Music promoter Mike Cummins has called on Government to grant a licence for a gospel music station.
Cummins, the organizer of the Flame Awards, was addressing the 11th annual edition of the awards on Sunday night at the George Street Auditorium.
“The gospel station [Gospel 97.5, which made its last broadcast on April 3] is no more, and we are hoping and praying that the political directorate would see it fit to give those Christians who have applied for licences to start a new gospel radio station the permission to do so.”
Cummins spoke about what he saw as the implications of the closing of Gospel 97.5. He said before that station was closed a number of artistes had invested in projects costing $5 000 and $10 000.
“Now these projects are completed but they don’t know which radio stations are going to play their music. Truth be told, it had already been hard to get their music heard or played on these radio stations.”
He also said gospel music played a critical role during the mourning period of late Prime Minister David Thompson.
“During the period of mourning . . . the importance of Gospel 97.5 could not have been questioned. Its importance became critical to Barbados.”
He said that Barbados was at a point in its history where the importance of radio stations must be analyzed while thanking them for the role that they played over the years.
Cummins also said gospel music had endured probably one of the roughest periods in the last 20 years and he was calling on the artistes to get back into the churches with the music.
