Starcom ban baffles Serenader

VETERAN CALYPSONIAN SERENADER and his 2010 Crop-Over party song Top-Up Or Card seem to have run afoul of the guidelines of Starcom Network’s radio stations.The two-time calypso monarch, real name Elenza Brewster, said it was puzzling that the song was getting airplay on the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio stations but not being heard on the River Road stations.“[Starcom Network] would not explain what is the problem with the song. If my pronunciation wasn’t clear, I would go along with them,” Serenader told the SATURDAY SUN this week.The veteran calypsonian charged that when he spoke to Starcom Network Inc.’s programme director Ronnie Clarke about the non-playing of the song, he was told management was looking at it.When contacted, Clarke would only say: “I can’t make a comment at this time.”The controversial party song tells a story about receiving mobile phone calls with the senders requesting to return the call.Serenader sings that when he returns the calls, the female callers request him to send them a “top-up” or a phone card.According to reports, it is felt that some sections of the chorus could be misinterpreted as being obscene.“There’s nothing wrong with [the song]. Tell me why [Starcom Network] are not playing it. I feel bad and disappointed,” Serenader said.An annual performer in the De Big Show tent, Serenader took the Pic-O-De-Crop calypso monarch title in 1990, singing Jogging and Tug-O-War and won again three years later (1993) with Steel In Dey and Breakdown..