In what it described as an addition to its “already amazing weekend lineup,” 92.5 The Beat has added Carson Daly, whose Daly Download top 30 show will air Saturdays from 9am to noon.
The show, which launched in July, airs on dozens of CBS and Cumulus radio stations in the U.S., but this appears to be its first Canadian pickup. It’s distributed here by Spark Networks, comes in three-hour and four-hour versions, and contemporary hit radio and hot adult contemporary formats.
On The Beat, the show mainly replaces All Access Weekends with Anne-Marie Withenshaw, which had a long run on the station from 10am to noon on Saturdays. Withenshaw just had her first child and is taking maternity leave. So I asked The Beat’s program director Leo Da Estrela what will happen when she’s ready to come back.
“Anne-Marie is definitely part of the weekend line-up when she returns form her maternity leave,” he said. “Without saying too much about our future scheduling, Carson Daly and Anne-Marie will be an integral part of our weekend line-up.”
The rest of The Beat’s schedule remains local, even overnights. Daly’s show follows Weekend Breakfast with Ken Connors and leads into Feel Good Weekends with Nat Lauzon.
Here’s the press release:
Montreal, August 30, 2013 – Carson Daly, host of NBC’s “The Voice” has a new weekly countdown show called “The Daly Download with Carson Daly – This Week’s Top 30”.
THE BEAT WELCOMES CARSON DALY TO ITS ALREADY AMAZING WEEKEND LINEUP
The Daly Show will be part of The Beat’s Saturday schedule, premiering August 31 from 9 a.m. until Noon. The show features three hours of great music, and exclusive interviews with the biggest and brightest names in music. The show brings a new twist to radio by taking listener interactivity to another level. With the biggest hits and the biggest stars while showcasing one the most influential music personalities, Carson Daly’s “The Daly Countdown” is now part of your “Feel Good Weekends” on 92.5 The Beat of Montreal.
Why?
The problem here is more American crapola, these shows are American produced and not subject to Cancon..
How does the station make up for it?
I’m not sure about this specific case, but in general, either the Canadian distributor of a show edits it to include Canadian content, or the station schedules more Canadian songs during the rest of its day to keep up with the minimum.
It’s sort of easier to do on the weekends, they can pack the first couple of hours of counted programming (6 to 8 am) with almost nothing but Canadian content, and pretty much balance out the rest of the day. It’s really not hard to do, really.
Moreover, with Canadian distribution, one has to wonder if the entire show may be considered in a manner similar to the old “foreground format” stuff, where regardless of the actual content it was considered Canadian because it was “local”?
Pitiful if that’s the case, hide great Canadian tunes when everybody is asleep at that hour. Now if there was a Canadian version of Daly, with Canuck hits as part of the Top 30..
It is pitiful, and the rules are written in such a way that stations can easily do it to avoid having to put too much Canadian content on at peak times. That means that for weekends, the Canadian content might be jammed early in the morning, late in the afternoon, and not long before midnight (to hit the time blocks the CRTC loves).
It should also be pointed out that the definition of Canadian content is very tricky. I can remember back in the early 90s Bryan Adams (totally Canadian) released an album and because of a weird combination of location of recording and his producer / collaborator meant that it was not Canadian content. If I remember correctly, one Metallica album was considered Canadian content… go figured, right?
The system is gamed every day by PDs all over the country (and their more and more able computerized programming tools) to meet the legal requirements without actually forcing anyone important to hear Canadian content.
The rules are simple: 35% of popular music must be Canadian from 6am to 6pm, and 35% must be Canadian overall. And yes, that means that the distribution of Canadian music throughout the day won’t be uniform. Peak times will have more non-Canadian music.
The CRTC relies on the MAPL system to determine if a song is Canadian. It requires that two of the artist, music writer, lyrics writer and location of recording/performance be Canadian. If the song was recorded before 1972, it needs to satisfy only one of those conditions, and if it’s an instrumental song, it only needs to have been composed by a Canadian.
Ah, the 90s. The album in question was Waking Up the Neighbours, released in 1991. It didn’t qualify as Canadian because it wasn’t recorded in Canada, and the music and lyrics weren’t principally written by a Canadian (the writing was a collaboration). Adams’s complaints led the CRTC to change the rules, so that as of Sept. 1, 1991, if a Canadian gets at least half the credit for both the music and lyrics, and either the artist was Canadian or the song was recorded/performed in Canada, the song is considered Canadian.
I can’t find any reference to this online. No one in the band was born in Canada, and as far as I can tell none of their albums were recorded here. So I don’t see how it would qualify.
Actually, Metallica albums were recorded in Vancouver, with Bob Rock (born in Manitoba) as the producer and getting some song writing credits. On one album, he actually plays bass for the entire album (after their bassist left, and before a new one was selected). I believe that is what made certain songs into Canadian content.
So the stations are telling us that they think we won’t want to hear a great Cancon song in morning or afternoon drive….A shame…
“Great” Cancon isn’t the problem. It’s the rest. These radio stations measure audience by the quarter-hour and can tell which songs generate more ratings. So it’s the audience that’s saying they don’t want to hear these songs.
Hooray! More canned, syndicated programming!
i agree !!
The 35% daytime rule (6a-6p) only applies to Monday to Friday. It has always been common practice from coast-to-coast in radio to “stack” CanCon early and late (depending on the station) on weekends to make up weekly quotas. Please don’t argue with me; I know what I’m talking about. I spent 20 years doing it. When I programmed at what was Q92, the first two hours of Saturday and Sunday (6am to 8 am), when there was practically no audience, was always 100% CanCon non-hit. That way we could ease off the CanCon during the late morning and mid-afternoon when the audience would peak and play more international hits.
Why do you think TooTall’s show “Made In Canada” ran at 11 p.m. on CHOM for years? A solid hour of non-hit CanCon outside of peak hours to make up the weekly quota.
There has never been any Metallica CanCon but there are a couple of Aerosmith songs that qualified, as well as Rod Stewart and several other international artists who have either co-written with Canadians, reocorded songs written by professional Canadian songwriters (Marc Jordan, Eddie Schwartz, etc.) and/or recorded in Canadian studios.
Ironically, the handful of Canadian artists that do hit the US charts rarely have songs that qualify as CanCon as these major artists like Bieber, Avril Lavigne, Celine, etc. either don’t write their own songs, co-write with international artists or record outside the country.
This is correct, should have specified that.
Ditto Montreal Rocks with Jay Walker on Sunday nights. Though it’s not necessarily such a horrible thing to have these shows, even at low listening hours.
I thought you programmed at CHOM…lol… but you’re right, Made in Canada, Montreal Rocks, and not sure if it’s still around, but the Canadian Top 30 show, is another example on the weekend..of stacking on the weekends.
The CRTC should also do more to support emerging artists, and not a commitment like the Bell thing and make it policy but to be played fron 6 to 6a–6p all week, to cut out the backdoor shows at 11 pm…
That would be difficult on a station with an oldies format. There could be other practical reasons imposing emerging artist quotas as a condition of licence might not be a great idea. But if you want it, by all means write to the CRTC.
Are these Canadian content laws even necessary anymore? Isn’t the canadian music industry solid enough to stand on it’s own?
The answer to that question is complicated. It depends on what your definition of “stand” here is. But also, it’s kind of like arguing we don’t need police anymore because crime has gone down. The Canadian music industry would be a lot less successful if Canadian songs did not get airplay.
By the way, Metallica did record with Canadian producer Bob Rock (as did many other major other hard rock American bands) and spent some time recording with him in Vancouver but that would only qualify as one part CanCon. Bob Rock would usually record at his home studio in Hawaii but once in a while would return home to Vancouver to work in a studio there.
There was another major rock producer in Vancouver, the late great Bruce Fairbairn, who co-wrote songs with some of his clients like Aerosmith so that managed to squeeze those songs in as CanCon.
There have also been cases where major Canadian bands would re-record a single in Canada in order to get the second CanCon part so radio would be able to take CanCon credit.
Does Daly have a personal sponsorship deal with a watch manufacturer? I’m trying to de-code the pose in that banner. Not leaning on his hand… not touching his chin… maybe stroking his imaginary beard in a thoughtful manner?
Media Man,
I spent almost a year as interim music director at what was then CFQR (Q92/The Q) filling in on a maternity leave in 2009 for MD Kara Yamich. I worked under Leo and Brian DePoe and learned a ton about AC programming from those two. Worked with a fabulous group of people over there.
“Great” CanCon varies with the format and audience perceptions. For rock, there’s more leeway with artists like Rush, The Tragically Hip, Loverboy, Nickelback, Blue Rodeo, etc. being tolerated very well by that format’s audience. For AC and CHR, not so much. CanCon is still considered a “tune-out factor” at those formats.
It’s been studied that if the CanCon regs were dropped or loosened, some formats would take advantage and reduce their levels of CanCon immediately. If CanCon was voluntary, stations wouldn’t come anywhere close to the 35% now mandated. In fact in recent years the Commission has been discussing raising CanCon levels to 40%. Some new stations even promise voluntary higher CanCon levels in their Promise of Performance when applying for a new license. I think the blues station in Ottawa promised to maintain 40% when they applied.
The creation of CanCon is also supported by all major broadcast groups through large, mandatory financial contributions to FACTOR and its Quebec counterpart FACTOR Quebec. Broadcast licenses are conditional upon these contributions. If you’re interested in what FACTOR does, check out their website at http://www.factor.ca.
Stations must also pledge to spend certain amounts of money annually to support Canadian talent development. CHOM’s defunct “l’Esprit” talent search fulfilled a big chunk of that obligation back then. I know in the Astral days they gave free airtime (commercials) to promote new album releases as part of that commitment.
The emerging artist issue has been an on-going discussion for years. When I worked at Mediabase (between CHOM and Q92) I had meetings with the CRTC and several Canadian musicians’ lobby groups to try to figure out how to approach the matter.
There were three or four different proposals presented to the Commission, from record company lobbies, broadcast lobbies and musicians lobbies.Each group had their own interests and proiorities. I remember one year at Canadian Music Week there was a seminar on emerging artists chaired by Rob Braide and it was impossible to even get a seat inside the hotel banquet room because it was such a hot topic.
One proposal from the CAB and broadcast special interest groups was that stations get double CanCon credit for playing emerging artists. The record companies and musicians wanted mandatory emerging artist quotas imposed for appropriate formats (as Steve mentioned, some formats are by nature immune to emerging artists).
The problem is defining an emerging artist. It’s not as easy as it seems. We spent many hours analysing charts and airplay patterns but a definition is not that readily apparent. Would Justin Bieber have been considered an emerging artist, despite worldwide fame and success, for instance?
It’s a very complex and complicated matter far beyond the off-topic scope of a comment here on Steve’s blog. I could go on and on about it. I’d be happy to discuss it or answer questions in another venue. Suffice it to say it’s been years that it’s being discussed and is a priority issue for the Commission, broadcasters and the music industry.
Neil, one thing you left out of the game here is that the enforced Cancon rules also has some side effects in artist income. Specifically, the risiduals and mechanical play amounts are part of the deal here too, which can be a pretty solid amount of money for artists who get a fair bit of airtime during the sampling period.
I don’t know if it’s the same, but I can remember back a ways that the airplay amounts were calculated during a fairly short period of time (maybe a 2 week log) to calculate out amounts for 6 months or so (may have been for smaller stations). I can remember a friend of mine getting residual checks for amounts for a single airplay during the sample people, because a smaller station was featuring indie artists during the sample people. Even then, that small airplay generated him nearly $100, which was impressive for almost no airplay.
Excellent point, Dilbert. Increased airplay leads to increased broadcast royalties.
SOCAN is the Canadian performing rights organization that monitors airplay and collects and distributes royalty money from broadcasters. However those royalties go to the songwriter or composer, not the artist. In many cases that’s one and the same person, but not always.
If a bar or restaurant plays recorded music (via a DJ, for instance), or even if a company plays recorded music on their “on-hold” phone system, they’ve got to pay SOCAN.
The Gazette had an interesting piece on SOCAN’s work last month.
Until recently broadcasters did not actually have to pay any royalties directly to the artists or record companies themselves. That changed with a new royalty that was imposed in recent years called, for some reason, neighbouring rights.
The broadcast lobby vehemently opposed this new royalty with the argument that every time a song is played on the radio, that is essentially a four-minute commercial for the artist and album. Airplay leads to sales of physical product, digital downloads and concert tickets. No further payments to record companies or artists should be mandated, they (we) argued.
Broadcasters lost that war and now a second organization called Re: Sound (formerely the NRCC) collects and distributes neighbouring rights money on behalf or artists. They also coordinate with their counterpart neighbouring rights organizations in other countries to make sure US radio pays Canadian artists for airplay, for example.
Mechanical rights are an entirely different kettle of fish that refer to the license fees paid to record, manufacture or reproduce music, not to broadcast it.
So Anne-Marie Withenshaw returns back from maternity leave this coming Sunday November 3rd from 10am to Noon with her All-Access Weekend program. That’s a pretty quick return from maternity leave. So that’s her program slot for All-Access Weekend(previously it aired Saturday mornings & repeated the next morning). So has Jay Walker been off from CHOM & Global Montreal morning show the past few months?
He didn’t take nearly as much time off.