An article from The Globe and Mail;
COMPETING BIDDERS FOR RADIO SPOT DONATED MONEY TO TORY MP
by
BILL CURRY
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Jul. 25 2012, 4:00 AM
A Conservative MP who serves as parliamentary secretary to the Canadian Heritage Minister raised thousands of dollars in political contributions from people involved in a high-stakes campaign to win a new Toronto radio licence.
Paul Calandra, the MP for Oak Ridges-Markham, attended and received money at two private fundraising parties that included people connected to two of the bids under consideration by the CRTC, which reports to Canadian Heritage.
When a Globe and Mail reporter brought up the fundraising activities recently, Mr. Calandra said he did nothing wrong. He also said he will give back some of the money.
The fundraising episode shows that five years after the Conservatives banned corporate donations to political parties, a link remains between political fundraising and business interests. The Conservative Party recently warned riding associations that fundraisers should be “no-lobbying zones” and reminded ministers and parliamentary secretaries to avoid real or perceived conflicts.
More than 20 companies are competing to win a rare and highly coveted new spot on Toronto’s FM dial at 88.1 FM.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission held hearings this year but has not yet announced a winner.
In late March, one of the applicants, WorldBand Media Inc., owned by CEO Prabha Selvadurai, hired Hill and Knowlton to lobby Canadian Heritage, the CRTC and members of Parliament on its proposal for a new talk-radio station.
The Globe has learned that just over two weeks later, on April 10, a private fundraiser took place in the basement of a suburban Markham, Ont., home owned by Mr. Selvadurai’s sister, Kirupalini Kirupakaran. Dr. Kirupakaran has pledged to the CRTC that she will invest up to $2-million in WorldBand Media should it win the competition. About $22,000 was raised at the event. Mr. Calandra also received a contribution at another basement fundraiser from the head of a second company competing for the prized spot on Toronto’s radio dial.
The April 10 fundraiser was attended by Mr. Selvadurai, along with several members of his immediate family. Former Ontario Tory cabinet minister David Tsubouchi, who sits on WorldBand’s board of advisers, attended, as did five others who have pledged to invest in the proposed radio station, which would be called Touch FM.
Some who attended the evening cocktail event estimate there were about 30 to 40 people in the room, including members of Mr. Calandra’s constituency office and riding association team.
In an interview, Mr. Calandra said neither Mr. Selvadurai nor members of his immediate family made donations. That means most of those who did give likely made contributions at or near the $1,100 maximum allowable annual figure.
The contributions have not been disclosed publicly as they have not yet been filed with Elections Canada.
Mr. Calandra initially declined to say who hosted the fundraiser and claimed he had never received donations from anyone associated with Mr. Selvadurai’s companies.
However, after going though the donations over several days to answer questions from The Globe, Mr. Calandra said that in fact five people listed with the CRTC as proposed WorldBand investors made donations worth a total of about $5,000 – and that those donations will be returned. He said the riding association will ask its auditor whether the host of the event has made an in-kind donation by offering her basement rent free.
“One person who had spread the word about the fundraiser did not understand the conflict that he might have been putting us or himself in by inviting these people,” Mr. Calandra said. “It was one person who was responsible for these five potential conflicts, but it wasn’t Prabha in any shape or form. He knew the rules and he was bang on.”
The MP said it’s routine for a riding association to initially accept donations and later reject them as they are reviewed prior to filing with Elections Canada. His campaign returned eight donations from the 2011 election campaign worth a total of $1,100. After the 2008 campaign, Mr. Calandra’s association returned two donations worth a total of $350.
Heritage Minister James Moore was in Markham the day after the fundraiser to announce art funding projects with Mr. Calandra. The minister did not attend the fundraiser and both the minister and the MP say they’ve never discussed the fundraiser or the CRTC application.
The minister’s office did not comment when asked whether the fundraiser raised any concerns.
In an interview, the CEO of WorldBand Media, Mr. Selvadurai, said he did not invite the investors to the fundraiser. He also said he was not aware they had made donations. He said the event was not related to his CRTC application, but he also said it’s important to make MPs aware of his business.
“As a Toronto businessman, it is important for me to ensure these MPs know about my business and intention to grow my business in Toronto,” he said in a prepared statement sent by e-mail after several phone conversations with The Globe.
Mr. Calandra said his riding association is also reviewing a contribution from Stan Antony from another fundraiser this year that was held in the basement of a home in Richmond Hill, Ont., on Feb. 22. Mr. Antony is leading a competing bid for 88.1 with the CRTC that would be called Stan FM.
The Conservative Party is clearly aware that parliamentary secretaries are at risk of running into political trouble through fundraising. The party’s national council sent an e-mail to riding associations in June specifically warning against real or apparent conflicts.
“Since Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries are in charge of specific portfolios in the government, they have special duties to be and appear to be free from any conflict of interest,” states the note. “For this reason, people who make financial contributions to politicians and political parties must not receive or even appear to receive preferential access to politicians. In short, all fundraising events need to be no-lobbying zones.”
The CRTC is an independent federal regulator that reports to Parliament through the Minister of Canadian Heritage, James Moore. However the limits to that independence were made clear last year when then-Industry minister Tony Clement called a CRTC ruling on Internet fees “simply wrong” and ordered the regulator to reconsider its ruling, which it did.
In June, the federal Conservatives appointed a new CRTC chair, Jean-Pierre Blais, replacing previous chairman Konrad von Finckenstein.
A WorldBand Media website says Touch FM “will drive high-quality, locally-sourced content to audiences underserved by current mainstream News/Information/Talk radio programming.” The website says the station has “proposed partnerships” with Toronto Life, Sun Media and iPolitics.ca.
Because of the large number of voters in the riding, candidates running in Oak Ridges-Markham had the highest spending limit in the country during the 2011 federal election, at $134,351."
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Corruption? In this government? I am shocked! Shocked I say!
Outrageous as this is it's worth pointing out that MP's will not be making the decision, the CRTC will. And they are not answerable to MP's. In fact MP's (and this includes members of Parliament) are barred by law from lobbying the CRTC about licence applications which explains the speed with which the Tories backed off on this one.
BTW that is something to keep in mind whenever Fitzroy Gordon, the owner of CARN fm, the new Caribbean radio station, brags about how Stephen Harper and Jason Kenny personally guaranteed him a broadcast licence. He's been publicly boasting of that for the past year in several interviews this year. Either he is lying to suck up to Harper or Harper and Kenny fed Gordon an line of bullshit and he bought it.
Thursday, 26 July 2012
Friday, 13 July 2012
KICK fm goes off the air for real this time
Back in January I wrote about KICK fm, a campus radio station in Winnipeg which was reportedly in danger of losing it's broadcast license. At the time I wrote;
"January 23 Winnipeg radio station CKIC, also known as KICKS FM, posted an announcement on their website and Facebook page stating that they were about to be shut down by the CRTC. (Note the reference to CKLN who you will recall lost their license last year);
First here's the initial Facebook posting;
"Dear friends, today the CRTC informed KICK-FM that, under the new campus radio policy, we will no longer be allowed to train students for a career in radio. As you may know, our raison d'etre is training students from Red River College's Creative Communications program.
So, what does this mean? It is doubtful that RRC will want to continue funding a radio station that does not work within its educational department. Therefore, it seems unlikely at this point in time that KICK-FM will remain on-air.
There is a possibility of moving the educational radio station to an internet-only feed. We will keep you posted.
It must be stressed here how disappointing this news is to us. I'm sure those students who are keen on pursuing a radio career with our assistance, and those in the local music community who we've steadfastly supported for the past 8 years, will share in our disappointment.
Stay tuned.92.9 KICK-FM"
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Then the official posting from the KICKS FM website the next day;
"What’s the deal with KICK?
Hello,
Yesterday we posted a story on our Facebook fan page regarding a directive the station received from the CRTC. Allow me to outline what has transpired.
In 2002, CKIC-FM was awarded a license to operate an Instructional Campus radio station, based at Red River College, whose primary objective was to train Creative Communications students for careers in commercial radio. We signed-on in December, 2003.
In 2010, the CRTC reviewed its Campus Radio Policy and made some substantial changes from the previous policy. Among the changes, the new policy removed the distinction between Instructional Campus stations (like KICK) and Campus stations (like UM-FM and CKUW). All campus-based stations will henceforth fall under one type of license: the Campus/Community license. Existing Instructional Campus stations (like KICK) were encouraged in the policy to continue training students, while at the same time broadening their base of community participation.From the new policy:
29. The Commission notes the specific role that stations currently licensed as campus instructional play in training broadcasters who will work for commercial radio stations. The Commission encourages these stations to pursue this goal within the new campus station framework, or through alternative means of broadcasting.
KICK-FM was happy with the new policy, which would come into effect with the renewal of our original license. We applied for a license renewal with the CRTC in 2011, and systematically promised to uphold the terms of the new policy.
Instead of a renewal, we were given an extension on our original license, while the Commission considered our renewal. We still operate, and will continue to operate under that license, at least until it expires at Midnight, December 31, 2012. No programs or training will be affected during the term of the existing license.
Prior to Christmas, 2011, myself and several members of the CreComm Radio Inc. Board of Directors (owner/operator of the CKIC-FM license) were called into an “off-the-record” meeting with a local CRTC Commissioner, to discuss the ramifications of the new policy on KICK-FM. The Commissioner told us that we were to focus on community involvement rather than student training, despite what the new policy document says, as quoted above. We asked for clarification: How much student training versus community volunteers would we allowed to broadcast under the new policy? The Commissioner agreed to seek clarification on this matter from Ottawa.
On January 23, the Commissioner called me with the answer. She said that Ottawa felt that she had “sugar-coated” her message to us at the meeting, that there is to be “no training of students for a career in commercial radio” and that if we insisted on training students, our “license renewal will be denied”.
When I asked the commissioner why there had been a change from the policy, as quoted above, without any official amendment to said policy, she gave me two reasons:
a) The CRTC has had a lot of issues with Instructional Campus stations recently, including the revocation of licenses of CJWV-FM, Winnipeg (FLAVA 107) and CKLN-FM, based at Ryerson in Toronto. (Both were clearly out-of-compliance with the regulations, and deservedly lost their right to broadcast. )
b) It was “a new Commission” with a new Commissioners, a new Chair, and a new direction.
So, our options seem to be the following:
1) Insist on training students, and have our license renewal denied. End result: go off-the-air.
2) Stop training students, focus on community volunteers, and perhaps lose our funding from the College, as we’d no longer be an educational component of the Creative Communications program. End result: go off-the-air.
3) Transfer the station to the internet, develop new KICK apps to increase ease-of-listening, and focus on training students in broadcasting and new media. End result: valuable training would continue in a positive direction and encompass the new methods of disseminating content in a digital world.
Next week, the BOD of CreComm Radio Inc. will meet to discuss our options, which we will eventually present to Red River College. We will keep you posted on developments.
As always, thank you very much for your continued support of Winnipeg’s Indie Station, 92.9 KICK-FM.
Rick Baverstock
Station Manager
posted : Tuesday, January 24th, 2012"
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You can almost hear the triumphant cries coming out of the rubble strewn bunker at CKLN; "See we told you so! We told you the CRTC had an evil corporate agenda to destroy community radio! We were just the first victims, and you should have stood up for us! Now it's too late! You could be next! First they came for CKLN and you didn't speak out...Then they came for KICKS FM and blah blah blah..."
Indeed judging by the initial media reports and the inevitable "Curse you CRTC!" type postings on Facebook many do seem willing to accept the official story. Some even upped the ante citing an outrageous "CRTC ruling" banning students from the airwaves.
However;
There are problems with the official story. First of all the CRTC has not announced any such ruling, nor are they likely to. Some postings to the facebook page and media stories have even pointed this out. After all the blatant lying and hyperbolic conspiracy theories during the CKLN circus I find it refreshing that some people took the time to actually look things up and do some research before breaking out the placards and bullhorns and charging off to the first protest rally they can find. However if there's another thing I've learned from CKLN's activists (not to mention Rob Ford or Newt Gingrich) is that you can't keep a good liar down. Even if they get caught in the most blatant lies they simply double down and keep going. Helps if you have no shame. Thus; when some good citizens have pointed out the fact there is no CRTC ruling banning students from the airwaves, KICKS Station Manager Rick Baverstock simply "clarified" that the ruling was delivered in a "off the record meeting". So there; prove me wrong. This led to a few more outraged postings about the CRTC's lack of openness. However as we've seen from CKLN and other stations that lost their licenses in the last few years such as CJWV (in Winnipeg) and CHSC (St Catherines), the CRTC does not hold "off the record meetings" with radio stations where they threaten their licenses. The CRTC is a government regulatory body, they do everything in writing which is kept on file for future license renewal hearings which are public. This is exactly what happened with CKLN, CJWV and CHSC. I attended the CKLN hearings in December 2010 (and I also testified) and have read the transcripts and rulings from the CJWV hearings in 2008 and CHSC in 2010. When CKLN tried to claim that they weren't given any warnings prior to the hearings the CRTC was then able to produce them. That's the way a regulator works. You may disagree with them but they are not idiots.
The CRTC did have an extensive review of the entire Campus/Community Radio sector in 2009. As a result the CRTC abolished the designation between "Campus Instructional" and "Campus based Community". A few words of clarification here; Most stations are C/C, however there are a few C/I stations around. C/I stations differ from C/C stations in that C/I stations are designed to train students taking RTA and journalism courses. KICKS FM (which is based in Red River College) is such a station as is CKHC based at Humber College in Etobicoke. By contrast C/C stations are required to have community involvement,a board of directors with "balanced" representation from the community,students and faculty and they must also adhere to far more strict guidelines concerning their on air content. Since the CRTC's ruling CKHC has announced their intention to make the transition from C/I to C/C station, I hope they do, Toronto could use another community station. KICKS FM has clearly decided not to and instead have elected to give up their license and blame the CRTC.
There are other problems with the KICKS FM statement. Note the apocalyptic tone of the three choices KICKS offer for their future .
"a) Defy CRTC and lose license
b) Ban students and lose funding, then lose license anyway
c) Give up license and become an internet radio station."
I find this disingenuous since it denies that there are any more options. But in fact there is an obvious one; KICKS FM could follow the rules the CRTC set down for the entire sector and convert to a Campus Community station like CIUT, CHRY and most other C/C stations. Problem solved. What would this entail?
a) KICKS FM would have to expand their Board of Directors to include community members.
The CRTC policy specifically states that boards must have "balanced" representation from the students, faculty and community. They do not actually define what this means. But this also means they would have to have community members in the first place. Apparently KICKS FM does not have any actual community members other than a few radio industry pros who were appointed to the board. Presumably this is because of existing links between Red River College and the radio industry. Such involvement is certainly allowed by the CRTC, and would probably be defended up to a point as encouraging professionalism, but it is clearly not what they had in mind by "community" members.
b) KICKS FM would have to expand the variety of music and spoken word programming offered on-air.
The CRTC requires all C/C stations to play content that is otherwise not played on commercial radio and from communities otherwise under represented. This does not mean that they can not play rock/pop or urban/hip hop of course, as anyone who listens to any community station will know. However there are also specific quotas to be met for other genres such as jazz, blues, folk, classical or world beat. The rock/pop and urban/hip hop must not be top 40 and must instead focus on non commercial and independent music. There are also quotas for spoken word programs as well.
From what I can tell by sampling the content on KICKS FM (keeping in mind I don't live in Winnipeg) they do not live up to this. KICKS FM's on-air programming is quite different than that of stations such as CIUT or CHRY and is mostly rock/pop. This is implied by their use of commercial sounding "brand name" KICKS FM instead of using their actual call letters of CKIC. While the use of a commercial brand is unusual, programming wise this is common with Campus Instructional stations since they are mostly concerned with providing RTA students with radio training and a spot on their resume. This leads to playing music that is more mainstream rather than more avant garde music that might alienate potential industry patrons. The fact that most programmers are students who are young and have little experience in the music scene rather than scene vets also encourages this trend. The old CRTC regs allowed for this. This does not mean that the programming at KICKS FM is bad, in fact it seams that they have put more effort into their music selection than other instructional stations, playing a fair amount of alternative, independent and local music. In fact they remind me mostly of CFNY back in the 1980's (you know, before they started to suck). As an instructional station KICKS FM has done a good job, better in fact than the bland offerings of Humber College station CKHC, however as a community station KICKS would not come close to qualifying.
Herein lies the problem faced by KICKS FM. To qualify for a license under the new CRTC rules KICKS (and Red River College) would have to do something they clearly do not want to do. Namely give up sole control and share the station. This would take some major adjustments but is certainly doable. Instead they have instead decided to tank the license and walk away while blaming the big bad CRTC.
In the interest of disclosure when this story broke I quickly contacted KICKS FM station manager Rick Baverstock. At the time I was under the impression that KICKS had simply misunderstood the nature of the new CRTC and were thrown into a panic by bad info. Therefore I was sympathetic and wanted to offer a helping hand. So I wrote a nice email politely suggesting they not panic and carefully explaining the steps they would have to follow to be in compliance with CRTC regs. Baverstock did write back promptly with a polite but not very responsive reply saying;
"While I can appreciate the angle that we could teach our students off-air, that totally defeats the purpose of this station from the College's point of view, and they are funding this operation nearly 100%. If we are going to have to use the internet for teaching, why bother paying for the operation of the community signal at all?"
(Note; I among other things I had pointed out that they could still use an internet feed and facilities for training purposes thereby ensuring that students were fully trained BEFORE going on air. That would satisfy the CRTC's need to make sure that on-air personal have been adequately trained while not excluding any student from getting that training and keeping the airwaves free to include the requisite community involvement. I did NOT suggest ghettoizing students by leaving them online only.)
This, along with more info I have since dug up concerning the station's structure and recent history, suggests that they have already made up their minds to walk away from their license. This will enable them to keep total control of the station and exclude the public entirely. They can also save money since they don't have to run a transmitter. Since the CRTC does not regulate internet content they also won't have to comply with any CRTC regs at all for things like Canadian content or musical variety or spoken word content. They will never have to answer any listener complaints either; apparently they have had a few as of late.
That this decision to convert to the internet has already been made is implied by this laughably delusional posting on their Facebook page;
"92.9 KICK-FM 80,000,000 Americans listen online. The future is now."
Ummm...Yeah, right, whatever you say:
This belief in the inevitable triumph of the all powerful internet is common (especially among students) but it is misplaced. That internet and satellite radio and podcasting will be our future overlords has been promised for a several years now but it hasn't really worked that way. Listenership of the vast majority of internet stations has been pathetic.
One reason for this is technical; as long as it is the preferred choice for car and clock radios terrestrial radio will always have a built in advantage. One day this may change somewhat as technology updates but not anytime soon. Another reason is psychological; a terrestrial signal with legitimate call letters simply has a gravitas that an internet station or podcaster does not. The internet is just too sketchy. That won't change. Ever. Another problem with the internet is the sheer volume of content makes it impossible to stand out and attract a following at all. This also won't change. Ever. How does one attract attention when surrounded by literally hundreds or even thousands of other internet stations and podcasters? Especially since KICKS FM is basically just a regular rock/pop station with a mildly alt/indie focus. In fact I believe that having to adhere to various CRTC regs encourages quality control and variety better than the internet does. If you know for example that you will be in trouble if someone fails to show up to do their show, or swears indiscriminately, or plays the same few top 40 hits over and over gain, then you won't do it. But if you know that there are no real consequences to fucking up, or listeners to hear it, than what's to stop you? And who will care?
As stated most students would no doubt buy the "80,000,000 can't be wrong" argument. Besides it will be much easier than doing the extra work and sharing control that converting to a community license would entail. Laziness usually is, but they are deluding themselves if they think they are breaking new ground.
Want a look at the brave new world of internet radio? Check out the "New CKLN.fm". You'll be the only ones who are since a close look at their listener stats shows that they never rise above a half dozen listeners at any given time. And that's at best. Granted KICKS FM is not likely to be a laughably inept as CKLN but it will still be a Potemkin Village version of a radio station.
CKLN also shows that once you give up a license you don't get it back.
A FAIRLY BALANCED (FOR A CHANGE) YOUTUBE REPORT ON KICKS FM;
Then; suddenly as I was writing this article KICKS FM suddenly removed the above postings from their website and Facebook pages and replaced it with this apparent if brief back peddle;
"KICK License Update
The Board of Directors of CreComm Radio Inc., owner/operator of CKIC-FM, met on Tuesday, January 31. The Board has determined that the station will
continue to operate as usual under our current license. The Board is waiting for some further clarifications from the CRTC regarding the new Campus Radio Policy and in the meantime are amending the station’s renewal application to better suit the new policy."
So now apparently they changed their mind about the joys of internet radio and decided to try and hold on, and now they need "clarification" about the CRTC regs? So everyone can put away their torches and pitchforks cuz everything is cool. Or not. Who knows what is going on at this point. I'll keep checking into this."
So that's where things stood as of January. With KICK fm planning on applying for their license renewal. I assumed that they would make the fairly straight forward changes to their ownership and governance structure along with some moves to broaden their programming. Having done so license renewals are almost always granted. But then last week this notice showed up on the KICK fm website;
"92.9 KICK FM went on-air almost 10 years ago with a mandate to provide a radio broadcast training forum for students that resembled, as near as possible, the operation of a commercial radio station. Red River College provided the transmitter and facilities as well as start-up funding, with the goal that the radio station become self sustaining over a period of time. Despite never being able to achieve this, the College continued to fund the station.
92.9 KICK FM will return its current broadcast license to the CRTC.
Radio training at Red River College will continue uninterrupted, and the plan is for KICK FM to resume streaming in the fall.
92.9 KICK FM will discontinue over-the-air broadcasting July 4 at 4 p.m."
A similar posting appeared on this Facebook page. The rushed nature of KICK fm's shutdown was underlined by the next Facebook posting;
"Seemingly unwilling to let 92.9 KICK-FM die with dignity, officials at our transmitter site pulled the plug halfway through the farewell montage. We will post the full audio shortly."
(Link to the audio post);
http://soundcloud.com/rick-baverstock/92-9-kick-fm-sign-off?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=blogger&utm_content=http://soundcloud.com/rick-baverstock/92-9-kick-fm-sign-off
A few articles in the Winnipeg media quickly popped up the most detailed of which is below;
"Canadian Campus Community Station Kick FM to Return License to CRTC Posted on July 4, 2012 by Jennifer Waits
KICK FM to Turn Back License to CRTC
Canadian campus-community radio station CKIC-FM, known as 92.9 Kick FM, will cease its terrestrial broadcasts at 4pm today and plans to return its license to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
The license is set to expire on August 31, 2012. Kick FM is operated by the non-profit Cre-Comm Radio Inc. and broadcasts out of studios at Red River College in Winnipeg. In January, the station issued statements explaining that the future of the station was uncertain.
A statement posted by Cre-Comm’s Board of Directors yesterday states,
“92.9 KICK FM went on-air almost 10 years ago with a mandate to provide a radio broadcast training forum for students that resembled, as near as possible, the operation of a commercial radio station. Red River College provided the transmitter and facilities as well as start-up funding, with the goal that the radio station become self sustaining over a period of time. Despite never being able to achieve this, the College continued to fund the station.
As a result of recent changes to CRTC regulations regarding campus and community radio stations, and financial challenges, the Board of Cre-Comm Radio Inc. has decided to discontinue over the air broadcasting effective Wednesday, July 4, 2012 at 4:00pm, and will be returning the current broadcast license to the CRTC.
Radio training at Red River College will continue uninterrupted, and the plan is for KICK FM to resume streaming in the fall.”
A Winnipeg Free Press article today includes commentary from a Red River College instructor who mentioned the challenges of not only streaming, but also of running a hybrid campus-community radio station,
“Students may get some good training through streaming and that’s fine, but it’s not the same as being on the air and having the community listening in…The station was a funny deal from the very beginning. No one was really clear if it was training students or open to the community or neither. And then it kind of got hijacked by a lot of non-students. So this is not a surprise.”
According to a May 28, 2012 Broadcasting Notice of Consultation, Cre-Comm had applied for license renewal, proposing to operate CKIC as a campus station. The notice states:
“The licensee proposes to operate the undertaking under the conditions of license applicable to campus radio stations set out in Standard conditions of license for campus and community radio stations, Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2012-304, 22 May 2012 and will adhere to the following condition of license: The licensee shall devote no more than 25% of its total weekly programming to student-produced programming to fulfill course requirements.”
The Notice also points out some problems with CKIC’s application and states:
“It appears that the licensee may have failed to comply with the Radio Regulations, 1986 concerning the filing of annual returns for the 2005-2006 to 2009-2010 broadcast years. The Commission has received a complaint regarding the programming of CKIC-FM as well as complaints concerning the licensee’s governance and management structure.”
According to the article in the Winnipeg Free Press, Cre-Comm pulled out of the application process:
“David Wiebe, chairman of Cre-Comm Radio, said it initially applied for a campus and community radio license, but later withdrew the application. He said a lack of funding from the college and the wish to focus on training students, not community members, were reasons for the decision.”
It’s unclear what this decision means for the students in the Creative Communications program at Red River College, although Kick FM’s statement indicates that radio training will continue."
There is also a previous article from a student newspaper which reports the official KICK fm line with some skepticism and which is vastly superior to the lazy and one-sided reporting done by much of the Ryerson media during the two year battle over CKLN from 2008 to 2010, probably due to the heavy-handed influence of the Ryerson Student Union which was deeply involved in the take over and shut down of CKLN.
The article is in PDF form here;
http://theprojector.ca/pdf/Issue11web.pdf
(note the reference to CKLN and how it deserved to die)
So what happened between January when KICK fm was preparing to conform with the CRTC regs and reapply for their license and July 3 when they suddenly threw in the towel and walked away? What changed?
In fact KICK fm had indeed filed their application and the process had started. The CRTC notice is here;
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ottawa, 28 May 2012 Notice of application received
Winnipeg, Manitoba Deadline for submission of interventions/comments/answers: 3 July 2012
The Commission has received the following application: Applicant/Licensee and Locality
1. CreComm Radio Inc. Winnipeg, Manitoba Application 2011-0319-2
Application by CreComm Radio Inc. to renew the broadcasting licence of the campus instructional radio programming undertaking CKIC-FM Winnipeg, expiring 31 August 2012. In light of the elimination of the campus instructional category in Campus and community radio policy, Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2010-499, 22 July 2010, the licensee proposes to operate the undertaking as campus station.
The licensee proposes to operate the undertaking under the conditions of licence applicable to campus radio stations set out in Standard conditions of licence for campus and community radio stations, Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2012-304, 22 May 2012 and will adhere to the following condition of licence:
The licensee shall devote no more than 25% of its total weekly programming to student-produced programming to fulfil course requirements.
It appears that the licensee may have failed to comply with the Radio Regulations, 1986 concerning the filing of annual returns for the 2005-2006 to 2009-2010 broadcast years.
The Commission has received a complaint regarding the programming of CKIC-FM as well as complaints concerning the licensee’s governance and management structure. Information related to these matters may be found in hard copy in the public examination file of this licensee, including copies of complaints and related correspondence.
The Commission notes that additional documents may be added to the public file subsequent to the issuance of this notice. Interested parties are accordingly advised to consult the public file for this item on an ongoing basis.
Licensee’s address:
W106-160 Princess Street Winnipeg, Manitoba Fax: 204-949-0057 E-mail: rick@kick.fm Website to view application: http://kick.fm
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Part of this process allows for members of the public to file interventions for or against the applicant. This is where things started to go off the rails for good. A few people filed interventions against KICK fm recommending that the license not be renewed. It seems that on top of their other self inflicted wounds KICK fm management had made some seriously determined enemies. A bit of back story here;
Some time in 2010 KICK fm canceled a talk radio show hosted by one Marty Gold. I don't know all the ins and outs of Gold's dismissal but from what I have managed to piece together Gold seems to have gotten himself into the kind of situation similar to that of Eddy B, host of a blues show at CIUT in the 1990's, who managed to offended some powerful and thin-skinned people (in Eddy's case the Toronto Blues Society) who then put pressure on the radio station to cancel the show, including bullshit threats of lawsuits. The station caved in and canceled the show. Eddy sued and forced a settlement. But not before using subpena power to get some seriously embarrassing dirt on the hi-jinks of station management. Gold did not sue, but he did get enough dirt (by using Access to Information) to show that KICK fm's management were being dishonest on a number of subjects as well as having a Board structure that the CRTC would have never allowed under the post 2010 guidelines. He exposed this on a podcast and blog he now runs. Once the CRTC process opened up to allow for members of the public to make hostile interventions to their license application, a few did. KICK fm's management seems to have gotten into a panic about having to respond to this.
In addition KICK fm had already managed to get itself into plenty of trouble without any help from Gold. As the CRTC notice states;
“It appears that the licensee may have failed to comply with the Radio Regulations, 1986 concerning the filing of annual returns for the 2005-2006 to 2009-2010 broadcast years. The Commission has received a complaint regarding the programming of CKIC-FM as well as complaints concerning the licensee’s governance and management structure.”
The programming complaint referred to probably has something to do with an apology for inappropriate content that was posted on the KICK fm website some time last Dec.
When the deadline for public interventions to the CRTC on July 3 some hostile interventions had been filed. It can not be a coincidence that KICK then announced their total and abject surrender. It is hard to reach any other conclusion other that rather than respond to these complaints and answer some tough questions KICK fm immediately ran up the white flag and ran for cover. Having some idea of the grillings handed out by the CRTC to CKLN (in 2010), CHSC (also 2010) and CJWV (in 2008), and the subsequent loss of all three licenses, KICK fm and Red River College (who own it) decided to avoid the humiliation and scurry away with their tails between their legs.
This is especially pathetic since in my opinion if KICK fm had gotten their house in order, which they had plenty of time to do, they would have gotten their renewal.
The complaints made concerning the cancellation of Marty Gold's show, even if completely true, which they may well be for all I know, would not have warranted a single question from the CRTC. The Commission does not concern itself with matters of show programming or hiring. Stations can cancel any show they want for any reason, it doesn't matter if the reason's given are dishonest or if the dismissed programmer was treated unfairly. That kind of micromanagement is not the CRTC's job, nor do they wish it to be, they have much better things to do. If Gold (who claims to have had a contract and who made money from ad revenue, which he obviously lost) wanted to take KICK fm to court that would be within his rights as a matter of contact law, but the CRTC would not have gotten involved at all. People have made complaints in the past at CKLN, CIUT and CHRY when their favorite show has been canceled, the CRTC always dismisses such complaints as simply not within their purview. At the hearings, assuming they had gone ahead, the Commissioners would have certainly listened to the public complaints politely enough, but the expected grilling of KICK fm execs that Gold was hoping for over this would not have happened.
The complaint about offensive content would have to been dealt with however. The CRTC does take such public content complaints seriously and questions would have been asked. However they could have been answered easily enough. As long as the station has a training and review program in place and can show that they answer all public complaints in a timely and appropriate matter the CRTC would be satisfied. This is assuming that there was not an excessive number of complaints, and the CRTC notice mentions only one. By contrast CKLN had "the highest number of complaints in the country" according to a Commission member at the Dec. 2010 hearings. Which CKLN's management claimed were fake. And how did they know this? Because they admitted they had sent in fake complaints themselves in order to force out the previous management. I'm sure the Commissioners were greatly impressed by that argument. Oh; and CKLN management answered one public complaint by sending a vaguely threatening and insulting response to the irate listener. Just to add the cherry to the sundae; at the CRTC hearings CKLN management were arrogant enough to actually argue with the commision about content, claiming that they were "reclaiming" certain offensive words "for the community". The CRTC just loves getting lectured by smug activist types, especially the stupid ones. It's hard to see how anyone at KICK fm could possibly by even half as inept as CKLN's ruling junta. The fact that KICK fm put an appology on their website about the offensive content tends to show they took it seriously and acted promptly. The station would also have to have to show that they have an accurate logger system, which CKLN did not have. The CRTC notice makes no such complaint however so I assume KICK fm had no such problems.
Next we come to the matter of the misfiling or failure to file (the CRTC notice does not specify which) of the Annual Returns to the CRTC. This is actually more serious and KICK fm would definately have gotten some pointed questions and a lecture from the CRTC on this. As it happens the misfiling or late filing of Annual Returns has become a common problem in the last several years, so much so that the CRTC actually sent out a notice last year clarifying the deadlines. The late filing of returns was an issue at the CKLN hearings as well, but CKLN made it worse when the CRTC gave them an extension and they still failed to file in time. Then they sent in the wrong forms. When the CRTC pointed this out CKLN promised to send in the right forms, then didn't. As always CKLN snidely blamed past management for everything, which annoyed the Commison even more. I somehow doubt KICK fm's management could possibly be as moronic as CKLN's but you never know.
So far we've dealt with the easy stuff, somewhat embarrassing no doubt, but easy to fix. That brings us to the larger issue; the governance and ownership of the station itself. Here the critics of KICK fm would have been on much stronger ground. Simply stated Campus Community stations in Canada must be open to and representative of the community. Meaning they must have community members who must be represented on the Board of Directors. The CRTC does not specify an exact quota for this, it merely says that it must be "balanced", which KICK fm's clearly was not. In fact it would appear that KICK fm had no actual community members at all other than a couple of Board appointees, all of whom were also from commercial radio stations, and that would probably not cut it with the CRTC. There's the rub; to keep the license Red River College (KICK fm's owner) would have had to give up total control of the station, and it is obvious they simply did not want to do so. They would also have had to open up their programming as well to other genres of music such as jazz, blues, folk and world beat. That would have taken some time but given these regs came down in 2010 they had plenty of opportunity to do so. They might have had to slightly increase the ammount of spoken word and Cancon as well but I can't be sure of this off-hand since I don't know enough about their schedule. I doubt Cancon would have been an issue for them though.
Assuming KICK fm had made the required changes to their Board and Bylaws and were able to respond to the various complaints I would have expected that they would have gotten their license renewal in the end. Given the various hijinks at KICK fm they probably would not have gotten a full term license and would have instead gotten a short term probationary one for three years. That would have been a bit of an embarrasment but once the three years were up (assuming there were no serious fuck-ups of course) they would have then applied for and gotten a full term renewal. That actually happened to CIUT in the past and we're still here. But that pre-supposes that KICK fm were actually willing to share, and they clearly were not. Nobody should want to see a decent station go dark and it is no doubt a loss to the music community in Winnipeg (fortunately there are two other campus stations in town) but having said that KICK fm are not the victims here. And the CRTC are not the villians. Every other campus station in Canada has been able to find balance between the campus who provide the facilities and much of the funds and the community who provide the audience they are supposed to serve. Right now CKHC, at Humber Collge, are trying to make this transition. If KICK fm were unwilling to even try I have little sympathy. Furthermore I find their shamelessly dishonest attempts to blame the CRTC for their refusal to play by the rules the rest of us have to follow to be disgraceful. As always; Don't believe the hype.
"January 23 Winnipeg radio station CKIC, also known as KICKS FM, posted an announcement on their website and Facebook page stating that they were about to be shut down by the CRTC. (Note the reference to CKLN who you will recall lost their license last year);
First here's the initial Facebook posting;
"Dear friends, today the CRTC informed KICK-FM that, under the new campus radio policy, we will no longer be allowed to train students for a career in radio. As you may know, our raison d'etre is training students from Red River College's Creative Communications program.
So, what does this mean? It is doubtful that RRC will want to continue funding a radio station that does not work within its educational department. Therefore, it seems unlikely at this point in time that KICK-FM will remain on-air.
There is a possibility of moving the educational radio station to an internet-only feed. We will keep you posted.
It must be stressed here how disappointing this news is to us. I'm sure those students who are keen on pursuing a radio career with our assistance, and those in the local music community who we've steadfastly supported for the past 8 years, will share in our disappointment.
Stay tuned.92.9 KICK-FM"
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Then the official posting from the KICKS FM website the next day;
"What’s the deal with KICK?
Hello,
Yesterday we posted a story on our Facebook fan page regarding a directive the station received from the CRTC. Allow me to outline what has transpired.
In 2002, CKIC-FM was awarded a license to operate an Instructional Campus radio station, based at Red River College, whose primary objective was to train Creative Communications students for careers in commercial radio. We signed-on in December, 2003.
In 2010, the CRTC reviewed its Campus Radio Policy and made some substantial changes from the previous policy. Among the changes, the new policy removed the distinction between Instructional Campus stations (like KICK) and Campus stations (like UM-FM and CKUW). All campus-based stations will henceforth fall under one type of license: the Campus/Community license. Existing Instructional Campus stations (like KICK) were encouraged in the policy to continue training students, while at the same time broadening their base of community participation.From the new policy:
29. The Commission notes the specific role that stations currently licensed as campus instructional play in training broadcasters who will work for commercial radio stations. The Commission encourages these stations to pursue this goal within the new campus station framework, or through alternative means of broadcasting.
KICK-FM was happy with the new policy, which would come into effect with the renewal of our original license. We applied for a license renewal with the CRTC in 2011, and systematically promised to uphold the terms of the new policy.
Instead of a renewal, we were given an extension on our original license, while the Commission considered our renewal. We still operate, and will continue to operate under that license, at least until it expires at Midnight, December 31, 2012. No programs or training will be affected during the term of the existing license.
Prior to Christmas, 2011, myself and several members of the CreComm Radio Inc. Board of Directors (owner/operator of the CKIC-FM license) were called into an “off-the-record” meeting with a local CRTC Commissioner, to discuss the ramifications of the new policy on KICK-FM. The Commissioner told us that we were to focus on community involvement rather than student training, despite what the new policy document says, as quoted above. We asked for clarification: How much student training versus community volunteers would we allowed to broadcast under the new policy? The Commissioner agreed to seek clarification on this matter from Ottawa.
On January 23, the Commissioner called me with the answer. She said that Ottawa felt that she had “sugar-coated” her message to us at the meeting, that there is to be “no training of students for a career in commercial radio” and that if we insisted on training students, our “license renewal will be denied”.
When I asked the commissioner why there had been a change from the policy, as quoted above, without any official amendment to said policy, she gave me two reasons:
a) The CRTC has had a lot of issues with Instructional Campus stations recently, including the revocation of licenses of CJWV-FM, Winnipeg (FLAVA 107) and CKLN-FM, based at Ryerson in Toronto. (Both were clearly out-of-compliance with the regulations, and deservedly lost their right to broadcast. )
b) It was “a new Commission” with a new Commissioners, a new Chair, and a new direction.
So, our options seem to be the following:
1) Insist on training students, and have our license renewal denied. End result: go off-the-air.
2) Stop training students, focus on community volunteers, and perhaps lose our funding from the College, as we’d no longer be an educational component of the Creative Communications program. End result: go off-the-air.
3) Transfer the station to the internet, develop new KICK apps to increase ease-of-listening, and focus on training students in broadcasting and new media. End result: valuable training would continue in a positive direction and encompass the new methods of disseminating content in a digital world.
Next week, the BOD of CreComm Radio Inc. will meet to discuss our options, which we will eventually present to Red River College. We will keep you posted on developments.
As always, thank you very much for your continued support of Winnipeg’s Indie Station, 92.9 KICK-FM.
Rick Baverstock
Station Manager
posted : Tuesday, January 24th, 2012"
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You can almost hear the triumphant cries coming out of the rubble strewn bunker at CKLN; "See we told you so! We told you the CRTC had an evil corporate agenda to destroy community radio! We were just the first victims, and you should have stood up for us! Now it's too late! You could be next! First they came for CKLN and you didn't speak out...Then they came for KICKS FM and blah blah blah..."
Indeed judging by the initial media reports and the inevitable "Curse you CRTC!" type postings on Facebook many do seem willing to accept the official story. Some even upped the ante citing an outrageous "CRTC ruling" banning students from the airwaves.
However;
There are problems with the official story. First of all the CRTC has not announced any such ruling, nor are they likely to. Some postings to the facebook page and media stories have even pointed this out. After all the blatant lying and hyperbolic conspiracy theories during the CKLN circus I find it refreshing that some people took the time to actually look things up and do some research before breaking out the placards and bullhorns and charging off to the first protest rally they can find. However if there's another thing I've learned from CKLN's activists (not to mention Rob Ford or Newt Gingrich) is that you can't keep a good liar down. Even if they get caught in the most blatant lies they simply double down and keep going. Helps if you have no shame. Thus; when some good citizens have pointed out the fact there is no CRTC ruling banning students from the airwaves, KICKS Station Manager Rick Baverstock simply "clarified" that the ruling was delivered in a "off the record meeting". So there; prove me wrong. This led to a few more outraged postings about the CRTC's lack of openness. However as we've seen from CKLN and other stations that lost their licenses in the last few years such as CJWV (in Winnipeg) and CHSC (St Catherines), the CRTC does not hold "off the record meetings" with radio stations where they threaten their licenses. The CRTC is a government regulatory body, they do everything in writing which is kept on file for future license renewal hearings which are public. This is exactly what happened with CKLN, CJWV and CHSC. I attended the CKLN hearings in December 2010 (and I also testified) and have read the transcripts and rulings from the CJWV hearings in 2008 and CHSC in 2010. When CKLN tried to claim that they weren't given any warnings prior to the hearings the CRTC was then able to produce them. That's the way a regulator works. You may disagree with them but they are not idiots.
The CRTC did have an extensive review of the entire Campus/Community Radio sector in 2009. As a result the CRTC abolished the designation between "Campus Instructional" and "Campus based Community". A few words of clarification here; Most stations are C/C, however there are a few C/I stations around. C/I stations differ from C/C stations in that C/I stations are designed to train students taking RTA and journalism courses. KICKS FM (which is based in Red River College) is such a station as is CKHC based at Humber College in Etobicoke. By contrast C/C stations are required to have community involvement,a board of directors with "balanced" representation from the community,students and faculty and they must also adhere to far more strict guidelines concerning their on air content. Since the CRTC's ruling CKHC has announced their intention to make the transition from C/I to C/C station, I hope they do, Toronto could use another community station. KICKS FM has clearly decided not to and instead have elected to give up their license and blame the CRTC.
There are other problems with the KICKS FM statement. Note the apocalyptic tone of the three choices KICKS offer for their future .
"a) Defy CRTC and lose license
b) Ban students and lose funding, then lose license anyway
c) Give up license and become an internet radio station."
I find this disingenuous since it denies that there are any more options. But in fact there is an obvious one; KICKS FM could follow the rules the CRTC set down for the entire sector and convert to a Campus Community station like CIUT, CHRY and most other C/C stations. Problem solved. What would this entail?
a) KICKS FM would have to expand their Board of Directors to include community members.
The CRTC policy specifically states that boards must have "balanced" representation from the students, faculty and community. They do not actually define what this means. But this also means they would have to have community members in the first place. Apparently KICKS FM does not have any actual community members other than a few radio industry pros who were appointed to the board. Presumably this is because of existing links between Red River College and the radio industry. Such involvement is certainly allowed by the CRTC, and would probably be defended up to a point as encouraging professionalism, but it is clearly not what they had in mind by "community" members.
b) KICKS FM would have to expand the variety of music and spoken word programming offered on-air.
The CRTC requires all C/C stations to play content that is otherwise not played on commercial radio and from communities otherwise under represented. This does not mean that they can not play rock/pop or urban/hip hop of course, as anyone who listens to any community station will know. However there are also specific quotas to be met for other genres such as jazz, blues, folk, classical or world beat. The rock/pop and urban/hip hop must not be top 40 and must instead focus on non commercial and independent music. There are also quotas for spoken word programs as well.
From what I can tell by sampling the content on KICKS FM (keeping in mind I don't live in Winnipeg) they do not live up to this. KICKS FM's on-air programming is quite different than that of stations such as CIUT or CHRY and is mostly rock/pop. This is implied by their use of commercial sounding "brand name" KICKS FM instead of using their actual call letters of CKIC. While the use of a commercial brand is unusual, programming wise this is common with Campus Instructional stations since they are mostly concerned with providing RTA students with radio training and a spot on their resume. This leads to playing music that is more mainstream rather than more avant garde music that might alienate potential industry patrons. The fact that most programmers are students who are young and have little experience in the music scene rather than scene vets also encourages this trend. The old CRTC regs allowed for this. This does not mean that the programming at KICKS FM is bad, in fact it seams that they have put more effort into their music selection than other instructional stations, playing a fair amount of alternative, independent and local music. In fact they remind me mostly of CFNY back in the 1980's (you know, before they started to suck). As an instructional station KICKS FM has done a good job, better in fact than the bland offerings of Humber College station CKHC, however as a community station KICKS would not come close to qualifying.
Herein lies the problem faced by KICKS FM. To qualify for a license under the new CRTC rules KICKS (and Red River College) would have to do something they clearly do not want to do. Namely give up sole control and share the station. This would take some major adjustments but is certainly doable. Instead they have instead decided to tank the license and walk away while blaming the big bad CRTC.
In the interest of disclosure when this story broke I quickly contacted KICKS FM station manager Rick Baverstock. At the time I was under the impression that KICKS had simply misunderstood the nature of the new CRTC and were thrown into a panic by bad info. Therefore I was sympathetic and wanted to offer a helping hand. So I wrote a nice email politely suggesting they not panic and carefully explaining the steps they would have to follow to be in compliance with CRTC regs. Baverstock did write back promptly with a polite but not very responsive reply saying;
"While I can appreciate the angle that we could teach our students off-air, that totally defeats the purpose of this station from the College's point of view, and they are funding this operation nearly 100%. If we are going to have to use the internet for teaching, why bother paying for the operation of the community signal at all?"
(Note; I among other things I had pointed out that they could still use an internet feed and facilities for training purposes thereby ensuring that students were fully trained BEFORE going on air. That would satisfy the CRTC's need to make sure that on-air personal have been adequately trained while not excluding any student from getting that training and keeping the airwaves free to include the requisite community involvement. I did NOT suggest ghettoizing students by leaving them online only.)
This, along with more info I have since dug up concerning the station's structure and recent history, suggests that they have already made up their minds to walk away from their license. This will enable them to keep total control of the station and exclude the public entirely. They can also save money since they don't have to run a transmitter. Since the CRTC does not regulate internet content they also won't have to comply with any CRTC regs at all for things like Canadian content or musical variety or spoken word content. They will never have to answer any listener complaints either; apparently they have had a few as of late.
That this decision to convert to the internet has already been made is implied by this laughably delusional posting on their Facebook page;
"92.9 KICK-FM 80,000,000 Americans listen online. The future is now."
Ummm...Yeah, right, whatever you say:
This belief in the inevitable triumph of the all powerful internet is common (especially among students) but it is misplaced. That internet and satellite radio and podcasting will be our future overlords has been promised for a several years now but it hasn't really worked that way. Listenership of the vast majority of internet stations has been pathetic.
One reason for this is technical; as long as it is the preferred choice for car and clock radios terrestrial radio will always have a built in advantage. One day this may change somewhat as technology updates but not anytime soon. Another reason is psychological; a terrestrial signal with legitimate call letters simply has a gravitas that an internet station or podcaster does not. The internet is just too sketchy. That won't change. Ever. Another problem with the internet is the sheer volume of content makes it impossible to stand out and attract a following at all. This also won't change. Ever. How does one attract attention when surrounded by literally hundreds or even thousands of other internet stations and podcasters? Especially since KICKS FM is basically just a regular rock/pop station with a mildly alt/indie focus. In fact I believe that having to adhere to various CRTC regs encourages quality control and variety better than the internet does. If you know for example that you will be in trouble if someone fails to show up to do their show, or swears indiscriminately, or plays the same few top 40 hits over and over gain, then you won't do it. But if you know that there are no real consequences to fucking up, or listeners to hear it, than what's to stop you? And who will care?
As stated most students would no doubt buy the "80,000,000 can't be wrong" argument. Besides it will be much easier than doing the extra work and sharing control that converting to a community license would entail. Laziness usually is, but they are deluding themselves if they think they are breaking new ground.
Want a look at the brave new world of internet radio? Check out the "New CKLN.fm". You'll be the only ones who are since a close look at their listener stats shows that they never rise above a half dozen listeners at any given time. And that's at best. Granted KICKS FM is not likely to be a laughably inept as CKLN but it will still be a Potemkin Village version of a radio station.
CKLN also shows that once you give up a license you don't get it back.
A FAIRLY BALANCED (FOR A CHANGE) YOUTUBE REPORT ON KICKS FM;
Then; suddenly as I was writing this article KICKS FM suddenly removed the above postings from their website and Facebook pages and replaced it with this apparent if brief back peddle;
"KICK License Update
The Board of Directors of CreComm Radio Inc., owner/operator of CKIC-FM, met on Tuesday, January 31. The Board has determined that the station will
continue to operate as usual under our current license. The Board is waiting for some further clarifications from the CRTC regarding the new Campus Radio Policy and in the meantime are amending the station’s renewal application to better suit the new policy."
So now apparently they changed their mind about the joys of internet radio and decided to try and hold on, and now they need "clarification" about the CRTC regs? So everyone can put away their torches and pitchforks cuz everything is cool. Or not. Who knows what is going on at this point. I'll keep checking into this."
So that's where things stood as of January. With KICK fm planning on applying for their license renewal. I assumed that they would make the fairly straight forward changes to their ownership and governance structure along with some moves to broaden their programming. Having done so license renewals are almost always granted. But then last week this notice showed up on the KICK fm website;
"92.9 KICK FM went on-air almost 10 years ago with a mandate to provide a radio broadcast training forum for students that resembled, as near as possible, the operation of a commercial radio station. Red River College provided the transmitter and facilities as well as start-up funding, with the goal that the radio station become self sustaining over a period of time. Despite never being able to achieve this, the College continued to fund the station.
92.9 KICK FM will return its current broadcast license to the CRTC.
Radio training at Red River College will continue uninterrupted, and the plan is for KICK FM to resume streaming in the fall.
92.9 KICK FM will discontinue over-the-air broadcasting July 4 at 4 p.m."
A similar posting appeared on this Facebook page. The rushed nature of KICK fm's shutdown was underlined by the next Facebook posting;
"Seemingly unwilling to let 92.9 KICK-FM die with dignity, officials at our transmitter site pulled the plug halfway through the farewell montage. We will post the full audio shortly."
(Link to the audio post);
http://soundcloud.com/rick-baverstock/92-9-kick-fm-sign-off?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=blogger&utm_content=http://soundcloud.com/rick-baverstock/92-9-kick-fm-sign-off
A few articles in the Winnipeg media quickly popped up the most detailed of which is below;
"Canadian Campus Community Station Kick FM to Return License to CRTC Posted on July 4, 2012 by Jennifer Waits
KICK FM to Turn Back License to CRTC
Canadian campus-community radio station CKIC-FM, known as 92.9 Kick FM, will cease its terrestrial broadcasts at 4pm today and plans to return its license to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
The license is set to expire on August 31, 2012. Kick FM is operated by the non-profit Cre-Comm Radio Inc. and broadcasts out of studios at Red River College in Winnipeg. In January, the station issued statements explaining that the future of the station was uncertain.
A statement posted by Cre-Comm’s Board of Directors yesterday states,
“92.9 KICK FM went on-air almost 10 years ago with a mandate to provide a radio broadcast training forum for students that resembled, as near as possible, the operation of a commercial radio station. Red River College provided the transmitter and facilities as well as start-up funding, with the goal that the radio station become self sustaining over a period of time. Despite never being able to achieve this, the College continued to fund the station.
As a result of recent changes to CRTC regulations regarding campus and community radio stations, and financial challenges, the Board of Cre-Comm Radio Inc. has decided to discontinue over the air broadcasting effective Wednesday, July 4, 2012 at 4:00pm, and will be returning the current broadcast license to the CRTC.
Radio training at Red River College will continue uninterrupted, and the plan is for KICK FM to resume streaming in the fall.”
A Winnipeg Free Press article today includes commentary from a Red River College instructor who mentioned the challenges of not only streaming, but also of running a hybrid campus-community radio station,
“Students may get some good training through streaming and that’s fine, but it’s not the same as being on the air and having the community listening in…The station was a funny deal from the very beginning. No one was really clear if it was training students or open to the community or neither. And then it kind of got hijacked by a lot of non-students. So this is not a surprise.”
According to a May 28, 2012 Broadcasting Notice of Consultation, Cre-Comm had applied for license renewal, proposing to operate CKIC as a campus station. The notice states:
“The licensee proposes to operate the undertaking under the conditions of license applicable to campus radio stations set out in Standard conditions of license for campus and community radio stations, Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2012-304, 22 May 2012 and will adhere to the following condition of license: The licensee shall devote no more than 25% of its total weekly programming to student-produced programming to fulfill course requirements.”
The Notice also points out some problems with CKIC’s application and states:
“It appears that the licensee may have failed to comply with the Radio Regulations, 1986 concerning the filing of annual returns for the 2005-2006 to 2009-2010 broadcast years. The Commission has received a complaint regarding the programming of CKIC-FM as well as complaints concerning the licensee’s governance and management structure.”
According to the article in the Winnipeg Free Press, Cre-Comm pulled out of the application process:
“David Wiebe, chairman of Cre-Comm Radio, said it initially applied for a campus and community radio license, but later withdrew the application. He said a lack of funding from the college and the wish to focus on training students, not community members, were reasons for the decision.”
It’s unclear what this decision means for the students in the Creative Communications program at Red River College, although Kick FM’s statement indicates that radio training will continue."
There is also a previous article from a student newspaper which reports the official KICK fm line with some skepticism and which is vastly superior to the lazy and one-sided reporting done by much of the Ryerson media during the two year battle over CKLN from 2008 to 2010, probably due to the heavy-handed influence of the Ryerson Student Union which was deeply involved in the take over and shut down of CKLN.
The article is in PDF form here;
http://theprojector.ca/pdf/Issue11web.pdf
(note the reference to CKLN and how it deserved to die)
So what happened between January when KICK fm was preparing to conform with the CRTC regs and reapply for their license and July 3 when they suddenly threw in the towel and walked away? What changed?
In fact KICK fm had indeed filed their application and the process had started. The CRTC notice is here;
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ottawa, 28 May 2012 Notice of application received
Winnipeg, Manitoba Deadline for submission of interventions/comments/answers: 3 July 2012
The Commission has received the following application: Applicant/Licensee and Locality
1. CreComm Radio Inc. Winnipeg, Manitoba Application 2011-0319-2
Application by CreComm Radio Inc. to renew the broadcasting licence of the campus instructional radio programming undertaking CKIC-FM Winnipeg, expiring 31 August 2012. In light of the elimination of the campus instructional category in Campus and community radio policy, Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2010-499, 22 July 2010, the licensee proposes to operate the undertaking as campus station.
The licensee proposes to operate the undertaking under the conditions of licence applicable to campus radio stations set out in Standard conditions of licence for campus and community radio stations, Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2012-304, 22 May 2012 and will adhere to the following condition of licence:
The licensee shall devote no more than 25% of its total weekly programming to student-produced programming to fulfil course requirements.
It appears that the licensee may have failed to comply with the Radio Regulations, 1986 concerning the filing of annual returns for the 2005-2006 to 2009-2010 broadcast years.
The Commission has received a complaint regarding the programming of CKIC-FM as well as complaints concerning the licensee’s governance and management structure. Information related to these matters may be found in hard copy in the public examination file of this licensee, including copies of complaints and related correspondence.
The Commission notes that additional documents may be added to the public file subsequent to the issuance of this notice. Interested parties are accordingly advised to consult the public file for this item on an ongoing basis.
Licensee’s address:
W106-160 Princess Street Winnipeg, Manitoba Fax: 204-949-0057 E-mail: rick@kick.fm Website to view application: http://kick.fm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part of this process allows for members of the public to file interventions for or against the applicant. This is where things started to go off the rails for good. A few people filed interventions against KICK fm recommending that the license not be renewed. It seems that on top of their other self inflicted wounds KICK fm management had made some seriously determined enemies. A bit of back story here;
Some time in 2010 KICK fm canceled a talk radio show hosted by one Marty Gold. I don't know all the ins and outs of Gold's dismissal but from what I have managed to piece together Gold seems to have gotten himself into the kind of situation similar to that of Eddy B, host of a blues show at CIUT in the 1990's, who managed to offended some powerful and thin-skinned people (in Eddy's case the Toronto Blues Society) who then put pressure on the radio station to cancel the show, including bullshit threats of lawsuits. The station caved in and canceled the show. Eddy sued and forced a settlement. But not before using subpena power to get some seriously embarrassing dirt on the hi-jinks of station management. Gold did not sue, but he did get enough dirt (by using Access to Information) to show that KICK fm's management were being dishonest on a number of subjects as well as having a Board structure that the CRTC would have never allowed under the post 2010 guidelines. He exposed this on a podcast and blog he now runs. Once the CRTC process opened up to allow for members of the public to make hostile interventions to their license application, a few did. KICK fm's management seems to have gotten into a panic about having to respond to this.
In addition KICK fm had already managed to get itself into plenty of trouble without any help from Gold. As the CRTC notice states;
“It appears that the licensee may have failed to comply with the Radio Regulations, 1986 concerning the filing of annual returns for the 2005-2006 to 2009-2010 broadcast years. The Commission has received a complaint regarding the programming of CKIC-FM as well as complaints concerning the licensee’s governance and management structure.”
The programming complaint referred to probably has something to do with an apology for inappropriate content that was posted on the KICK fm website some time last Dec.
When the deadline for public interventions to the CRTC on July 3 some hostile interventions had been filed. It can not be a coincidence that KICK then announced their total and abject surrender. It is hard to reach any other conclusion other that rather than respond to these complaints and answer some tough questions KICK fm immediately ran up the white flag and ran for cover. Having some idea of the grillings handed out by the CRTC to CKLN (in 2010), CHSC (also 2010) and CJWV (in 2008), and the subsequent loss of all three licenses, KICK fm and Red River College (who own it) decided to avoid the humiliation and scurry away with their tails between their legs.
This is especially pathetic since in my opinion if KICK fm had gotten their house in order, which they had plenty of time to do, they would have gotten their renewal.
The complaints made concerning the cancellation of Marty Gold's show, even if completely true, which they may well be for all I know, would not have warranted a single question from the CRTC. The Commission does not concern itself with matters of show programming or hiring. Stations can cancel any show they want for any reason, it doesn't matter if the reason's given are dishonest or if the dismissed programmer was treated unfairly. That kind of micromanagement is not the CRTC's job, nor do they wish it to be, they have much better things to do. If Gold (who claims to have had a contract and who made money from ad revenue, which he obviously lost) wanted to take KICK fm to court that would be within his rights as a matter of contact law, but the CRTC would not have gotten involved at all. People have made complaints in the past at CKLN, CIUT and CHRY when their favorite show has been canceled, the CRTC always dismisses such complaints as simply not within their purview. At the hearings, assuming they had gone ahead, the Commissioners would have certainly listened to the public complaints politely enough, but the expected grilling of KICK fm execs that Gold was hoping for over this would not have happened.
The complaint about offensive content would have to been dealt with however. The CRTC does take such public content complaints seriously and questions would have been asked. However they could have been answered easily enough. As long as the station has a training and review program in place and can show that they answer all public complaints in a timely and appropriate matter the CRTC would be satisfied. This is assuming that there was not an excessive number of complaints, and the CRTC notice mentions only one. By contrast CKLN had "the highest number of complaints in the country" according to a Commission member at the Dec. 2010 hearings. Which CKLN's management claimed were fake. And how did they know this? Because they admitted they had sent in fake complaints themselves in order to force out the previous management. I'm sure the Commissioners were greatly impressed by that argument. Oh; and CKLN management answered one public complaint by sending a vaguely threatening and insulting response to the irate listener. Just to add the cherry to the sundae; at the CRTC hearings CKLN management were arrogant enough to actually argue with the commision about content, claiming that they were "reclaiming" certain offensive words "for the community". The CRTC just loves getting lectured by smug activist types, especially the stupid ones. It's hard to see how anyone at KICK fm could possibly by even half as inept as CKLN's ruling junta. The fact that KICK fm put an appology on their website about the offensive content tends to show they took it seriously and acted promptly. The station would also have to have to show that they have an accurate logger system, which CKLN did not have. The CRTC notice makes no such complaint however so I assume KICK fm had no such problems.
Next we come to the matter of the misfiling or failure to file (the CRTC notice does not specify which) of the Annual Returns to the CRTC. This is actually more serious and KICK fm would definately have gotten some pointed questions and a lecture from the CRTC on this. As it happens the misfiling or late filing of Annual Returns has become a common problem in the last several years, so much so that the CRTC actually sent out a notice last year clarifying the deadlines. The late filing of returns was an issue at the CKLN hearings as well, but CKLN made it worse when the CRTC gave them an extension and they still failed to file in time. Then they sent in the wrong forms. When the CRTC pointed this out CKLN promised to send in the right forms, then didn't. As always CKLN snidely blamed past management for everything, which annoyed the Commison even more. I somehow doubt KICK fm's management could possibly be as moronic as CKLN's but you never know.
So far we've dealt with the easy stuff, somewhat embarrassing no doubt, but easy to fix. That brings us to the larger issue; the governance and ownership of the station itself. Here the critics of KICK fm would have been on much stronger ground. Simply stated Campus Community stations in Canada must be open to and representative of the community. Meaning they must have community members who must be represented on the Board of Directors. The CRTC does not specify an exact quota for this, it merely says that it must be "balanced", which KICK fm's clearly was not. In fact it would appear that KICK fm had no actual community members at all other than a couple of Board appointees, all of whom were also from commercial radio stations, and that would probably not cut it with the CRTC. There's the rub; to keep the license Red River College (KICK fm's owner) would have had to give up total control of the station, and it is obvious they simply did not want to do so. They would also have had to open up their programming as well to other genres of music such as jazz, blues, folk and world beat. That would have taken some time but given these regs came down in 2010 they had plenty of opportunity to do so. They might have had to slightly increase the ammount of spoken word and Cancon as well but I can't be sure of this off-hand since I don't know enough about their schedule. I doubt Cancon would have been an issue for them though.
Assuming KICK fm had made the required changes to their Board and Bylaws and were able to respond to the various complaints I would have expected that they would have gotten their license renewal in the end. Given the various hijinks at KICK fm they probably would not have gotten a full term license and would have instead gotten a short term probationary one for three years. That would have been a bit of an embarrasment but once the three years were up (assuming there were no serious fuck-ups of course) they would have then applied for and gotten a full term renewal. That actually happened to CIUT in the past and we're still here. But that pre-supposes that KICK fm were actually willing to share, and they clearly were not. Nobody should want to see a decent station go dark and it is no doubt a loss to the music community in Winnipeg (fortunately there are two other campus stations in town) but having said that KICK fm are not the victims here. And the CRTC are not the villians. Every other campus station in Canada has been able to find balance between the campus who provide the facilities and much of the funds and the community who provide the audience they are supposed to serve. Right now CKHC, at Humber Collge, are trying to make this transition. If KICK fm were unwilling to even try I have little sympathy. Furthermore I find their shamelessly dishonest attempts to blame the CRTC for their refusal to play by the rules the rest of us have to follow to be disgraceful. As always; Don't believe the hype.
Saturday, 23 June 2012
NXNE 2012
Thursday June 14
NXNE now starts with some films on Monday, but you can't really pick up your press pass until Wednesday so I missed a few worthy films. I did pick up my pass on Wednesday but didn't get around to seeing anything that night. So we start off with;
Bad Religion (Dundas Square);
Bad Religion is one of those classic punk bands the appeal of which has always escaped me. Don't get me wrong, I think they are a good band and all, tight and consistent, and I respect their integrity in founding a label (Epitaph) which played a pivotal role in bringing punk to the masses without selling out. But I have always found them basically faceless. Perhaps this is not entirely their fault, we can hardly blame them for the fact that so many other punk bands lifted their sound. But at the same time they never came up with a real distinctive sound like their contemporaries The Offspring, or an ability to develop and grow creatively like Green Day. Their refusal to do interviews doesn't help either. At any rate I was happy to head down to see them at Dundas Square. Until I got there. The Dundas Square shows were always an uncomfortable experience, having to stand for hours on a crowded concrete square hoping to get a brief glimpse at the band on stage while being constantly jostled and sweated on is no longer my idea of fun. NXNE has blithely made this even more of a trial by expanding the drinking tent and worse by cramming the square with merch tables like it's a flea market in Istanbul without the charm (or food). And by merch I don't mean band merch like t-shirts, CD's and posters. That wouldn't take up much space at all. No we are talking about giant booths for the likes of Sprint or Verizon, which nobody there would have the slightest interest in and who do not exactly suffer from lack of exposure. I mean seriously, is anybody really going to take time out from a concert to compare cell phone plans? Is a potential customer off the street going to push his way through the crowd to do so? The booths have also gotten larger this year, with metal superstructures and roofs just to make sure that they block everybody's view. I ask you is it asking too much not to have corporate ads everywhere? Just to make doubly sure they annoy the largest number of people they also chose to place the booths not only along the sides of the stage but ringing around the front as well, thus not only blocking the view of anyone behind them but also hemming in those in front. If there had been some sort of stampede for any reason people could have been killed in the crush of such an enclosed space. Oh well I guess it's a small price to pay in the name of youth oriented product placement. It's soooo punk rawk mannn! All this made it seem more crowded than Iggy Pop two years ago even though there were less people. Not that I'm blaming the band for this of course. They sounded fine, played a long set and I even caught a brief glimpse of them once or twice. Just a glimpse mind you, enough to make sure there was actually a band on stage rather than just a backing tape.
BAD RELIGION ~ "AMERICAN JESUS";
Glory Hound (The Bovine);
After leaving Dundas Square I made a beeline to the Bovine too catch the Nils but I actually got there early enough for the openers. Gloryhound are from Nova Scotia I think and are a fairly bombastic hard rock band who are tight enough but nothing special.
The Nils (The Bovine);
Of all the stories of Canadian bands that should'a made it but didn't The Nils were the most cursed. A Montreal punk band from the late eighties formed by two brothers Carlos and Alex Soria that I grew up on. Their first two indie eps are still among the very best Canadian punk of the era, or any other. At the time they were bandied about as Canada's answer to the Replacements. Unfortunately their only major label album was a disappointment and they soon broke up. A couple years back Alex killed himself while in the midst of a comeback attempt. Eventually Carlos decided to struggle on with some sort of lineup and recorded a new album. They only played a few of their early songs here which I can sort of understand but found disappointing, especially the hurried way they whipped through them. Their newer songs are OK, their cover of Neil Young's "Everybody knows this is nowhere" was pretty cool though.
THE NILS ~ "FREEDOM";
Revolvers (The El Mocambo);
I was getting pretty tired so after taking a much needed munchie break I wandered down to the El Mo. The Revolvers are a local noisy garage band, or a garagey noise band, whichever. I don't actually recall their songs but they were pretty good at the time.
Bleached (The Silver Dollar Room);
Note to the Black Belles and the Dum Dum Girls (see below); garage punk should have more than one tempo, preferably fairly fast. Another all-girl garage buzz band this year. Bleached pay less attention to looking cool and more to being a good old fashioned rock and roll party. The fact that the band is led by two sisters, Jessica and Jennifer Clavin, from a previous band, Mika Miko, certainly helps. They have the experience and confidence not to worry about their chic outfits and just rock out. They also have better songs (and more of them) and they play better as well. They are also more comfortable and fun on stage. Turns out a little experience really does matter.
BLEACHED ~ "THINK OF YOU";
Friday June 15 2012;
FILMS;
Ja Javla Metal; The story of Swedish Heavy Metal;
The title says it all really; all things metal from Sweden from Yngvwie Malmsteen (sorry that should read Y,,,,,, J Malmsteen, wouldn't want to get him confused with all the other Yngvwie Malmsteens out there) and Europe to Bathory and Candlemass to Entombed and In Flames. With the focus on the 1980's and early 1990's and done in a methodical just-the-facts style that offers no flash but probably appeals to the metal fan's latent desire to be taken seriously. And now I know more than I ever thought I needed to about Swedish Metal.
CANDLEMASS ~ "BEWITCHED";
My father and the Man in Black;
Did you know that for from the 1960's to the 1980's Johnny Cash's manager was a Jewish guy from London, Ontario? Me neither. Sol Holiff was his name and he was almost a stereotype of the sort of Jewish businessmen (often with little or no entertainment experience) who became managers, record label owners, film moguls and comic book publishers in the early to mid twentieth century. He was a serious, sober, hard working, suit wearing, humorless, hard nose who devoted himself to client 24/7 and treated his family like despised employees. He felt bad about though and after he killed himself a few years ago he left behind a whole store room of documents, photos and tapes that his alienated son use to base this movie on. It provides a more nuanced story of the enigmatic figure of cash than "Walk the line" while also giving us a deeply personal family as well. It's self indulgent of course but given the subject matter it gets away with it.
JOHNNY CASH ~ "HURT";
Music;
The Coppertone (The Horseshoe);
Fronted by Toronto based Amanda Zelina's big voice and 1970's stadium guitars Coppertone conjure up obvious comparisons like Heart, Suzi Quartro, The Headpins and Toronto (the 80's band that is). There are certainly plenty of worse role models lord knows.
The Black Belles (The Horseshoe);
The latest buzzband are an all girl garage four piece from Nashville via Jack White who dress up like Go-Go Morticia Adams with matching long black hair and top hats and black lipstick and eye liner. They look great of course and I can certainly see the appeal of four cool goth garage chicks. Just like the Dum Dum Girls last year. Unfortunately I found their one tempo, three chord drone a little dull after a while. They are going to have to change it up a bit. Just like the Dum Dum Girls. Bonus points for their trudge through a version of the classic Nickerbockers' 60's nugget "Lies" which may not be nearly as good as the original of course but was still kinda cool.
THE BLACK BELLES ~ "LIES";
Andre Williams & The Sadies (The Horseshoe);
As one of the last men standing of the classic R&B era we should be amazed to have Andre still alive let alone fully active. Not only performing but recording new material as well. Considering the dissolute life of drugs he led for the last fifty years he is lucky to be alive at all, let alone capable of doing a show in the summer heat. He knows it to, delivering a nice little speech of thanks to those (like the Sadies and Toronto audiences in general) who kept the faith while he got into rehab. By all accounts he has been fully on the wagon now for a couple of years and he does look healthier and more alert than in years past. The set was not very long but he kept out a good energy level. Of course having a quick mid-set pimp gear costume change probably helps but if anyone can pull off that sort of vanity move it's Andre. As per usual the Sadies provide their usual empathetic backing making the whole "Andre Williams sings cow-punk" concept seem natural. To be honest Andre's voice is pretty much shot by now but he was always more of a presence and a composer/arranger than a pure singer anyway. At any rate as one of the last guys of his era still around and capable of still doing adventurous work that appeals to those younger and hipper than your average oldies crowd Andre owes it to us to keep on truckin'.
ANDRE WILLIAMS ~ "SWEET LITTLE PUSSYCAT";
The Reigning Sound (The Horseshoe);
Led by former frontman for North Carolina's garage vets The Oblivians (and briefly Toronto's Deadly Snakes) Greg Cartwright, gave a short class in neo-garage. Short punchy three chord songs? Check. Catchy choruses? Check. Hummable solos? Check. Farfisa borrowed from Dell Shannon? Ditto. A modicum of variety so that all the songs don't sound exactly the same? Got it. Granted they look a little paunchy but I do hope the Black Belles were taking notes.
THE REIGNING SOUND ~ "Can't hold on";
Saturday June 16 2012;
Films;
Jobriath A.D. (NFB);
This is a requiem for a lightweight. In the early 1970's Jobriath was New York's answer to David Bowie. His complete and utter failure was proof that most Americans had never asked the question after all. Everything that Bowie did Jobriath went even further. Bowie wore make up and dresses? Then Jobriath would wear tights and jester makeup. Bowie sang about space and declared he was from Mars? Jobriath wrote space operas and claimed he was from Heaven. Bowie dabbled in the theater? Jobriath would use ballet and performance art of the most ridiculously overblown type. Bowie would rely on wildly bombastic hype? Jobriath would have billboards you could practically see from Mars. Bowie had an egomaniacal manager with delusions of grandeur? Jobriath could find an even shadier megalomaniac manager. Bowie claimed he was bisexual? Jobriath shouted he was rock and roll's first "true fairy". It was all too much, especially for America circa 1973. He put out two big budget albums on Elektra and even with massive publicity and a television appearance they both sank without a trace. And that was that. He was washed up in his early twenties. He would end up years later playing Cole Porter tunes in a piano bar. When he died of AIDS in 1983 it went unnoticed. Even the gay community didn't care, they had disco by then. Of course like all artists who fail completely he has gained a small cult following with the likes of Morrissey, Klaus Nomi and Jayne County. And he was certainly not without talent. A classically trained pianist and composer/arranger he had total creative control of everything and manged to get the likes of Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones, Disco diva Gloria Jones and Richard Gere into the studio. The results are thoroughly competent pomp rock not wildly dissimilar to some of the contemporary work of Bowie or Queen. With the notable absence of a catchy single for radio. He also had never been in a band before, or played a single gig. His only prior experience was a stint on a production of Hair and a few promising demos. Since he had built no audience of his own his management decided to blast their way on to the charts in one rush with the most expensive and overblown ad blitz ever seen for an unknown act. Of course it went down like a lead balloon with rock jocks and critics who had much more power in those days and who deeply resented this preening poseur who had paid no dues. Naturally once it was clear that there was no likely hit single they attacked like hyenas on a wounded gazelle. As might have been expected the record company was not exactly pleased with the amount of money spent on the fiasco either and after it met an even more obscure death they dumped him. In explaining his short whirlwind career the film explains the fiasco by pointing out the delusional publicity and the homophobia of middle America but gives the impression that he could have otherwise made it or that he was just ahead of his time. When he finally went out on his one and only tour he finally figured out how to perform and win over an audience. If only Elektra had given the second album more support. If only radio and the media had given him a second chance. He could'a been a contender. I disagree; I say the whole project was wrongheaded from the start. The film is as blissfully unaware of the changing currents in rock and roll in the mid seventies as Jobriath himself was. At the same time he was sitting in New York working out plans for a massive rock opera and attending chi-chi parties with Warhol there indeed was a scene happening in New York that would change rock forever. But it was happening over at the Bowery and it is impossible to picture him at grungy CBGB's. The bloated pomp rock of Jobriath was a painfully out of touch with punk as Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Yes, Uriah Heep or the Moody Blues. Without his having the fallback of having had previous hits and a legion of fans to rely on. Even Bowie and Queen spotted that trend and retooled their look and sound. What was Jobriath going to do? It's true that in just a few years there would be an actual underground with a network of clubs, indie labels, zines and campus radio that would have been more open. But he doubtless would have little desire to be part of such a low rent scene. For Jobriath it was the big time or nothing. He got nothing. And he was unable to figure out a way back. The movie is a thorough and interesting story of a puzzling figure from an different era. I did not leave it becoming a fan but I did feel sympathy for his hopeless crusade to take rock in exactly the wrong direction at the wrong time. Lord knows we've had worse, even in the 1970's. He could have at least lived long enough to appear in "Velvet Goldmine".
JOBRIATH ~ "I'MAMAN";
Slaughter Nick for president (NFB);
Remember a cheesy TV crime show from the 1980's called "Sweating Bullets"? Featuring a private eye named Nick Slaughter and set somewhere in the tropics and basically combined the drama of "Miami Vice" with the suspense of "Bay Watch". I vaguely recall seeing it one or twice, probably in reruns. At any rate it turns out that it's combo of endless summer and bloodless violence made it a huge escapist hit in Serbia at the very time that people were taking it to the streets to bring down the Slobodan Milosevic regime. So much so that Nick Slaughter became a symbol of freedom for millions of Serbs. All this somehow happened with the real Nick Slaughter, Canadian actor Rob Stewart being completely unaware until a Serbian punk band who wrote a song about invited him to Serbia. This film is about that trip. It's a tribute of sorts to the power of pop culture, no matter how trivial.
Marianas Trench (Much Music stage);
On my way to get some food I passed by the Much Music stage where Marianas Trench were rehearsing for their MMVA awards appearance. They weren't wearing their full on stage clothes and makeup so they looked slightly less emo. They also had some black female backup singers which is something all pasty white bands like to do to show they're aware of their "roots". You know, like Motown and stuff. This is assuming Motown had pasty white emo kids with silly hairdos doing souless kiddie stadium rock. Mind you given that those twits from LMFAO are actually Barry Gordy's offspring I wouldn't put it past them.
Shellshag (The El Mocambo);
A loud guitar/drums two piece from New York. Two piecers are an inherently limited genre and Shellshag do not transcend those limits, but they don't embarrass them either.
Limblifter (El Mocambo);
Limblifter were a moderately popular Vancouver band from the mid-nineties era of post grunge indie guitar bands. Apparently the mid nineties are now officially retro enough to justify a reunion. I have only a vague memory of them from back then but they were pretty good here straight forward and unpretentious. Although as is usual with this type of band I can't actually remember any of the songs. The fairly large crowd, who seemed to know all the songs were pleased though.
LIMBLIFTER ~ "VICIOUS";
Meanwood (Rancho Relaxo);
I haven't heard of these guys before even though they're local. They are a pretty cool cow punk with a female singer who can shout with the best of them and the occasional banjo when they want to open up a big can of white trash. They must gave been pretty good to convince me to stay in the always sweltering Rancho. Worth further investigating.
Les Breastfeeders (El Mocambo);
I was pretty worn out by this point and ready to call it a week but not before seeing Montreal's best Ye-Ye garage band. They've been mining this vein for a while now but they always make it seem like it's the newest thing. And they are Ye-Ye enough to always bring their A game no matter how late or small the crowd. There was no too-cool-to-sweat posing for them. Les Breastfeeders were so lively (not to mention well dressed) that I almost forgot it was 2am. Then I went home to sleep.
LES BREASTFEEDERS ~ "400 MILES";
No I did not go to see The Flaming Lips on Saturday. I thought about it, but after coming out of the two movies I saw it was about 9pm and I absolutely had to get something to eat, and a bathroom, definitely a bathroom, or else. By the time I finished a much needed if meager meal it was around 10pm. I still could have made my way down to Dundas Square but after the thoroughly annoying experience of Bad Religion the first day (ie crowing and sightlines blocked by corporate ad booths) I basically said screw it since I knew the crowd would be even bigger for the Lips on a Saturday.
NXNE now starts with some films on Monday, but you can't really pick up your press pass until Wednesday so I missed a few worthy films. I did pick up my pass on Wednesday but didn't get around to seeing anything that night. So we start off with;
Bad Religion (Dundas Square);
Bad Religion is one of those classic punk bands the appeal of which has always escaped me. Don't get me wrong, I think they are a good band and all, tight and consistent, and I respect their integrity in founding a label (Epitaph) which played a pivotal role in bringing punk to the masses without selling out. But I have always found them basically faceless. Perhaps this is not entirely their fault, we can hardly blame them for the fact that so many other punk bands lifted their sound. But at the same time they never came up with a real distinctive sound like their contemporaries The Offspring, or an ability to develop and grow creatively like Green Day. Their refusal to do interviews doesn't help either. At any rate I was happy to head down to see them at Dundas Square. Until I got there. The Dundas Square shows were always an uncomfortable experience, having to stand for hours on a crowded concrete square hoping to get a brief glimpse at the band on stage while being constantly jostled and sweated on is no longer my idea of fun. NXNE has blithely made this even more of a trial by expanding the drinking tent and worse by cramming the square with merch tables like it's a flea market in Istanbul without the charm (or food). And by merch I don't mean band merch like t-shirts, CD's and posters. That wouldn't take up much space at all. No we are talking about giant booths for the likes of Sprint or Verizon, which nobody there would have the slightest interest in and who do not exactly suffer from lack of exposure. I mean seriously, is anybody really going to take time out from a concert to compare cell phone plans? Is a potential customer off the street going to push his way through the crowd to do so? The booths have also gotten larger this year, with metal superstructures and roofs just to make sure that they block everybody's view. I ask you is it asking too much not to have corporate ads everywhere? Just to make doubly sure they annoy the largest number of people they also chose to place the booths not only along the sides of the stage but ringing around the front as well, thus not only blocking the view of anyone behind them but also hemming in those in front. If there had been some sort of stampede for any reason people could have been killed in the crush of such an enclosed space. Oh well I guess it's a small price to pay in the name of youth oriented product placement. It's soooo punk rawk mannn! All this made it seem more crowded than Iggy Pop two years ago even though there were less people. Not that I'm blaming the band for this of course. They sounded fine, played a long set and I even caught a brief glimpse of them once or twice. Just a glimpse mind you, enough to make sure there was actually a band on stage rather than just a backing tape.
BAD RELIGION ~ "AMERICAN JESUS";
Glory Hound (The Bovine);
After leaving Dundas Square I made a beeline to the Bovine too catch the Nils but I actually got there early enough for the openers. Gloryhound are from Nova Scotia I think and are a fairly bombastic hard rock band who are tight enough but nothing special.
The Nils (The Bovine);
Of all the stories of Canadian bands that should'a made it but didn't The Nils were the most cursed. A Montreal punk band from the late eighties formed by two brothers Carlos and Alex Soria that I grew up on. Their first two indie eps are still among the very best Canadian punk of the era, or any other. At the time they were bandied about as Canada's answer to the Replacements. Unfortunately their only major label album was a disappointment and they soon broke up. A couple years back Alex killed himself while in the midst of a comeback attempt. Eventually Carlos decided to struggle on with some sort of lineup and recorded a new album. They only played a few of their early songs here which I can sort of understand but found disappointing, especially the hurried way they whipped through them. Their newer songs are OK, their cover of Neil Young's "Everybody knows this is nowhere" was pretty cool though.
THE NILS ~ "FREEDOM";
Revolvers (The El Mocambo);
I was getting pretty tired so after taking a much needed munchie break I wandered down to the El Mo. The Revolvers are a local noisy garage band, or a garagey noise band, whichever. I don't actually recall their songs but they were pretty good at the time.
Bleached (The Silver Dollar Room);
Note to the Black Belles and the Dum Dum Girls (see below); garage punk should have more than one tempo, preferably fairly fast. Another all-girl garage buzz band this year. Bleached pay less attention to looking cool and more to being a good old fashioned rock and roll party. The fact that the band is led by two sisters, Jessica and Jennifer Clavin, from a previous band, Mika Miko, certainly helps. They have the experience and confidence not to worry about their chic outfits and just rock out. They also have better songs (and more of them) and they play better as well. They are also more comfortable and fun on stage. Turns out a little experience really does matter.
BLEACHED ~ "THINK OF YOU";
Friday June 15 2012;
FILMS;
Ja Javla Metal; The story of Swedish Heavy Metal;
The title says it all really; all things metal from Sweden from Yngvwie Malmsteen (sorry that should read Y,,,,,, J Malmsteen, wouldn't want to get him confused with all the other Yngvwie Malmsteens out there) and Europe to Bathory and Candlemass to Entombed and In Flames. With the focus on the 1980's and early 1990's and done in a methodical just-the-facts style that offers no flash but probably appeals to the metal fan's latent desire to be taken seriously. And now I know more than I ever thought I needed to about Swedish Metal.
CANDLEMASS ~ "BEWITCHED";
My father and the Man in Black;
Did you know that for from the 1960's to the 1980's Johnny Cash's manager was a Jewish guy from London, Ontario? Me neither. Sol Holiff was his name and he was almost a stereotype of the sort of Jewish businessmen (often with little or no entertainment experience) who became managers, record label owners, film moguls and comic book publishers in the early to mid twentieth century. He was a serious, sober, hard working, suit wearing, humorless, hard nose who devoted himself to client 24/7 and treated his family like despised employees. He felt bad about though and after he killed himself a few years ago he left behind a whole store room of documents, photos and tapes that his alienated son use to base this movie on. It provides a more nuanced story of the enigmatic figure of cash than "Walk the line" while also giving us a deeply personal family as well. It's self indulgent of course but given the subject matter it gets away with it.
JOHNNY CASH ~ "HURT";
Music;
The Coppertone (The Horseshoe);
Fronted by Toronto based Amanda Zelina's big voice and 1970's stadium guitars Coppertone conjure up obvious comparisons like Heart, Suzi Quartro, The Headpins and Toronto (the 80's band that is). There are certainly plenty of worse role models lord knows.
The Black Belles (The Horseshoe);
The latest buzzband are an all girl garage four piece from Nashville via Jack White who dress up like Go-Go Morticia Adams with matching long black hair and top hats and black lipstick and eye liner. They look great of course and I can certainly see the appeal of four cool goth garage chicks. Just like the Dum Dum Girls last year. Unfortunately I found their one tempo, three chord drone a little dull after a while. They are going to have to change it up a bit. Just like the Dum Dum Girls. Bonus points for their trudge through a version of the classic Nickerbockers' 60's nugget "Lies" which may not be nearly as good as the original of course but was still kinda cool.
THE BLACK BELLES ~ "LIES";
Andre Williams & The Sadies (The Horseshoe);
As one of the last men standing of the classic R&B era we should be amazed to have Andre still alive let alone fully active. Not only performing but recording new material as well. Considering the dissolute life of drugs he led for the last fifty years he is lucky to be alive at all, let alone capable of doing a show in the summer heat. He knows it to, delivering a nice little speech of thanks to those (like the Sadies and Toronto audiences in general) who kept the faith while he got into rehab. By all accounts he has been fully on the wagon now for a couple of years and he does look healthier and more alert than in years past. The set was not very long but he kept out a good energy level. Of course having a quick mid-set pimp gear costume change probably helps but if anyone can pull off that sort of vanity move it's Andre. As per usual the Sadies provide their usual empathetic backing making the whole "Andre Williams sings cow-punk" concept seem natural. To be honest Andre's voice is pretty much shot by now but he was always more of a presence and a composer/arranger than a pure singer anyway. At any rate as one of the last guys of his era still around and capable of still doing adventurous work that appeals to those younger and hipper than your average oldies crowd Andre owes it to us to keep on truckin'.
ANDRE WILLIAMS ~ "SWEET LITTLE PUSSYCAT";
The Reigning Sound (The Horseshoe);
Led by former frontman for North Carolina's garage vets The Oblivians (and briefly Toronto's Deadly Snakes) Greg Cartwright, gave a short class in neo-garage. Short punchy three chord songs? Check. Catchy choruses? Check. Hummable solos? Check. Farfisa borrowed from Dell Shannon? Ditto. A modicum of variety so that all the songs don't sound exactly the same? Got it. Granted they look a little paunchy but I do hope the Black Belles were taking notes.
THE REIGNING SOUND ~ "Can't hold on";
Saturday June 16 2012;
Films;
Jobriath A.D. (NFB);
This is a requiem for a lightweight. In the early 1970's Jobriath was New York's answer to David Bowie. His complete and utter failure was proof that most Americans had never asked the question after all. Everything that Bowie did Jobriath went even further. Bowie wore make up and dresses? Then Jobriath would wear tights and jester makeup. Bowie sang about space and declared he was from Mars? Jobriath wrote space operas and claimed he was from Heaven. Bowie dabbled in the theater? Jobriath would use ballet and performance art of the most ridiculously overblown type. Bowie would rely on wildly bombastic hype? Jobriath would have billboards you could practically see from Mars. Bowie had an egomaniacal manager with delusions of grandeur? Jobriath could find an even shadier megalomaniac manager. Bowie claimed he was bisexual? Jobriath shouted he was rock and roll's first "true fairy". It was all too much, especially for America circa 1973. He put out two big budget albums on Elektra and even with massive publicity and a television appearance they both sank without a trace. And that was that. He was washed up in his early twenties. He would end up years later playing Cole Porter tunes in a piano bar. When he died of AIDS in 1983 it went unnoticed. Even the gay community didn't care, they had disco by then. Of course like all artists who fail completely he has gained a small cult following with the likes of Morrissey, Klaus Nomi and Jayne County. And he was certainly not without talent. A classically trained pianist and composer/arranger he had total creative control of everything and manged to get the likes of Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones, Disco diva Gloria Jones and Richard Gere into the studio. The results are thoroughly competent pomp rock not wildly dissimilar to some of the contemporary work of Bowie or Queen. With the notable absence of a catchy single for radio. He also had never been in a band before, or played a single gig. His only prior experience was a stint on a production of Hair and a few promising demos. Since he had built no audience of his own his management decided to blast their way on to the charts in one rush with the most expensive and overblown ad blitz ever seen for an unknown act. Of course it went down like a lead balloon with rock jocks and critics who had much more power in those days and who deeply resented this preening poseur who had paid no dues. Naturally once it was clear that there was no likely hit single they attacked like hyenas on a wounded gazelle. As might have been expected the record company was not exactly pleased with the amount of money spent on the fiasco either and after it met an even more obscure death they dumped him. In explaining his short whirlwind career the film explains the fiasco by pointing out the delusional publicity and the homophobia of middle America but gives the impression that he could have otherwise made it or that he was just ahead of his time. When he finally went out on his one and only tour he finally figured out how to perform and win over an audience. If only Elektra had given the second album more support. If only radio and the media had given him a second chance. He could'a been a contender. I disagree; I say the whole project was wrongheaded from the start. The film is as blissfully unaware of the changing currents in rock and roll in the mid seventies as Jobriath himself was. At the same time he was sitting in New York working out plans for a massive rock opera and attending chi-chi parties with Warhol there indeed was a scene happening in New York that would change rock forever. But it was happening over at the Bowery and it is impossible to picture him at grungy CBGB's. The bloated pomp rock of Jobriath was a painfully out of touch with punk as Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Yes, Uriah Heep or the Moody Blues. Without his having the fallback of having had previous hits and a legion of fans to rely on. Even Bowie and Queen spotted that trend and retooled their look and sound. What was Jobriath going to do? It's true that in just a few years there would be an actual underground with a network of clubs, indie labels, zines and campus radio that would have been more open. But he doubtless would have little desire to be part of such a low rent scene. For Jobriath it was the big time or nothing. He got nothing. And he was unable to figure out a way back. The movie is a thorough and interesting story of a puzzling figure from an different era. I did not leave it becoming a fan but I did feel sympathy for his hopeless crusade to take rock in exactly the wrong direction at the wrong time. Lord knows we've had worse, even in the 1970's. He could have at least lived long enough to appear in "Velvet Goldmine".
JOBRIATH ~ "I'MAMAN";
Slaughter Nick for president (NFB);
Remember a cheesy TV crime show from the 1980's called "Sweating Bullets"? Featuring a private eye named Nick Slaughter and set somewhere in the tropics and basically combined the drama of "Miami Vice" with the suspense of "Bay Watch". I vaguely recall seeing it one or twice, probably in reruns. At any rate it turns out that it's combo of endless summer and bloodless violence made it a huge escapist hit in Serbia at the very time that people were taking it to the streets to bring down the Slobodan Milosevic regime. So much so that Nick Slaughter became a symbol of freedom for millions of Serbs. All this somehow happened with the real Nick Slaughter, Canadian actor Rob Stewart being completely unaware until a Serbian punk band who wrote a song about invited him to Serbia. This film is about that trip. It's a tribute of sorts to the power of pop culture, no matter how trivial.
Marianas Trench (Much Music stage);
On my way to get some food I passed by the Much Music stage where Marianas Trench were rehearsing for their MMVA awards appearance. They weren't wearing their full on stage clothes and makeup so they looked slightly less emo. They also had some black female backup singers which is something all pasty white bands like to do to show they're aware of their "roots". You know, like Motown and stuff. This is assuming Motown had pasty white emo kids with silly hairdos doing souless kiddie stadium rock. Mind you given that those twits from LMFAO are actually Barry Gordy's offspring I wouldn't put it past them.
Shellshag (The El Mocambo);
A loud guitar/drums two piece from New York. Two piecers are an inherently limited genre and Shellshag do not transcend those limits, but they don't embarrass them either.
Limblifter (El Mocambo);
Limblifter were a moderately popular Vancouver band from the mid-nineties era of post grunge indie guitar bands. Apparently the mid nineties are now officially retro enough to justify a reunion. I have only a vague memory of them from back then but they were pretty good here straight forward and unpretentious. Although as is usual with this type of band I can't actually remember any of the songs. The fairly large crowd, who seemed to know all the songs were pleased though.
LIMBLIFTER ~ "VICIOUS";
Meanwood (Rancho Relaxo);
I haven't heard of these guys before even though they're local. They are a pretty cool cow punk with a female singer who can shout with the best of them and the occasional banjo when they want to open up a big can of white trash. They must gave been pretty good to convince me to stay in the always sweltering Rancho. Worth further investigating.
Les Breastfeeders (El Mocambo);
I was pretty worn out by this point and ready to call it a week but not before seeing Montreal's best Ye-Ye garage band. They've been mining this vein for a while now but they always make it seem like it's the newest thing. And they are Ye-Ye enough to always bring their A game no matter how late or small the crowd. There was no too-cool-to-sweat posing for them. Les Breastfeeders were so lively (not to mention well dressed) that I almost forgot it was 2am. Then I went home to sleep.
LES BREASTFEEDERS ~ "400 MILES";
No I did not go to see The Flaming Lips on Saturday. I thought about it, but after coming out of the two movies I saw it was about 9pm and I absolutely had to get something to eat, and a bathroom, definitely a bathroom, or else. By the time I finished a much needed if meager meal it was around 10pm. I still could have made my way down to Dundas Square but after the thoroughly annoying experience of Bad Religion the first day (ie crowing and sightlines blocked by corporate ad booths) I basically said screw it since I knew the crowd would be even bigger for the Lips on a Saturday.
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Report from the 88.1fm freeding frenzy
The announcement last fall that the CRTC was opening up the last major FM radio frequency in Toronto led to a larger than usual deluge of applications to fill it. The various applicants show a vast array of Toronto's population from Christians to Gays, from Sikhs to Tamils, from French to Jamaicans, from Indie Rock to Blues. There are applications for talk radio and various music genres mixed in with applications from Ryerson and the CBC. Originally there were 27 applicants but by the final deadline they were down to 22. Here then are the applicants (drumroll please and save your applause till the end);
1. The Evanov Group and PROUD FM;
Owned by Bill Evanov, PROUD FM is the "Gay themed" radio station that has been on air since 2007 at 103.9fm with a small 60 watt signal, and they are looking to upgrade to a larger signal capable of reaching the entire city. Evanov started this bidding war by putting in the first application which acted as a starter's pistols for everyone else. Besides PROUD FM Evanov also owns numerous other stations across Canada and last year was granted a similar license for a Gay themed station in Montreal. One bonus for this one, besides being able to claim they are representing a marginalized community, is that Evanov is proposing to move from 103.9 to 88.1fm which would then open up 103.9 fm for bidding for those who wanted another chance at this. The CRTC might actually like that since it would mean the weren't quite giving away the final signal while at the same time the smaller reach of 103.9 fm would probably convince some of the others to drop out leading to a smaller feeding frenzy next time.
PROUD FM promo;
http://www.proudfm.com/
2. Ryerson University;
Actually Ryerson started off the feeding frenzy in the first place when they lost the license for the previous Ryerson based station, CKLN, whose license was revoked in 2010 as we all know by now. Their attempt to regain the license uses a couple of the old CKLN management and has the support of the National Campus Radio Association (mostly from out west), but is far more Ryerson-centric and not really a true community station than was CKLN. They are promising a mix of "ethnic" programming with Ryerson sports and live music which seems a little vague and confusing and probably of little interest to any non-Ryerson student. In fact it may of little interest even to them. As the CRTC pointed out several times the referendum that agreed to fund the station had only a 10% voter turnout. Another question is whether Ryerson be rewarded for shutting down the last station they had.
Radio Ryerson Promo;
http://ryersonradio.com/
3. The CBC;
Anyone hoping they were looking at moving CBC 3 to the airwaves can forget it, this is an application for a French language repeater station. The CBC has certain advantages over other applications in that they don't have to prove they are financially sustainable, because they're the CBC. And they don't have to prove they have technical and professional experience and know-how, because they're the CBC. It is also part of the expressed mandate of both the CBC and the CRTC to promote National Unity and Bilingualism. In fact the CBC has basically said that they are entitled to the signal and shouldn't even have to bid with all these peasants. That didn't earn many friends. However there is a legitimate question as to whether Toronto's tiny Francophone community warrants a radio station anyway. The current audience for French language TV stations in Toronto is negligible and a couple of years ago Champlain Books, Toronto's venerable French bookstore, was forced to close it's doors. Then there is the matter of whether it is a good idea for the Mother Corp to be starting another radio station while they are going through serious budget cuts. As an additional wrinkle there is another French language application coming from CHOQ FM, and you can imagine all the manufactured outrage from the Tories and their mouthpieces over at the Sun if CBC got it over CHOQ, or anyone else for that matter.
4. CHOQ FM;
A French language station operating with a tiny signal at 1watt on 105.1fm since 2006, like PROUD FM they are looking to upgrade to a larger signal. They face the same questions about the viability of a French station in Toronto. They may have one advantage over the CBC however; a local track record and the knowledge that Toronto's Francophone community is different than Ottawa's in that many don't come from Quebec, Acadia or Northern Ontario (unlike CBC staff) but from Africa and Haiti. The CBC signal is going to be a repeater signal anyway so if there is an actual need for a French station in Toronto it would be better to give it to a group with actual local roots. Like PROUD FM they would also be giving up their current signal, tiny though it is.
www.choq.fm
5. CARN FM;
The Caribbean station owned by Fitzroy Gordon which only got it's license last year now wants an upgrade, moving from 96.8 to 88.1fm. Like the PROUD FM application this would then open up 96.8 to someone else. They now say they need an upgrade to survive, but since they've only been on air less than a year the CRTC is unlikely to be very impressed with this claim. In their application they also take time out to basically call the CBC jerks and liars for opposing them the last time out so that should be fun. At least this time Gordon manages to avoid bragging about his close personal friendship with Stephen Harper and Jason Kenny as he has in every interview in the past year.
Fitzroy Gordon whines about the CBC again;
http://g987fm.com/
6. INDIE 88;
An application from Barrie based Rock 95 to start an "Indie Rock" station which appear to similar to the much beloved CFNY in it's 1980's glory days, before it turned into the much watered down "Edge 102". This one may be a bit of a long-shot but it has gotten some support from the local music scene (I must point out that I also wrote a letter of support) and if done right could appeal to the same kind of engaged scenesters. To win over such a grass roots audience they will have to prove that even though they are in Barrie they can get deeply in touch with the local scene. Then again CFNY started out in Burlington and that worked out pretty well. They also have to be able to define what "Indie" music means to the CRTC who seem to have some trouble with the concept.
INDIE 88
7. DAWG FM;
An application for a "Rock and Blues" station from two brothers who own a similar station in Ottawa where it's worked out well. They have generated one of the largest amount of support letters and there is certainly an audience for blues that is not being served by the bland JAZZ FM. The Ottawa Blues Festival is a big yearly event that one would think could be exported here easily. However the Toronto blues club scene has dried up over the last decade as the audience has moved out further to the suburbs and not been replaced with younger fans. The fading Toronto Blues Society has failed utterly to face this problem so how would DAWG deal with this? At any rate their schedule seems to lean more towards the rock end of things so they might be competing more with Q107 anyway. Oh, and their logo is really ugly too. Still; it's not a bad idea. This is my second favorite one after Indie 88. They also have the support of Dan Ackroyd who appeared via tele-conference
DAWG FM Promo;
http://www.dawgfm.com/
8. Zoomer Radio;
Moses Znaimer's radio for people too old for that darn internet thingy wants to expand. They say their AM 740 signal is so crappy that they just have to move. Unlike PROUD FM or CARN he does not want to give up his current signal however. That does raise an obvious question; if AM 740 is so terrible why do they insist on keeping it? He does have a letter of support from Anne Murray though. So there.
http://www.zoomerradio.ca/
9. CHIN;
Toronto's longstanding multicultural pioneer looks to expand as well, with additional language programming for Russian, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Farsi. They are also not into giving up any of their existing signals. CHIN has an excellent track record and few enemies, and can honestly claim to represent communities otherwise not well served. They are genuinely popular in such circles and have made a lot of high placed friends in politics and should not be discounted. CHIN has proved that is is possible for such a station to pay it's bills and behave professionally. However does Toronto really need another CHIN station?
http://www.chinradio.com/
10. Trust Ministries;
A Christian group who own two other radio stations. Oddly enough manager Scott Jackson used to work for Bill Evanov (of PROUD FM) so that should make for an interesting reunion. They have apparently been working on this for a while and were the second group to announce their intentions (after Evanov) and Jackson also ran a mega successful Christian station in Nashville so they are no amateurs. They are also a registered charity. Their website acknowledges they are a bit of a long shot and asks supporters to pray. I'd say they didn't have a prayer but that would just be wrong.
Trust Ministries promo
http://www.lifeonline.fm/toronto.html
11. Family FM;
This one is a little odd. They are claiming to be focused on "Families" whatever that means. Since when is that a genre? They focus on the likes of Raffi and Sharon, Lewis and Bram, but then admit that that will only make up a small part of their actual programming, the rest is bland easy listening. Their vague format is vainly searching for a niche that probably does not exist in any real way. Actually the head of this one, Paul Fredricks, is connected with a Christian Bookstore called "Faith Family Books" which explains alot, although they don't mention the Christian part. They also have the involvement of Jane Hawtin (ex of Q107, CFRB and CBC) who brings radio experience and Pinball Clemmons (ex of The Argos) who brought some jokes and his big smile to the hearings.
http://www.eiradionetworks.com/FamilyFM/about.html
12. BIZ 88;
An application for a Business news format. This has been tried by Blumberg in New York and gotten consistently poor ratings for years. However because of it's high-end audience advertisers may not mind that very much. It's also pretty cheap to run. They have veteran TV news journalist Donna Skelly on board. There was a previous attempt at an "All Business and Traffic and Weather" format a few years ago that quickly failed, even after they desperately tried to attract attention by airing right wing crackpot shows from America like Glen Beck and other denizens of FOX. Since apparently that's what our business leaders want; bizarro conspiracy theories about Obama and Hitler. I can't imagine why that didn't catch on here. Their programming has a lot of blank spots that they are vague on how they intend to fill, which doesn't instill a lot of faith. However that previous station was a low power station with only a localized signal by the airport. This one is run by the same group that owns CHCH in Hamilton who recently had to apologize for accidentally running porn on the air. Nobody mentioned that though since that's presumably not part of their programming plans.
http://biz88.ca/
13. World Band Media;
Another talk radio application. This one has deep pockets and a former Mike Harris era Cabinet Minster on it's Board so they are not fooling around. To prove it, along with their application they also filed a separate and amazing 29 page hostile intervention attacking all the other applications which is pretty hard hitting. Still it's another talk radio format that belongs on AM and which doesn't offer a very convincing argument in their own favour as they want yet another droning talk radio station. Because Toronto doesn't have enough of those already. The best argument they can come up with is to basically say that every other type of radio is going downhill anyway so it's pointless to resist, like talk radio is the Borg or something. Still; should the last FM signal in Toronto be wasted on a talk radio format that really belongs on AM if at all? I think not.
http://www.worldbandmedia.com/
14. TNT Media;
Yet another Talk Radio application. This time from a Montreal group who already own a station there and promise "Extreme, Explosive Talk Radio", (translation; American style all-outrage-all-the-time) and their application uses a lot of exclamation points. Great, that's just what we need. Especially on FM. That above mentioned hostile intervention from Worldband is especially disdainful of this one. But not as much as I am.
15. Metro 88.1;
From Larche Communications who own four other successful stations in Ontario, either country or classic rock so they are not amateurs either. No this is not another doomed attempt at a country station in Toronto. This a doomed attempt at a vague "AAA" format which freely translated means "Rock and pop for people too old for The Edge but not old enough for an oldies station, and too rock and roll for EZ Rock but not quite enough for Q107", mixed with some comedy. Their application has a bunch of figures to prove that they won't just be competing with CHUM FM, Q107 or JACK FM, none of which I believe.
Metro 88 promo
16. Tower 88 fm;
A bland easy listening aimed at women in particular, wait; isn't that why we have EZ Rock? Run by Micheal Wekerle, a radio newbie with a lot of business experience and cash. How much cash you ask? He has Ivan Fecan, former head of CTV on board. They also sweeten the pot by promising to play tons of Canadian content and Aboriginal artists that got them the support of former Chief Phil Fontaine. That's a lot of fire-power for what is otherwise another easy listening station.
TOWER 88 promo
17. Durham Radio Inc;
Durham owns four other stations, mostly country or easy rock. Here they are calling themselves "88.1, The Lake FM", which is one of those annoying pointless brand names radio stations give themselves these days, remember when "The Edge" used to be called "CFNY"? That was when they were actually pretty cool. "The Lake"? What does that mean exactly? Are they going to be playing sea shanties? Actually it's anther bland commercial Easy Listening station which, or the music your dentist plays in the waiting room. Their application is possibly one of the biggest and contains a mind numbing amount of charts and figures, which is only slightly more boring than listening to the station itself would be.
18. Newcap Radio inc;
Yet another easy listening station. Newcap owns a jawdropping 79 other stations though so they must know something. Actually in the time it took me to write this they actually got another one. Seriously.
19. Stan 88fm;
An English language multi-cultural urban/hip-hop/pop/smooth jazz station aimed at second and third generation listeners. It's modestly named after it's owner Stanislas Antony. This might even be a workable idea in a multi ethnic city like Toronto, on the other hand it's so vague it might be a really stupid idea, either way it's different and Toronto is one of the few places it could have come from. At the hearings the CRTC was very skeptical about their finances, so that's a big problem.
20. Asia FM;
A Korean run Asian station which will however be mostly in English with 14% in Korean. The music will be pop and dance from Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan. I know there is a large Asian community in Toronto but how many prefer mostly English? How will Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Tibetans, or Thais (who all have longstanding rivalries) enjoy sharing a station? Do they really have converging tastes? Will they all stick around for the Korean language parts? How many are happy to keep getting their music from the web? It's a bold idea but a risky one. They got the best line in the hearings when one of the other applicants claimed that Toronto already had a Chinese station in Fairchild Radio. Their response; "We shouldn't have to point out that not all Asians are Chinese." Good one.
21. S. Sivakkumaran;
Not surprisingly it's an application for a ethnic radio station aimed at Tamil, Urdu, Farsi, Turkish, Arabic, Malay, Philippino and African communities. This puts them in direct competition with CHIN of course, as well as a brand new Tamil station in Scarborough. However if the CRTC decides that CHIN has enough radio stations that may not hurt them to much, sure doesn't help though.
22.MTSD Broadcast inc;
This is an application for a station aimed at the Punjabi community. There is no doubt an audience here, but they are being opposed by some of the existing radio stations catering to the Punjabis. It is also too limited compared to most of the other choices.
There were originally supposed to be a few other applicants who announced but then either dropped out or were dropped by the CRTC before the hearings for failing the technical aspects as the CRTC reserves the right to do. One such application was from Astral Media who no doubt dropped out when they announced their upcoming merger with Bell which will require them to divest some of their stations including The Flow. Another applicant was for a Tamil station which has instead decided to apply for a station in Markham. Oddly the other three or four were all South Asian applicants
1. The Evanov Group and PROUD FM;
Owned by Bill Evanov, PROUD FM is the "Gay themed" radio station that has been on air since 2007 at 103.9fm with a small 60 watt signal, and they are looking to upgrade to a larger signal capable of reaching the entire city. Evanov started this bidding war by putting in the first application which acted as a starter's pistols for everyone else. Besides PROUD FM Evanov also owns numerous other stations across Canada and last year was granted a similar license for a Gay themed station in Montreal. One bonus for this one, besides being able to claim they are representing a marginalized community, is that Evanov is proposing to move from 103.9 to 88.1fm which would then open up 103.9 fm for bidding for those who wanted another chance at this. The CRTC might actually like that since it would mean the weren't quite giving away the final signal while at the same time the smaller reach of 103.9 fm would probably convince some of the others to drop out leading to a smaller feeding frenzy next time.
PROUD FM promo;
http://www.proudfm.com/
2. Ryerson University;
Actually Ryerson started off the feeding frenzy in the first place when they lost the license for the previous Ryerson based station, CKLN, whose license was revoked in 2010 as we all know by now. Their attempt to regain the license uses a couple of the old CKLN management and has the support of the National Campus Radio Association (mostly from out west), but is far more Ryerson-centric and not really a true community station than was CKLN. They are promising a mix of "ethnic" programming with Ryerson sports and live music which seems a little vague and confusing and probably of little interest to any non-Ryerson student. In fact it may of little interest even to them. As the CRTC pointed out several times the referendum that agreed to fund the station had only a 10% voter turnout. Another question is whether Ryerson be rewarded for shutting down the last station they had.
Radio Ryerson Promo;
http://ryersonradio.com/
3. The CBC;
Anyone hoping they were looking at moving CBC 3 to the airwaves can forget it, this is an application for a French language repeater station. The CBC has certain advantages over other applications in that they don't have to prove they are financially sustainable, because they're the CBC. And they don't have to prove they have technical and professional experience and know-how, because they're the CBC. It is also part of the expressed mandate of both the CBC and the CRTC to promote National Unity and Bilingualism. In fact the CBC has basically said that they are entitled to the signal and shouldn't even have to bid with all these peasants. That didn't earn many friends. However there is a legitimate question as to whether Toronto's tiny Francophone community warrants a radio station anyway. The current audience for French language TV stations in Toronto is negligible and a couple of years ago Champlain Books, Toronto's venerable French bookstore, was forced to close it's doors. Then there is the matter of whether it is a good idea for the Mother Corp to be starting another radio station while they are going through serious budget cuts. As an additional wrinkle there is another French language application coming from CHOQ FM, and you can imagine all the manufactured outrage from the Tories and their mouthpieces over at the Sun if CBC got it over CHOQ, or anyone else for that matter.
4. CHOQ FM;
A French language station operating with a tiny signal at 1watt on 105.1fm since 2006, like PROUD FM they are looking to upgrade to a larger signal. They face the same questions about the viability of a French station in Toronto. They may have one advantage over the CBC however; a local track record and the knowledge that Toronto's Francophone community is different than Ottawa's in that many don't come from Quebec, Acadia or Northern Ontario (unlike CBC staff) but from Africa and Haiti. The CBC signal is going to be a repeater signal anyway so if there is an actual need for a French station in Toronto it would be better to give it to a group with actual local roots. Like PROUD FM they would also be giving up their current signal, tiny though it is.
www.choq.fm
5. CARN FM;
The Caribbean station owned by Fitzroy Gordon which only got it's license last year now wants an upgrade, moving from 96.8 to 88.1fm. Like the PROUD FM application this would then open up 96.8 to someone else. They now say they need an upgrade to survive, but since they've only been on air less than a year the CRTC is unlikely to be very impressed with this claim. In their application they also take time out to basically call the CBC jerks and liars for opposing them the last time out so that should be fun. At least this time Gordon manages to avoid bragging about his close personal friendship with Stephen Harper and Jason Kenny as he has in every interview in the past year.
Fitzroy Gordon whines about the CBC again;
http://g987fm.com/
6. INDIE 88;
An application from Barrie based Rock 95 to start an "Indie Rock" station which appear to similar to the much beloved CFNY in it's 1980's glory days, before it turned into the much watered down "Edge 102". This one may be a bit of a long-shot but it has gotten some support from the local music scene (I must point out that I also wrote a letter of support) and if done right could appeal to the same kind of engaged scenesters. To win over such a grass roots audience they will have to prove that even though they are in Barrie they can get deeply in touch with the local scene. Then again CFNY started out in Burlington and that worked out pretty well. They also have to be able to define what "Indie" music means to the CRTC who seem to have some trouble with the concept.
INDIE 88
7. DAWG FM;
An application for a "Rock and Blues" station from two brothers who own a similar station in Ottawa where it's worked out well. They have generated one of the largest amount of support letters and there is certainly an audience for blues that is not being served by the bland JAZZ FM. The Ottawa Blues Festival is a big yearly event that one would think could be exported here easily. However the Toronto blues club scene has dried up over the last decade as the audience has moved out further to the suburbs and not been replaced with younger fans. The fading Toronto Blues Society has failed utterly to face this problem so how would DAWG deal with this? At any rate their schedule seems to lean more towards the rock end of things so they might be competing more with Q107 anyway. Oh, and their logo is really ugly too. Still; it's not a bad idea. This is my second favorite one after Indie 88. They also have the support of Dan Ackroyd who appeared via tele-conference
DAWG FM Promo;
http://www.dawgfm.com/
8. Zoomer Radio;
Moses Znaimer's radio for people too old for that darn internet thingy wants to expand. They say their AM 740 signal is so crappy that they just have to move. Unlike PROUD FM or CARN he does not want to give up his current signal however. That does raise an obvious question; if AM 740 is so terrible why do they insist on keeping it? He does have a letter of support from Anne Murray though. So there.
http://www.zoomerradio.ca/
9. CHIN;
Toronto's longstanding multicultural pioneer looks to expand as well, with additional language programming for Russian, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Farsi. They are also not into giving up any of their existing signals. CHIN has an excellent track record and few enemies, and can honestly claim to represent communities otherwise not well served. They are genuinely popular in such circles and have made a lot of high placed friends in politics and should not be discounted. CHIN has proved that is is possible for such a station to pay it's bills and behave professionally. However does Toronto really need another CHIN station?
http://www.chinradio.com/
10. Trust Ministries;
A Christian group who own two other radio stations. Oddly enough manager Scott Jackson used to work for Bill Evanov (of PROUD FM) so that should make for an interesting reunion. They have apparently been working on this for a while and were the second group to announce their intentions (after Evanov) and Jackson also ran a mega successful Christian station in Nashville so they are no amateurs. They are also a registered charity. Their website acknowledges they are a bit of a long shot and asks supporters to pray. I'd say they didn't have a prayer but that would just be wrong.
Trust Ministries promo
http://www.lifeonline.fm/toronto.html
11. Family FM;
This one is a little odd. They are claiming to be focused on "Families" whatever that means. Since when is that a genre? They focus on the likes of Raffi and Sharon, Lewis and Bram, but then admit that that will only make up a small part of their actual programming, the rest is bland easy listening. Their vague format is vainly searching for a niche that probably does not exist in any real way. Actually the head of this one, Paul Fredricks, is connected with a Christian Bookstore called "Faith Family Books" which explains alot, although they don't mention the Christian part. They also have the involvement of Jane Hawtin (ex of Q107, CFRB and CBC) who brings radio experience and Pinball Clemmons (ex of The Argos) who brought some jokes and his big smile to the hearings.
http://www.eiradionetworks.com/FamilyFM/about.html
12. BIZ 88;
An application for a Business news format. This has been tried by Blumberg in New York and gotten consistently poor ratings for years. However because of it's high-end audience advertisers may not mind that very much. It's also pretty cheap to run. They have veteran TV news journalist Donna Skelly on board. There was a previous attempt at an "All Business and Traffic and Weather" format a few years ago that quickly failed, even after they desperately tried to attract attention by airing right wing crackpot shows from America like Glen Beck and other denizens of FOX. Since apparently that's what our business leaders want; bizarro conspiracy theories about Obama and Hitler. I can't imagine why that didn't catch on here. Their programming has a lot of blank spots that they are vague on how they intend to fill, which doesn't instill a lot of faith. However that previous station was a low power station with only a localized signal by the airport. This one is run by the same group that owns CHCH in Hamilton who recently had to apologize for accidentally running porn on the air. Nobody mentioned that though since that's presumably not part of their programming plans.
http://biz88.ca/
13. World Band Media;
Another talk radio application. This one has deep pockets and a former Mike Harris era Cabinet Minster on it's Board so they are not fooling around. To prove it, along with their application they also filed a separate and amazing 29 page hostile intervention attacking all the other applications which is pretty hard hitting. Still it's another talk radio format that belongs on AM and which doesn't offer a very convincing argument in their own favour as they want yet another droning talk radio station. Because Toronto doesn't have enough of those already. The best argument they can come up with is to basically say that every other type of radio is going downhill anyway so it's pointless to resist, like talk radio is the Borg or something. Still; should the last FM signal in Toronto be wasted on a talk radio format that really belongs on AM if at all? I think not.
http://www.worldbandmedia.com/
14. TNT Media;
Yet another Talk Radio application. This time from a Montreal group who already own a station there and promise "Extreme, Explosive Talk Radio", (translation; American style all-outrage-all-the-time) and their application uses a lot of exclamation points. Great, that's just what we need. Especially on FM. That above mentioned hostile intervention from Worldband is especially disdainful of this one. But not as much as I am.
15. Metro 88.1;
From Larche Communications who own four other successful stations in Ontario, either country or classic rock so they are not amateurs either. No this is not another doomed attempt at a country station in Toronto. This a doomed attempt at a vague "AAA" format which freely translated means "Rock and pop for people too old for The Edge but not old enough for an oldies station, and too rock and roll for EZ Rock but not quite enough for Q107", mixed with some comedy. Their application has a bunch of figures to prove that they won't just be competing with CHUM FM, Q107 or JACK FM, none of which I believe.
Metro 88 promo
16. Tower 88 fm;
A bland easy listening aimed at women in particular, wait; isn't that why we have EZ Rock? Run by Micheal Wekerle, a radio newbie with a lot of business experience and cash. How much cash you ask? He has Ivan Fecan, former head of CTV on board. They also sweeten the pot by promising to play tons of Canadian content and Aboriginal artists that got them the support of former Chief Phil Fontaine. That's a lot of fire-power for what is otherwise another easy listening station.
TOWER 88 promo
17. Durham Radio Inc;
Durham owns four other stations, mostly country or easy rock. Here they are calling themselves "88.1, The Lake FM", which is one of those annoying pointless brand names radio stations give themselves these days, remember when "The Edge" used to be called "CFNY"? That was when they were actually pretty cool. "The Lake"? What does that mean exactly? Are they going to be playing sea shanties? Actually it's anther bland commercial Easy Listening station which, or the music your dentist plays in the waiting room. Their application is possibly one of the biggest and contains a mind numbing amount of charts and figures, which is only slightly more boring than listening to the station itself would be.
18. Newcap Radio inc;
Yet another easy listening station. Newcap owns a jawdropping 79 other stations though so they must know something. Actually in the time it took me to write this they actually got another one. Seriously.
19. Stan 88fm;
An English language multi-cultural urban/hip-hop/pop/smooth jazz station aimed at second and third generation listeners. It's modestly named after it's owner Stanislas Antony. This might even be a workable idea in a multi ethnic city like Toronto, on the other hand it's so vague it might be a really stupid idea, either way it's different and Toronto is one of the few places it could have come from. At the hearings the CRTC was very skeptical about their finances, so that's a big problem.
20. Asia FM;
A Korean run Asian station which will however be mostly in English with 14% in Korean. The music will be pop and dance from Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan. I know there is a large Asian community in Toronto but how many prefer mostly English? How will Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Tibetans, or Thais (who all have longstanding rivalries) enjoy sharing a station? Do they really have converging tastes? Will they all stick around for the Korean language parts? How many are happy to keep getting their music from the web? It's a bold idea but a risky one. They got the best line in the hearings when one of the other applicants claimed that Toronto already had a Chinese station in Fairchild Radio. Their response; "We shouldn't have to point out that not all Asians are Chinese." Good one.
21. S. Sivakkumaran;
Not surprisingly it's an application for a ethnic radio station aimed at Tamil, Urdu, Farsi, Turkish, Arabic, Malay, Philippino and African communities. This puts them in direct competition with CHIN of course, as well as a brand new Tamil station in Scarborough. However if the CRTC decides that CHIN has enough radio stations that may not hurt them to much, sure doesn't help though.
22.MTSD Broadcast inc;
This is an application for a station aimed at the Punjabi community. There is no doubt an audience here, but they are being opposed by some of the existing radio stations catering to the Punjabis. It is also too limited compared to most of the other choices.
There were originally supposed to be a few other applicants who announced but then either dropped out or were dropped by the CRTC before the hearings for failing the technical aspects as the CRTC reserves the right to do. One such application was from Astral Media who no doubt dropped out when they announced their upcoming merger with Bell which will require them to divest some of their stations including The Flow. Another applicant was for a Tamil station which has instead decided to apply for a station in Markham. Oddly the other three or four were all South Asian applicants
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
Dick Clark vs. Alan Feed
What side are you on, Beatles or Stones? That used to be the defining Rock and Roll question; did you prefer the subtle, clever pop craftsmanship of The Beatles or the raw sexuality of the bad boy Rolling Stones? Or to put it another way; were you a Mod or a Rocker?
This line in the sand was the classic divide of Rock and Roll. The Beatles, especially in their lovable Mop Top phase, were so charming that even some parents could almost tolerate them. They had upbeat melodies and four part harmonies that went "Yeah yeah yeah!". They bounced around the microphone and bowed curtly after each song. And they wanted to "hold your hand". The Stones on the other hand swaggered and swore, they pranced and swaggered. They looked like they were about to steal your hubcaps. They had over-amped guitars and their singer had an arrogant nasal sneer. And they wanted to do a lot more than hold your hand. If you liked the Beatles you may have had good taste but you were not really in touch with the dark heart of Rock and Roll. That's where the Stones lived.
This debate goes even further back than the sixties in fact and has it's echos in contrasts between, say, the clean-cut smiling Bill Haley and the young greasy Elvis. Later after he went into the army the new cleaned up Elvis versus more authentically greasy rockabillies like Gene Vincent. Between white and black Doo Wop. Between the twangy Duane Eddy and the rumbling Link Wray. Between the pop-surf of the Beach Boys and the blaring guitar surf of Dick Dale. Between the slick soul of Sam Cooke and the sweat of James Brown. Between the craftsmanship of Motown and the strutting of Stax. Between the upbeat Mersey beat of the Dave Clark 5 and the blues-rock of the Yardbirds and Animals. Between the Psyche and Folk Rock of California and the Garage Punk of the Midwest and Texas. Between the Nashville Sound of Patsy and the Bakersfield twang of Buck Owens and the later Outlaw sound. Between New Wave and Punk. It actually goes back even further in the 1930's and 40's between the machine-like precision of the white big bands like Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and The Dorseys versus the more open swing of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. And even earlier to the 1920's and Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke.
Of course it's really a false choice, there is no good reason why a discerning fan couldn't and shouldn't like them all. Taste is not a political of moral question after all. Except when it is.
ALAN FREED & FREDDIE MITCHELL ~ "ROCK N'ROLL BOOGIE";
Because you don't even have to be a Rock historian to know there is a vast world of difference between Elvis and Pat Boone, or any of the various pretty boy singers named Frankie or Bobby. One is authentic Rock and Roll and the other is the music industry's concerted attempt to tame and exploit this new Rock and Roll beast.
That brings us to Dick Clark. Or if I may borrow a quote from Brother Chuck D;
"Dick Clark was a hero to some, but he never meant shit to me, that cat was racist! Straight up racist!"
OK that is totally not fair; he wasn't really of course. But he was closer to the villain that sanitized rock and roll for the white suburbs than was Elvis or even Bill Haley.
The first major political clash in Rock and Roll was between two DJ's and what they represented. Between Alan Freed (and Dewey Phillips) and Dick Clark.
Alan Freed (in Cleveland) and Dewey Phillips (in Memphis) were the first real Rock and Roll DJ's. If they didn't actually invent the term Rock and Roll (as Freed claimed) they certainly publicized it, and brought it and the music of black juke joints, white-trash honky-tonks and urban street corners to the wider white middle class suburbs had no clue such worlds existed.
ALAN FREED DANCES WITH LIONEL HAMPTON;
Freed and Phillips were shocking to respectable society. They were brash and pushy, they bragged and swaggered. They wore loud clothes, they drank hard, chain smoked, popped pills and sounded like it. They were arrogant and utterly shameless. And they loved a good fight with stuck up squares. When the various civic and legal guardians of virtue tried to stop them from playing black music, or from booking concerts with not only mixed race bills but mixed audiences as well, they barked back their outraged defiance. When their concerts got canceled they denounced the petty institutional racism that would deny kids a chance to dance together. And they did it in public. When record companies and radio station owners tried to force them to play the bland white cleaned up cover versions of real Rock and Roll songs they refused. When they were offered bribes to play nice Freed bragged that he had taken their money and still refused to play their crappy records. It was indeed a moral question after all for a few of the early Rock n' Roll moguls like DJ's Alan Freed and Dewey Phillips along with record label owners Sam Phillips of Sun (no relation), Ehmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler of Atlantic, Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton of Stax and The Chess Brothers as it had been for the Lomaxes. They weren't saints of course (au contraire) but they despised the conformist, racist culture of the 1950's and knew that they were mounting a direct challenge by exposing the nation's youth to the liberating sounds coming from the hills and ghettos. In their own way they did as much to integrate America as the civil rights movement without ever actually being a part of it. Some of them paid a heavy price for that, especially Freed and Dewey Phillips.
DEWEY PHILLIPS INTERVIEWS JERRY LEE LEWIS;
It was of course the payola scandal of the late 1950's that destroyed Freed and essentially Phillips as well. The scandal came about when some congressmen came upon the novel theory that the only reason why the hated Rock N' Roll was popular was that vulgarians like Freed forced kids to listen to it. And the only reason they did so was because they were bribed by the record companies, especially the small independent ones who recorded the most Rock. This was called payola. This theory ignores the fact that the major labels who encouraged this witch hunt had openly engaged in payola for years, and they had deeper pockets than the indie labels. It also ignored the fact that at that time payola was in fact perfectly legal, at least assuming it was declared to the IRS. Nonetheless Congressional hearings were held and a defiant Freed was hauled in and grilled. He should have known it would end badly. The fifties had already seen the McCarthy witch-hunts and the less well known hearings on comic books which had essentially destroyed the classic EC Comics empire. These people were not fooling around, they had the power to crush the like of Freed and the desire to do so. Freed was the big prize, his original radio show had grown to include a TV show. He became a show promoter, a record producer and later a producer of wildly popular Rock n' Roll movies. He even owned some publishing rights, something that would, rightly, not be allowed today but which was once again perfectly legal at the time. He was genuinely famous, possibly the first multi-media star. With his brash manner, raspy voice and loud jackets Freed was the very face of the enemy as far as the Rock hating establishment was concerned. Even more than the actual singers, who tended to be rather polite and soft spoken to the media, Freed was a swaggering affront to polite society and proud of it. The very spirit of Rock and Roll.
ALAN FREED INTROS JIMMY CAVELLO'S "ROCK ROCK ROCK";
Freed, arrogant as ever, refused to back down or apologize, nor would he lie. When he refused to sign an affidavit swearing that he had never taken payola his career was over. Then the IRS went after him and hounded him to his grave a few years later. Dewey Phillips was slightly luckier, he would keep his radio and TV shows in Memphis for a while. However the new squeaky clean era would have little time for a boisterous hard drinking pill popping throwback like Phillips. As the raw early rockabilly and R&B was replaced by the fresh scrubbed pop he lost first his TV show and then his radio show, forcing him to retreat further into the small town stations of the south, he would survive Freed by only a few years.
Enter Dick Clark.
Dick Clark was not one of the breed of DJs who discovered Rock n' Roll as an unwanted foundling and forced the bawling, brawling brat on the world. That role went to a few men (and they were all men) like Freed, Dewey Phillips, Macy Skipper and even Rufus Thomas and Bill Haley (both of whom started out as DJs). However Dick Clark had actually been kicking around television and radio for years before Rock n' Roll hit as a sort of utility fill-in man. He had been a radio and TV announcer, a game show host and a DJ known for his clean-cut preppy professionalism and affable demeanor rather than any actual interest in music. In fact he had no such interest or background at all and in later years he would admit that his favorite records were the various bland light classical compilations put out by Reader's Digest at the time. He had no background in Rock, or even Jazz. Alan Freed by contrast had genuine music roots having served as an MC and trombonist in a swing band before stumbling onto R&B. However while Clark was not by any stretch of the imagination cool or hip, if his job required him to learn at least a bit about what the kids were listening to then he would do it. This was not as cynical as it sounds, this sort of nine-to-five "just say your lines and hit your marks" attitude was quite common at that time. Such TV icons as Mike Wallace, Johnny Carson, Jack Paar, Walter Winchell and Dave Garroway had similar journeyman backgrounds until they figured out what they were good at, but in Dick Clark's case his choice seems to have been especially arbitrary. He could have just as easily ended up as the host of a game show or chat show as anything else. However if he little real interest in Rock n' Roll it must be admitted that he didn't look down on it either and he did not condescend to his teen audience, and this was more than could be said of many others at that time. His bland boy-next-door good looks and affable persona was perfect for TV in the same way that Johnny Carson's was, and the way the often loud brash Freed was not. While Freed courted controversy and got way too much enjoyment out of his bad press, Clark studiously avoided any such problems while still mostly giving his audience what they wanted and not completely horrifying their parents. And while his squeaky clean image may have been a mask, it was one he was quite comfortable wearing, there were never any sordid scandals attached to him. That didn't mean that he was really squeaky clean though.
DICK CLARK & SAM COOKE;
When the payola scandal hit Clark was almost as famous as Alan Freed and so he was also called in to testify in front of congress, some of what was revealed showed that he was actually even more compromised than Freed was. It turned out that while Freed had taken money from favored record companies and had been given a share in the publishing on a number of songs, Clark had an interest in no less than thirty three music industry businesses, including record and publishing companies, management agencies and even a record pressing plant. Among the artists involved with Clark these included a several big pieces of chart topper Duane Eddy who had not surprisingly gotten a big push from Clark's shows. While Freed had always maintained his independence and refused to play records he thought his audience wouldn't like, and was openly disdainful of the pretty-boy Teen Idols and white-bread pop cover songs, Clark had no such qualms, he would happily champion the various vapid Frankies and Bobbys that the industry began to churn out. Besides music Freed had sold rebellion and sex, Clark sold neither. Clark carefully presented not only himself but the rest of his empire in a solidly respectable way while still being able to appeal to the teen audience. It was this balancing act along with his sense of self-preservation and professionalism that saved him from the fate the likes of Alan Freed or Dewey Phillips. Freed had snarled his defiance, Clark had been smooth and polite. Freed had refused to sign any wavers promising to behave, Clark quickly divested himself of any embarrassing conflicts of interest and promised never to step out of line again. And everyone believed him because he was Dick Clark. Freed and Phillips drank hard and gambled their money away, Clark built up an empire of game shows and restaurants. He would later add "Candid Camera", "TV Bloopers" and the New Year's Eve at Times Square to his haul, although those shows were created by others.
DICK CLARK & THE BEACH BOYS;
In later years Clark actually showed little shame about any of this, occasional admitting in interviews that he knew and cared little about music and once famously referring to himself as "a whore". He did try to burnish his reputation somewhat by claiming that he too had fought racism as Freed had done by hosting integrated concerts. However he seriously overstated his boldness, his studio audience was noticeably white and clean cut, with boys wearing prim jackets and ties and the girls wearing midi-hemmed dresses. There would be no smoking or gum chewing, no leather jackets and jeans, especially for girls. And there would most definitely not be any mixed race couples on American Bandstand, ever. The black artists Clark preferred were of the decidedly non-threatening (if still talented type) such as Chubby Checker, Frankie Lymon, Sam Cooke and the Motown stable. When singers like Jerry Lee Lewis, Larry Williams and Chuck Berry found themselves embroiled in scandals Clark was quick to drop them. Once he had divested himself of his interests in Duane Eddy he dropped him as well. Gene Vincent got on Clark's blacklist when he walked off in protest over Clark's lip-sync only policy. All this allowed Clark to survive while most of his contemporaries fell by the wayside, it also made him an extremely rich man. This may not however make him a villain like the successive owners of MGM Records, Mitch Miller and Mike Curb who made a concerted effort to stamp out Rock n Roll, and were rewarded by seeing their once powerful label all but disappear. He was certainly no hero though.
As the fifties turned into the sixties and some artists would begin singing cruder material and even protest songs, American Bandstand would remain an oasis of suburban calm. Eventually even the Bandstand had to end but by then Clark had branched out into so many other interests that he probably didn't care. He became the sort of distant exploitative tycoon who could be trashed by Micheal Moore in "Bowling for Columbine" for taking corporate handouts while using forced welfare workers for free labour.
DICK CLARK INTERVIEWS THE JEFFERSON AIRPLANE;
Still his argument that his non-confrontational approach and businesslike attitude was the best way to keep Rock alive rather than the red hot visionary like Freed is not without some truth. The forces that were roused against Rock n' Roll in the late fifties should not be underestimated. It was after all the McCarthy era and the power of government to force a "clean-up" of the airways was very real. Less well known today was a contemporary attack on the comic book industry which destroyed many careers, drove many publishers out of business and forced an industry wide standard which amounted to an all-out censorship regime which would stay in place until the 1970's and retarded the artistic growth of the medium until the 1980's. The possibility of doing the same to Rock was very real. So perhaps while Freed is the more heroic (not to mention entertaining) figure, his kamikaze attitude was not the best long term strategy. If a few years of putting up with Frankies and Bobbys until the big social and cultural changes of the 1960's cleared the decks and allowed a more open society that would allow more creativity and expression, then perhaps it was worth it.
At any rate Clark managed to keep an affectionate place in the hearts of a generation of teens who got their first exposure to Rock n' Roll from American Bandstand. In fact it may be safe to say that for many white, middle class suburban teens they might not have otherwise discovered Rock at all. There are many important figures of rock's early years whose only surviving footage was an appearance with Dick Clark. That alone would have gained himself a footnote in Rock history.
Canadian footnote; one of those groups who made an appearance on Clark's show was a Montreal band called The Beau-Marks who became the first Canadian band (as opposed to a vocal group like the Crewcuts or Diamonds) to score an international hit with "Clap your hands" in 1960.
DICK CLARK AND THE TRASHMEN ~ "SURFIN' BIRD";
DEWEY PHILLIPS & JERRY LEE LEWIS;
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