Deidra and Francois chilling in their matching tops at one of FAME FM's road parties. - Contributed photos

Little over a week has passed since the ban of all songs with the word 'daggerin' and those which require bleeps and already, radio stations have been affected.

However, the effects of the ban, which was announced by the Broadcasting Commission on February 6, are varied.

The musical catalogue of Irie FM disc jock Errol 'Smurf' Stewart has felt the impact.

"It affects around 60 to 70 per cent of the dancehall music and half of that is not violence or daggerin' songs. It don't affect the lovers rock and reggae part," said DJ Smurf who has a programme on Irie Fm called Night Beat/ Outaroad Mondays.

Popular songs

Since songs which require editing cannot be played, he is unable to play popular songs like Jr Gong's Welcome To Jamrock and Buju Banton's Driver.

Smurf said many songs are edited because they have a word which the producer believes is not appropriate for the air, but the song is not necessarily violent or sexually explicit. Others, he says, may contain a word like 'jook', 'damn' or 'slam' and as a result, require editing.

"You have some positive songs that require bleeping and editing for various reasons. A man might seh 'put down the AK 47' and the producer edit out AK 47 just to be on the safe side, but the song is still positive," DJ Smurf told THE STAR.

However, he believes the Broadcasting Commission could have used a bit more discretion by saying, "if the song has a positive message and no excessive editing is required, it should be allowed to play."

Luckily, Smurf says his listenership has not decreased since the measures were put in place. He says some of his listeners have no problem with the 'daggerin' songs being banned, as they believe some of them should not have been on air in the first place.

Although the measures were laid down abruptly, D'Adra Williams, Zip FM's station manager, said the station had not been seriously affected.

"When it just came out, we had a problem going through the library and going through all the songs, but we are getting accustomed to it now," said Williams.

"We have had to pull 40 per cent of songs from our playlist. We pulled right across the board: hip hop, dancehall, R&B, rock, alternative and soca."

Playing it safe

Williams said many songs were pulled in order to be on the safe side.

Likewise, Francois St Juste, general manager for radio at the RJR Communications Group (comprising FAME FM, Hitz 92 FM and RJR), said he did not believe the radio stations would be heavily affected.

"I doubt that the ban of daggering songs will affect radio in any way as there are a number of other songs that can be played. If songs are too sexual they should not be played on radio in the first place," St Juste told THE STAR.

Similarly, he does not think there will be any problems with the station's listenership or advertising revenue as a result.

"I don't think it will affect advertising. It may affect listenership, because people who want to hear certain types of songs will go elsewhere and get it," said St Juste.

But he said some clarity was still needed about the use of bleeps.

"What do they mean by bleeps and beeps? There are many ways to edit songs. We can put in sound effects or use silencers. There are many things that can be used to edit but we are not clear about the guidelines," he told THE STAR.

Williams said she, too, would have preferred if the guidelines were less vague and radio stations given more time to get accustomed to the new policy.

Jazzy T (left) and D'Adra Williams