matter if there curse and thing like that in songs on radio...... television now is so free with sex and curse ...... the only word not on tv is Fuccck.... and if da kids dont hear it there they go to school and hear it there,,,, no matta how much editin they try to do or not do.... hearin sexual content or curse words is all around and it somewhat impossible to no hear it, people need to realise this and live life.... curse is a word like ne other word... sex is a every day thing .... hmm? i think ahhhhh.... dont edit shit!

to edit or not to edit nuh mek sense..is jus how u do it...memba when the editing use to put in likkle sounds to block u from hear the words dat did mek sense n sound betta dan now. wha dem fi do still is play clean music like in the day time and if u waan hear the raw versions or more explicit lyrics (edited/uneditied) then u go dance or clubs.

run the edit pon radio ...how come sex and f uck mean the same ting but one bad cho rahtid many p ussy and vagina mean the same ting but one bad madddddddddddddddd

real thing a gwan

hmm makes sense for the radio edit to be played on the radio.

fi real

but kids cuss bad word too