Promotion of Nigeria's musical culture... A must for the radio Deejay

COMPLAINTS are rampant from numerous musicians, most of whom are exponents of Nigerian music, that radio deejays are refusing to play their record releases. As a matter of fact, it is an open secret that financial payment is now the condition for airplay.

I want to believe that this is happening out of ignorance on the part of the deejays. If they understood the aim of broadcasting and the great responsibility that their role as deejays places on them, they would think twice and place the interest of their country before their own selfish and individual ones. They would embrace cultural relevance and the musical quality of recorded releases as pre-requisites for air play.

Broadcasting in all its ramifications exists as a tool for promoting a nation's cultural evolution. All programme production formats employed on radio - comprising the talk which is a single voice technique, interview, discussion, and composite programme types such as the magazine, drama, features and documentaries, audience participation programmes and music, are all intended to promote the arts, customs, beliefs and all the other products of human thought made by the people at any particular time -even in the process of informing, educating and entertaining.
Of all these formats, music constitutes the most easily identifiable cultural identity. It is the one that creates a more lasting impression because of its entertainment value - in terms of providing melody, harmony and rhythm. Music is in itself a loud expression of culture; and it occupies over 50 percent of a station's air time whether in a commercial or public service broadcasting situation. And the fact that music abounds in copious quantities in the forms of CDs, cassette tapes and vinyl makes it readily available for use in broadcasting.

Every country tries to take advantage of this facility from a patriotic point of view. Each country is proud of her music and musicians whom they promote as a matter of principle to boost their cultural image. The popular music of Britain is 'rock' and the British Broadcasting Corporation plays essentially that. The popular music of America is 'soul' and Voice of America never stops promoting it. The same goes for India, Japan and all the industrialised countries of the world. It is therefore unfortunate that Nigerian stations take delight in promoting American music, and by extension her culture.

The Nigerian music industry is virtually dead. The fault is not that of the musicians, but radio stations that over the years have failed to promote their own music and musicians. Our young musicians have been accused of playing imitative music, which often invariably lacks authenticity. But they do not seem to have any choice because they are playing what they have grown up to listen to on Radio - a medium, which is supposed to lead and guide opinion.

The musical culture of a nation depends solely on radio for development and promotion. Successful musicians all over the world owe their success to air play because no matter how great their recorded efforts are at any point in time, if they are not promoted, nobody gets to hear about them. All the great musicians in this country owe their success to radio without which the likes of E.T Mensah, Bobby Benson, I. K. Dairo, Fela Anikulapo Kuti and all the veterans would not have been known today. The Radio deejay therefore is not out to promote himself and the music of his choice. He is there in the national interest and should be proud of the musical culture of his motherland.

There are numerous musical idioms that require promotion for the benefit of the young generation who are growing up on the heavy doses of foreign popular music, which they hear all day long. Station managers should create programme slots for highlife, juju, fuji and all the Nigerian popular music forms. Regular slots should also be created for music of our land in terms of indigenous rhythms whose exponents are gradually disappearing for lack of promotion and patronage. Kalangu and Goje are still popular in the North, but in the South for instance idioms like Sakara and Apala are virtually extinct. Since the demise of Yusuf Olatunji, Haruna Isola and Ayinla Omowura, no newcomers have emerged to continue from where they stopped. Radio can bring back a vibrant music industry.

Music presentation is not just a business of promoting foreign music idioms and talking American slangs. It has to do with patriotism and effective communication. Some private stations have adopted the style of letting the music play while the presenter turns himself into a 'dumb witness.' All programmes have now been turned into ordinary compilations and their own idea of 'link continuity' is the mention of a few people in the "house" and the mention of one or two friends who are listening. Every programme must have its own aim, what it intends to achieve and how to achieve this objective. A music programme needs to have a definite character and personality and it should tell a logical story from beginning to the end. What he says and the way he says it depends on the brief of the music programme.

If it is a low profile presentation programme, the music is paramount and the presenter has little to say. His job is unobtrusive; to provide background listening and all that is required is the occasional station identification or time check.

In the specialist -oriented presentation, experts in their own fields of music can make excellent presenters as they spice their transmissions with anecdotes about the artistes and stories of happenings at recording sessions, as well as informed comment on performance comparisons and the music itself. Jazz, classical music, highlife, folk among others, lend themselves to this treatment. Often analytical in approach, the presenter's job is to bring alive the human interest inherent in all music. The listener should obviously enjoy the music played but half the value of the programme is derived from hearing authoritative, possibly provocative comment from some one who knows the field well-an expert. How many of this type do we hear on the air waves today?

The personality-oriented programme is the most common of the music presentation types. The presenter here must do more than just playing records with some spontaneous ad-libs in between-as is now common with the new private stations. However popular the music, this simple form of presentation soon palls. The deejay must communicate his own personality, creating a sense of friendship with his audience. He must entertain. To do this well programme after programme requires a lot of preparation.

It is important to decide what to say and how to say it. This means listening to the records before hand to decide the appropriate places to respond to the words of a song, a remark or other comment, where to place a listener's letter, quiz or even a phone call. The chat between the records should be thought about in advance so that it does not sound pedestrian, becoming simply a repetitive patter.

The programme may also contain identifications, time checks, traffic information, sound effects, chitchat and interviews among other sound elements. The presenter should therefore never be at a loss as to what to do next. He must know in advance what he wants to say and be constantly replenishing his stock of anecdotes where possible. These should be drawn from his own observation of the daily scene. Certainly, for local radio stations like ours, the more the presenter develops a rapport with his own area, the more his listeners will identify with him.

When a presenter is criticised for talking too much, often times it is because he is not interesting enough. There are too many words employed for what he has to convey. It is possible to correct this by talking less, but similarly the criticism will disappear if the same amount of speech is used to carry less waffle and more substance. The substitute is not the'more music less talk' approach now adopted by some stations.

In most cases it is even necessary to have a producer assigned to the programme. He can help to make additional bits and pieces of programme material, which will help to bring the show alive. Recorded on tape, these may consist of snatches of music, sound effects, funny voices on echo, chords of music, double speed tape and so on. Only the amount of time set aside for preparation and the presenter's own imagination, sets limits on what can be achieved in this way. All inserts are very brief but they enliven the presenter's normal speech material, adding an element of unpredictability and increasing the programme's entertainment value.
However, whether the programme is simple or complex, the personality deejay should, above all, be fun to listen to. The show may give the impression of spontaneous happening but sustained success is seldom a matter of chance. It comes only as a result of careful preparation and hard work. Script writing is a complete necessity in broadcasting. Even in programmes that essentially derive from adlibbing, the presenter may not write a full-length script -in terms of details. He needs to be guided by a written outline without which the programme can lose logical continuity.

Contrary to what some stations now want us to believe, there is no blanket approach advocating for "more music and less talk." Although it is generally not advisable to talk too much in any music programme, the aim of a programme and its target audience will determine how much a presenter needs to say. In 'personality' and 'specialist' presentations for instance, it will be untidy to talk too much. But in a programme like "Artist of the week" for example, even though the listener is interested in the music, the profile of the artist is very vital.

If the deejay keeps himself busy with all these essential formalities, he will turn out to be a better broadcaster; and will find it more fulfilling than the financial reward.

By Benson Idonije of the Guardan Newspaper