Despite their Grammy haul, Dixie Chicks still on the outs with country radio

[DeepModem Mom]

AP: Despite their Grammy haul, Dixie Chicks still on the outs with country radio
Feb 12
KRISTIN M. HALL

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Country radio still isn't ready to make nice with the Dixie Chicks.

With a haul of Grammys Sunday, the Texas trio topped their comeback from their 2003 Bush-bashing comment that turned them from superstars to pariahs - but Music Row isn't welcoming them back into the country-music fold.

"Most country stations aren't playing the Chicks, and they aren't going to start now," said Jim Jacobs, owner of WTDR-FM, a country radio station in Talladega, Ala.

The awards might have the opposite effect, sparking another radio backlash against the group. Country broadcasters said Monday that the group's five Grammys show how out of touch the Recording Academy is from the average country fan.

"I think (the listeners) are outraged," said Tony Lama, program director for KXNP in North Platte, Neb. "This is rural, conservative America. They are just disgusted."

Country stations quit playing the Chicks in 2003 after singer Natalie Maines told a London audience: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas....

***

Country radio may not be ready to embrace them again, but the Grammy runaway suggests that a significant portion of the rest of the country has come around to their way of thinking. The president's approval ratings are down, and his party was ousted in the midterm elections....

http://www.breitbart.com/news/na/cp_e021234A.xml.html

[Bluebear]

1. Fine, "rural conservative America's" loss then.

Keep ducking your head in yonder sand.

[PLF]

29. The Chicks don't care about a few toothless hillbillys anyway.

I think they are happy to leave those idiots behind.

When will he mainstream media recognize the fact that the "backlash" was manufactured by the idiots at ClearChannel.

[ShortnFiery]

2. These stupid a**holes are going to go down with the Right Wing ship ...

Hello? You're re-arranging chairs on the Titanic if you still support Dimson. :shrug:

[Kutjara]

3. So the stations have decided that all their listners are Repugs, have they?

Good to know that every single country music fan is a rightwing, simple-minded asshole. So few things in life are so clearly black and white, it's refreshing to find something that is.

[Bluebear]

13. 'a rightwing, simple-minded asshole'

Yep, the stations in question are practically writing that as their demographic. Don't waste your time with them, Chicks.

[lildreamer316]

41. EXACTLY what I'm saying.

I love a lot of country music.
I live in the south.
I am a liberal progressive.
I listen to radio.


Sigh.

[SammyWinstonJack]

52. Same here except that I stopped listening after they banned

the Dixie Chicks.

[Solly Mack]

4. lol idiots

[tblue]

5. Being called "out of touch with the average country fan" is a huge compliment

And I wonder most country fans really think that way, or is it just the radio station owners & DJs who still hold a grudge?

[wake.up.america]

8. Politics should should play no role in the Grammys.

Politics should should play no role in the Grammys.

Having said that - I like their politics, don't care for their music.

[tblue]

11. It's the only country album I ever bought, and I like it. It's kinda more country rock than

pure country. But I did buy it because I wanted to support them.

[wake.up.america]

20. Well, I guess I'll have to listen to it again. I really do like the "pioneers" of C&W...

such as Hank Williams, Ernest Tubbs, Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, etc.

[rebel with a cause]

56. Grew up with those pioneers of C&W

Along with the pioneers of Blues, Jazz, and the popular music of the time(Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, etc). We also had Opera and other forms of music in my house when I was a child. and I was taught to appreciate it all. But when rock and roll came in, my father said "Give those guys some asprin and ease their pain." and it was a battle to listen to it. For my eighth grade graduation, my father bought me my own radio that had a (this was a new thing) pull out knob to turn it on. I always laughed and said it was more for him than for me, because all he had to do to turn it off was walk by it and flick the knob. :7 This was something he did at least once a day when he was home. I learned to hate country music because of his attitude toward mine, and it took me until I was middle aged to come to terms with it and appreciate some country music again. Now, due to their narrow minded, right wing attitude they have shown, I again have no regard for it.

[unhappycamper]

26. You might want to take a chance and buy their previous CD "Home."

It's at the top of my listen-to list.

[lildreamer316]

42. I don't think the majority really think this.

HOWEVER; they don't want to ADMIT they are ok with it; so they will say they don't want to hear it when I bet you $100 they listen to the Chicks when they are by themselves.

[illinoisprogressive]

6. they will never be forgiven.

[TheWatcher]

19. They don't need to be forgiven.

They need to be celebrated and honored.

It is those who shun them that should beg for forgiveness.

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. They are still looking for those WMDs and a reason to be in Iraq too.

No surprise really.

[saltpoint]

9. If the morons who own those country stations insist on pouting and

stomping their stubborn feet like 3-year olds, I'm prepared to wish the Dixie Chicks well in whatever market will have them.

It looks from Sunday's haul that they are popular among their peers.

I like to think Al Gore and John Kerry have copies of the Chicks' CDs and play them frequently.

[Pirate Smile]

46. At the Obama rally in Ames, IA, they were playing the Dixie Chicks

over the loud speakers before the rally started.

Someone who was at the rally did a Diary on Daily Kos.

The diarist thought it was weird that Obama was playing the Dixie Chicks.

I thought it was weird that he didn't know why a Democratic candidate would be playing the Dixie Chicks.

If they would have looked five Diaries down on the list they would have seen a 100+ comment Diary on the Dixie Chicks and the Grammies. I was going to ask him if he really had no idea why Obama would be playing the Dixie Chicks but I was rushed for time.

[saltpoint]

49. Hi, Pirate Smile. Your instinct was right. I wish you'd had the

chance to put that diarist on the spot.

Good choice for the Obama campaign on music. A lot of people are up on things and would have likely had the same thoughts you had.

Mr. Bush has nearly zero support for his damned war(s). His presidency is approaching Nebraska-line status.

[Why Syzygy]

10. 'They' are just disgusted?

That's how WE feel. We are DISGUSTED. Why is their disgust better than our disgust?
I don't give a rat's patooty if they are DISGUSTED! They can hitch up their britches and get themselves over to Iraq pronto.
Watch the body parts flying around every f*ckin day and night. Let them see their buddies blown into pieces or be returned missing arms and legs. Then get back to me and talk about DISGUST.

They are shameful. Nothing more important to do than snub righteousness.
Sometimes I think reality has been turned on its head. Again. The nightmares from the cabal continue, picked up where Hitler left off.
I pray I live to see the day it crumbles once more.

[tblue]

12. Thank you for saying just what I am thinking. I always wondered why it's assumed that people in the

South, for instance, wouldn't vote from someone from New England. Why do they think they're better than people from, say, Massachussetts? Honestly, can you imagine saying you wouldn't vote for someone because they're from, say, Tennessee??? What bull. There's a word for that kinda thinking — prejudice!

[last_texas_dem]

14. What a moron

>>The Dixie Chicks peaked at No. 36 on the Billboard country charts with "Not Ready to Make Nice." That ought to disqualify them from winning best country album, said Jacobs, the Alabama radio station owner.

"How do you win country music album of the year, when country music radio is not playing you?" he said.>>

Uhh... when were the Grammys ever about honoring who was getting played the most on the radio? Honestly, if Jacobs and his fellow "luminaries" in country radio weren't too busy being a bunch of bought-and-paid-for right-wing shills, they'd realize that it might just be beneficial to their "business" to actually give some airplay to a group whose platinum, #1-debuting album just won five Grammies. (Money is supposedly their bottom line and the reason they give for not playing the Chicks, right?) I mean, consider the airplay boost winning a half-dozen or so Grammies gave to Norah Jones several years ago. "Don't Know Why" went from miniscule airplay to a fair amount based solely on her sweep at the Grammies. It's sad how much the situation has changed now that the deejays or, more accurately, the corporate ownership, have decided to inject their personal politics into determining their playlists.

[Swamp Rat]

15. LOL! The Dixie Chicks don't need "Country Radio"

"Country Radio" needs the Dixie Chicks. :rofl:

[Bluebear]

16. Country radio still has Toby Keith, though!

:rofl:

[XanaDUer]

22. Is that a chipmunk with a mullet?

...

[Frank Cannon]

30. Toby Keith, brave pioneer of the Mullet Perm

A fashion trend that, sadly, began and ended with him.

[Tin Man]

33. Ya know, the terrorists hate us because of our Mullet Perms...

:rofl:

[jollyreaper2112]

47. caveman!

Don't make fun of the caveman, that's Geiko's job.

[rebel with a cause]

57. Hey, I like the Geiko caveman.

don't compare him to that idiot toby. I don't know where it was, but I read somewhere the other day that one critic said something about having to give tk credit for writing his own music, he just hated it was such dumb/bad music. It was something like that, and I found that very amusing for some reason. :shrug: :evilgrin:

[tomreedtoon]

17. Seems to me there were other country music "outlaws."

I don't know much about country music, but I know that people like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams Sr. were considered "outlaws" and were quietly shoved out of the "official" country music years ago.

I remember a fictional film about Williams, called "Hank Williams: The Concert He Never Gave" that showed why; he saw the racism, the cronyism and the reluctance of the country-music conservatives to talk about the real world. About Nelson and Jennings, I know zilch, but I believe they went through the same thing. (Nelson's hair alone probably gave the pomade crowd fits.)

It was only when these guys, travelling on their own, and without the support of the Grand Old Opry establishment, started racking up impressive record sales that they were welcomed back into the fold.

I suspect that the Dixie Chicks are in the same situation...and I hope they find the same happy resolution.

[Frank Cannon]

32. And let's not forget how The Man in Black himself was shunned...

by the "country establishment" for having including a bit too much honesty and integrity in his music. Apparently the Nashville suits didn't care for Mr. Cash's songs about the plight of American Indians or the poor or the soldiers in Vietnam. Cash gave them a hearty...



...and continued for decades to make great music that the masses adored. He died a legend.

The Dixie Chicks will follow in the great man's footsteps, and I couldn't be more proud of them or happier for them.

[TheWatcher]

18. At the risk of being harsh.....My Response to Country Radio

Fuck You, and anyone else who still supports this administration and it's policies.

Sorry, but by now you should know better. And if you don't, you are too stupid, ignorant, or willfully ignorant to be saved.

Not Ready To Make Nice with the sane people of the World?

Tough Shit.

[malaise]

21. Ask them to check the teenagers' Ipods

They're listening so Country radio can fugg off.

[Sydnie]

44. I gave my 14 year old a copy of that CD

and she did just that. She downloaded it onto her Ipod. When they came on the screen the other night singing that song at the Grammy's, my daughter was singing right along with them.

You hit the nail on the head. They have "kicked the dirt of that dirty music row off their boots" and they have found fans elsewhere.

[kdmorris]

23. Went to Wal-Mart last night for the first time in months

And they don't have ANY CD's from the Dixie Chicks. Need to check at Target next.

[Smarmie Doofus]

28. Interesting. I looked in Target about four months ago.

Nothing.

Like they didn't exist.

[LostinVA]

39. I bought my DC cd at Target -- Target and Wal-Mart carry them

[rebel with a cause]

58. Got mine at Wal-Mart when it first came out.

My kids made me promise that I would not say anything political when I bought it before they would take me to get it. B-)

I doubt if I kept my promise.

[donheld]

24. Despite the Dixie Chicks grammy hall, country radio still

Lacks class.

[mmonk]

25. I listen to and buy the Dixie Chicks but do not listen to country

radio. If I wanted to listen to crap, I would take a tape recorder with me when I go to the bathroom.

[maine_raptor]

27. Let's see here now.............

First, we have a quote from a station owner in Talladega, Alabama (Hmm, station owner, eh? - Any bets as to where this red state resident stands in the financial/political dynamic?)

Next, we have a quote from a program director in North Platte, Nebraska (one of the more "redder" states, I do believe.)

Does anybody note a bit of one-sidedness here?

Why no quotes from a blue state owner/director?

[maxrandb]

31. You Know!? I'm soooooo sick of this shit!!

Want to do something about right-wing radio? Want to stop the corporate (read Republican) control over every facet of our news and information mediums? Then we need to do what the "hate-mongers" do so well. We need to hit these fuckers in the wallet again and again. We need to organize letter writing campaigns and e-mail campaigns and boycotts of the advertisers of shows like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Neal Boortz, drive-time hate radio country, western, rock, blues, and whatever else crap our local stations give us.

I'm fucking sick and tired of our airways...OUR AIRWAYS... being used as an extension of the fucking Republic National Committee. Dems stomped their asses in November, and yet, they still act as if they have the fucking mandate.

They (the wingers) pretend that they are so righteous and have strong convictions, but it's all bullshit. It's all about MONEY. You think Hannity would give a rats-ass about "liberals" or the fucking war if he wasn't getting fucking paid? Their "integrity" and "convictions" would go out the window as soon as the dollars started to disappear.

Don't want to play the Dixie Chicks? Fine, then we won't listen to the other crap you're playing, and WE WON'T BUY THE PRODUCTS ADVERTISED ON YOUR PROGRAMS...AND WE'LL MAKE SURE THE COMPANIES KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY THEY ARE LOSING BY ADVERTISING ON YOUR PROGRAM.

Don't want to give equal time to someone to the left of Attila the Hun? Fine, WE WON'T BUY THE PRODUCTS ADVERTISED ON YOUR PROGRAMS...AND WE'LL MAKE SURE THE COMPANIES KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY THEY ARE LOSING BY ADVERTISING ON YOUR PROGRAM.

I'm sorry to curse like the Sailor I am, and I'm sorry for all the CAPS and BOLD, but this is an issue I am passionate about.

We need to stop bitchin' about it, and do something about it. The only way to change our media is to affect their bottom line. That's all that matters to these people. As long as we continue to allow them to believe their behavior is "profitable", they will never change.

[KharmaTrain]

34. Talledega, Ala & North Platte NE...

Now I'm sure the Chicks will be crushed to know all they've lost such major markets.

The best revenge is living well...while the Country stations may have boycotted them, I heard the their music now on AAA, Adult Contemporary and Modern AC stations. Yep, they lost airplay on K-GOP, but they're reaching millions of major market ears...and crying all the way to the bank.

It was their winning the Country Album of the Year that really has frosted the wingnut's butt. Hehe :rofl:

I was pulling for Neil Young's "Let's Impeach The President" to win...and glad it got nominated. The Chicks winning instead was a nice consolation.

Country music has little room to brag these days. It still isn't on a major station in New York and lost their longtime LA station recently.

While the Chicks will make a ton of money with upcoming tours and albums, the yokels at these radio stations will be long gone...and in five years the station they'll work at will offer both FULL and Self Serve. :rofl:

[The Backlash Cometh]

35. I believe in country.

Country was the first American counter-revolutionaries, country were the original rebels. And George Bush now represents a lying totalitarian government.

If anybody manages to explain to these country folk how far we've steered from our American ideals, it's going to be the rage coming from Country music which will turn the tide. And what will wake them up soon, are the number of casualties that will return from Iraq telling the stories of betrayal.

Hang on Dixie Chicks, help is on its way!

[Mike Daniels]

36. For those wondering just who Bush's faithful 32% are

I think this answers the question.

I'm wondering if any of these stations are actually going to offer their listeners a chance to make the decision on whether to bring the Chicks back to the playlists.

[alarimer]

37. Country radio sucks anyway

Obviously they can be successful without a lot of radio play. Remember the O!Brother phenomenon a few years ago? Won all sorts of awards and was number 1 for weeks yet radio stations refused to play it. Country radio (maybe because of Clear Channel but I don't know) is so far behind the curve of what is actually country music it's not funny. Now they way they are treating the Dixie Chicks is malicious and hateful, but they are clueless nonetheless, trying to pass off crap as decent music. Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, etc- none of those people (and many others) get much airplay. Instead it's the Carrie Underwoods of this world (manufactured "stars") who butcher San Antonio Rose on NATIONAL TV and still manage to have hit records. It's disgusting.

[Pyrzqxgl]

55. Thats because there isn't any real country music played on most of it!

Nashville is just another city & most of the music produced there isn't country music. The Grand Ole Opry has become a joke, The Country music Hall of Fame is more concerned with so called contemporary artists and less with the old timers it was created to honor. You'll find people playing and listening to "real" country music in most every part of the country but you won't hear it much on country radio. You know Chet Atkins once siad "If the big record companies could market the key of A# thats all we'd have to listen to". Sooner or later the Dixie Chicks will be back on country radio because it will make sense financially to do that, not because its the right thing to do.

[zbdent]

38. Prior to Natalie's statement, WKDD (top 40 station) played Dixie Chicks'

"Landslide" (Akron) ...

Recently, the Right-Wing morning DJ commemorated the 20th anniversary of Michael Jackson's platimum status, playing some of his hits (I think, Thriller) ... but still refused to play anything by the Dixie Chicks ... talk about a hypocrite ...

[cascadiance]

40. These Country Music folks establish why I can never be a "Hick Music" fan!

If they'd started to embrace folks like The Dixie Chicks, Willie Nelson, and others, I'd perhaps start to look back at them as potentially more of a newer trend of soulful music than a genre that just appeals to redneck hicks! Unfortunately they still are just a bunch of redneck hicks.

Perhaps the Dixie Chicks, Willie Nelson, and a few more like minded "country" artists can band together and start an offshoot of country music stations that are more progressive in their stances, and push more country music that worships intelligence instead of stupidity and arrogance.

A few interesting article about Willie, who also has endured similar treatment from the "redneck crowd", but in his estimation not to the extent that the Dixie Chicks have had:

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2005/04/republicans_put_roadblock_on_willie_nelson_highway/

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/wp/2006/07/30/590

[mmonk]

45. Yep.

Can't support country radio or it's insipid industry, the country music industry in general, but I do support Willie, Alabama, The Dixie Chicks and a few others. But the bridge has burned between me and that industry and it will be a cold day in hell when it is rebuilt.

[LynneSin]

43. If country don't want them, this prog-rock gal will happily take them

I have their latest album on my Netman - I love it!

[spanone]

48. They are lucky, country radio sucks.

[dbt]

50. "Country" Radio will willingly cut off its own dick before

it will countermand the desires of its audiences, who are still "proud" to send their sons and daughters off to die for the Little God in the White House.

Too damn BAD for every Human that John R. Cash is not alive to be talking some sense to the Gawd-Fearin' Murkins of 2007...

:freak:
dbt

Natalie was right. Get over it.

[gratefultobelib]

51. There are a lot of good country artists out there-- Emmy Lou Harris, K.T. Oslin,

Wynonna Judd to name a few. I don't listen to country radio, but I manage to find these artists I like. And the Dixie Chicks, well, let's just say I have every album they've made! I live near KC, MO and some of the letters in the paper last summer during the Chicks tour were just plain hateful and stupid.

[Supersedeas]

53. but they continue to worship Toby.....odd?

[rebel with a cause]

59. Haven't you heard.

toby is a democrat, never was for the Iraq war, and didn't say anything bad about the Dixie Chicks except for when they attacked his music.:sarcasm: This is all according to him now that the war is so unpopular and he is not winning any awards. Personally I don't care what he says, I remember what he has done and said.

[progressivebydesign]

54. My friend is a country music DJ, has a popular morning show.

She likes the Dixie Chicks, her boss.. the Program Director (who doesn't know country from a hole in the ground.. coming from a rock station), has told anyone who calls about the Chicks, that they don't play them because "the new album is NOT country enough!". They are a Clear Channel station, and I'm sure that the determination of what gets played is solely in the hands of Clear Channel. They just tell him what to say. He actually gets pissed off when people call the station to complain if they play an old Dixie Chicks song, when they complain that they're Un-American and shouldn't be played at all. I really think it's corporate (republican) radio that is freezing them out. The album is as country as Faith Hill's latest stuff, and Jon Bon Jovi's crossover song.