Radio station's plan for Canadian content means big bucks, air play and a CD spot
By KELLY DOODY CalgarySun.com Friday June 27, 2008
Firing up a new radio station nowadays can't be easy. The number of FM stations dotting the dial in Calgary is closing in on the number of Tim Hortons' locations in the northeast industrial parks.
But that's not the only battle for newbie stations. Being granted a spot on the airwaves from the radio gods at the CRTC also means your play list must contain a hefty amount of Canadian content, and that you plan to kick in a significant amount of dough to fund the development of local music.
The alt-rockers at Calgary's X92.9 made meeting such requirements one step harder on themselves by incorporating a much-welcomed No-Nickelback clause. Which means rather than drown their listeners in the sounds of Chad Kroeger's constipated voice to help fill their Canadian quota, X92.9 is forced to come up with something else. And since it had to be Canadian, they chose to make it local. For the second year in a row, X has cast their net far and wide and invited local bands big and small to send in their demos. The station then whittled all the entries down to five amazing bands, and cemented their picks onto this year's edition of the Xposure CD.
"We really wanted to give the expanding Calgary music scene a forum," said Fraser Tuff, co-host of The Show from 6 to 10 a.m. "We picked five winners for Xposure, but in all honesty there were 30 bands that deserve to be heard not just here but all over Canada."
For 2008 Xposure bands Kilbourne, Secret Broadcast, The Fast Romantics, The Summerlad and Michael Bernard Fitzgerald, winning meant walking away with $15,000, playing in front of thousands at Virgin Fest, a huge amount of air play, landing three songs on the Xposure CD and performing at the official CD release concert July 22 at Snatch Rock n' Roll Lounge -- a huge bash hosted by 24 Hours. Headlining the big night will be Attack in Black and The Stills. Tickets go on sale today for $15 at ticketmaster.ca, with all proceeds going to support The Back Door charity.
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