Musicians and authors slam Oshiwambo radio

NORTHERN Namibia-based musicians and authors of music are unhappy over the way NBC Oshiwambo Radio service is handling their music.

According to Peter ‘Muambo’ Ambambi, a well-known Oshiwambo gospel singer and composer and interim chairperson of the northern-based musicians’ association, the NBC Oshiwambo station presenters are not filling in the required forms each time a song is played on air.

These forms are forwarded to the Namibia Society of Composers and Authors of Music (Nascam) for the organisation to pay royalties to artists.

“We discovered that NBC presenters and possibly those from other radio stations are not filling in programme schedule forms. This results in huge income losses to the artists who are supposed to be paid royalties by Nascam,” he said.

Ambambi said the situation was so bad that some artists have money owed to them from many years back. An investigation which he conducted at the station also revealed that some forms were only partially completed.

According to Ambambi, the producer or announcer should fill in the name of the programme, broadcast date, time, composer’s name, artist and the title of the song.

However, he said some producers only partly filled in the forms, making it virtually impossible for Nascam to pay the artists and said.

“I have seen many forms with only the starting time of the programme, but no ending time. Can a programme that ran from 20h00 on 15 February 2015, be still on air up to now? NBC people should do their work,” he complained.

Music author and composer Abice Kondjashili Ndengu also expressed dissatisfaction over what he described as “shoddy work” by NBC Oshiwambo Radio service personnel.

“We expect NBC radio to be there for us, but they do not do that. Forms are not filled in properly and we are losing a lot of money,” he said.

Ndengu pleaded with the station management to ensure that all songs played on air were properly recorded.

Last week a group of about 30 musicians delivered a petition containing their grievances to Helen Shiimbi, the station manager of the Oshiwambo service. In the petition they demanded that NBC staff change how they dealt with the Nascam forms.

“We want to form a national committee of musicians from across the country to monitor how different radio stations are handling our music,”Ambambi said.

Attempts to get comment from Shiimbi yesterday were unsuccessful as she was said to be in a meeting. Calls made to her mobile number went unanswered and text messages were not responded to.