CIRAA and Cancon

Continuing with my new found patriotism (a virtue of the vicious), I've joined the Canadian Independent Recording Artists' Association (CIRAA).  I originally came across the group while browsing Ember Swift's website.  Granted I'm not entirely sure what benefits being a member will have, but I think it's time I got involved in making Canada a bit more culturally diverse than it currently is. 

One of the key things that got me to sign up was their current stance towards Canadian Content (CanCon) for broadcasting purposes.  The whole story can be found at http://www.letsfixcancon.ca/ .  What it boils down to is that the purpose of CanCon was to mandate that Canadian broadcasters play a certain amount of Canadian content.  This was done to aid Canadian talent in "breaking through" to mainstream success, and to increase the diversity of the content on Canadian airwaves. 

As a former DJ at the University of Guelph's CFRU radio station (Blues Power was my show), I know first hand what a horrible state CanCon requirements are in.  Currently there are no guidelines, so radio stations can meet their quota of Canadian content by playing Nickelback incessantly.  Nickelback, regardless of their musical talents, do not require assistance to "breakthrough".  They are a mainstream act, making millions of dollars.  However, they are an easy way for DJ's to fulfill their CanCon requirements without thinking about finding new Canadian music.

CanCon is an excellent idea that could help push more independent Canadian artists into the public eye, I hope that I can aid in this rejuvenation of the Canadian artistic community.  It should be an interesting ride.

 
 

Comments

[Alex]

Absolutely! It's funny that Canadian DJs do everything possible to avoid playing Canadian music. Utterly ricockulous!

[Vn]

Radio stations also used to get around it by concentrating all the Cdn music into one hour, typically a Sunday morning, to fulfill their content. Funny enough, it was nicknamed "Beaver Hour". I think now they have changed the rules to ensure that some Can content is aired during peak listening times.