|  SOUTH
AFRICAN MUSIC QUOTA COALITION
Musician Robin Auld in Cape Town has
started the SA Music Quota Coalition. His idea behind
the drive is to present the powers that be with substantial
evidence that people in SA, both musician and public
alike, are deserving of more air time on the country’s
radio stations. So check out the news update that follows
this below, and if you believe in increasing the Quota
allocation already in place, or just want to contribute
in general, you can go to www.samqc.org.za
and register your support. With numbers we can make
a difference.
SAMQC
update. 16th
Feb 2004
Now that the dust from the season's gigging has settled,
we are picking up the reins again. First up is
the matter of the Pick'n Pay station Fresh and their
alleged commitment to local content, which turned out
to be lip service. After the initial promising
meeting with Mark Jennings, I sampled Fresh with a wide
range of popular SA music which could possibly fit their
format requirements of easy listening, familiar sounds.
At this stage the playlist manager, one Tony Ridgeway,
entered the picture, rejecting every single act with
cursory one liners written on the accompanying notes.
These included gems such as:
* "sings too flat" on Andre de Villier's "Stand",
* "sounds
like a demo" on Henry Ate's classic debut,
* "poor
production, nowhere songs" on Wayne Pauli's Station
Road
*
and no reason beyond "not our format' on Louis
Mhlangas "Shamwari"!
With the reaction to all the black acts it's obvious
that the familiarity standard only applies to white
folks. The story was picked up by the Mail and
Guardian and it appears in this weeks edition, on page
18 of the media section, in what I consider to be a
well balanced article that is already generating debate.
In terms of delivering the petition this month to the
government minister responsible, we have been thrown
somewhat by the sudden if welcome departure of Ben Ngubane
from the portfolio. As the portfolio currently
reads 'Science, Technology, Arts, Culture, Minerals
and Energy", it is felt that we should wait until
after the election and the new cabinet iselected.
Presenting the petition to what will hopefully be a
new broom seems a better bet than firing it off now
in the run-up to the elections, I'm sure the members
will agree.
Membership is continuing to grow at a steady rate from
all sectors of SA and we are looking at ways of getting
the debate onto TV.
That's the news at present, I am sure that 2004 will
offer us the chance to capitilise on the awareness already
raised and we will keep everyone posted as the year
progresses. Many thanks to everyone for all the
messages of support, we really appreciate it.
best regards,
Robin Auld
SAMQC
http://www.samqc.org.za/
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