Posted on 08/15/2006 8:31:54 AM PDT by Snickering Hound
More than 20,000 Dixie Chicks fans in Houston bought the band's latest album, the 1.5 million-selling Taking the Long Way.
That much is clear, along with the fact that the Dixie Chicks' Houston concert date was canceled.
The promoter blames the radio stations.
Initial reports cited slow ticket sales. But tickets for the Toyota Center show never went on sale.
The country radio stations credit their listeners with the cancellation and blame the Chicks for a bad attitude.
The fans will have to book trips to Dallas or Austin.
Louis Messina, president of the Messina Group, the Houston-based concert promoter that booked the Dixie Chicks' Accidents and Accusations Tour says Houston's country radio stations refused advertising dollars to promote the show.
Radio is still upset with the band's loose-lipped members — singer Natalie Maines, fiddler Martie Maguire and banjoist Emily Robison — who publicly requested a divorce from the country format earlier this year.
The trouble started in London in 2003 when Maines made critical remarks about President Bush during a show.
The group's music was banned from several mainstream country playlists, including local country stations KILT (100.3 FM) and KKBQ (92.9 FM). And the shoulder got colder this summer.
"Radio has chosen not only to not promote (the Dixie Chicks); they wouldn't even accept our advertising money," Messina says.
John Brejot, general sales manager at local country station KILT, confirmed that the station refused advertising for the show. KILT's position was that it didn't advertise bands that weren't on its playlist.
Since promoters often front the money for the band, the venue rental and other production costs, Messina says the final decision to yank Houston from the itinerary was his, and it was a financial one. Canadian cities, which make up 16 of the tour's 43 dates (some cities host two shows), were a lesser risk than the South and Midwest, where response to Maines' comments seemed hotter.
"We had 40 dates ... to promote, and ultimately we had to pick the 40 best markets," Messina says. "That's it in a nutshell."
Caroline Devine, the general manager at KKBQ, says that the Houston date was taken off the books before the station was approached about advertising it. Future advertising offers would be "addressed by request," although she says the station still doesn't play the Dixie Chicks.
Jeff Garrison, program director for KILT, blames the band for alienating fans. He says his listeners voted the group off the air.
Refusal to play the group is "not a station or (parent company) policy," says Garrison. "It's a direct dictum from the listeners."
Garrison cites an Edison Media Research national survey of 12 radio stations across the country, including KILT, which says 19 percent of listeners think radio should avoid the Dixie Chicks altogether. Fifty-one percent took offense at Maines' comment but thought the Chicks still belonged on the radio, 15 percent agreed with Maines, and 15 percent were unsure.
The real rub appears to be the Chicks' cavalier attitude about country radio. In a May issue of Time magazine, singer Tim McGraw called the dispute a "family skirmish."
"I'd rather have a smaller following of really cool people who get it," Chicks fiddler Maguire said in the Time story, "who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith. We don't want those kinds of fans. They limit what you can do."
KILT's Garrison cites the Time story as proof that the Chicks would rather be on adult contemporary playlists. "If (tour organizers) wanted radio promotion, they should've gone to the AC stations," he says.
The band released Taking the Long Way on May 23. It spent two weeks on top of the pop charts and is one of the year's top-selling albums.
Nielsen SoundScan reports 22,000 copies of Long Way have sold in Houston. That compares favorably to Austin (19,000), which will still host a Chicks show in December, and less favorably to Dallas, where 36,000 copies of the album have sold (it's also on the band's itinerary).
Of course, there's no guarantee that the 22,000 Houstonians who paid less than$20 for the CD will pay upward of $50 for a concert ticket. But the sales figures suggest a notable presence of fans in this area.
But the band's listenership has been split into thirds: the departed, the forgiving and the consistently supportive.
Lone Star Jukebox host Rick Heysquierdo thinks the ink is fading on the band's scarlet letter.
"I think people have forgiven them," says Heysquierdo, whose Saturday morning show airs on KPFT (90.1 FM). "I think individuals have forgiven them. (But) I think your AM ... radio is going to continue to push that hate platform."
That platform can be found elsewhere. Lee Harless, general manager of the popular north Houston dance hall Tumbleweed Texas, says DJs at the venue added an old Chicks hit to its dance mix this summer. The reaction was swift and negative, and the song was yanked before it completed.
"We did try to play them, and we dealt with the wrath," Harless says.
Caitlin Prescott considers herself a fan. She attended the band's Houston concert months after the 2003 flap and enjoyed the show, she says. But she was in it for the music, not the politics.
"It's great to live in a country where you can disagree with the government and not be killed for it," says Prescott, a Houston resident and avid country-Western dancer. "But I don't necessarily want to hear their political views, and I don't agree with their political views."
Even so, if they were playing in Houston, she might go.
"I'm not driving to Dallas to see it," Prescott says, "but if they were coming here, I would go see them."
The fourth largest American city... located in Texas, where the band is from... isn't in their top 40 markets? Interesting.
KPFT is Pacifica tax payer supported left wing radio (of "Amy Bin Goodman").
My five-disc changer always has at least one Reba McEntire CD in it. I would never contaminate it by loading anything by the Dixie Chicks.
One day I got fed up, and decided to throw out all of my Dixie Chicks CD's, only to remember that I had never purchased any in the first place...
That's okay, Boston isn't a big college town anyway...
The Houston Chron is a NYT wannabe.
If the Chicks want to know who to blame, they need to find a big, fat mirror.
Note to The Dixie Chicks and other celebrities. Freedom of speech means that you can make all the anti-American comments that you want. It does not mean that good Americans need to pay you money for it. It also does not mean that anyone needs to provide you with a forum for making more anti-American statements.
There Maquire, I fixed it for you.
You're welcome!
During the initial stink, I heard the brunette make the comment on some TV interview that she was always having to explain to her friends why she was playing country music.
That told me she was in it for cash. My God, she doesn't even have friends in Country Music.
"The Chicks could always schedule SMALLER venues but I doubt their egos would allow that."
Could they do a concert in a phone booth?
The title of their next tour will be "We used to be Famous" and they will be playing in coffee shops and wine bars for tips.
Advertise the show elsewhere you dolt! Given that it's the Ditsie Chicks, the mainstream media would have promoted the show for free.
Or, is it just that your marketing survey indicated nonexistent ticket sales, and the radio stations are just a convenient scape goat?
It's probably closer to 4 million people in the greater Houston area. In any event, about 1 out every 200 Houstonians bought their album.
Take out the ones who bought it as a political statement, and the numbers are probably really horrible.
We easily have more than 22,000 moonbats living in town.
Reba is a multitalented lady
like Dolly P. She can act as
well as sing/compose moving
music.
And in case people think we are talking crazy for discussing "buying a CD just to spite the boycott...."
http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/mtarchive/001342.html
Buy a Dixie Chicks Album for Freedom"The Dixie Chicks' album is plummeting because they are being kept off the air for saying what many of us feel. I myself am about to buy muh very first Dixie Chicks CD."
"You can get their new one, Home, for $14.00 plus shipping at their web site." (with a number of replies)
>>"Your view leads to saying blacklists are just fine, doesn't it? By "blacklisting" I mean a loosely organized agreement to drive someone out of a line of work because of political views that have nothing to do with that line of work. I think that's despicable behavior and erodes everyone's ability to speak her mind. Blacklisting may be our right (I don't know if it is), but not everything we have a right to do is something we ought to do. Would you favor blacklisting actors whose political views are unpopular?"
Two chicks and a pig.
" negotiating the now-postponed dates, the band balked at a guaranteed nightly fee of around $500,000 because the tour's promoter, Anschutz Corp.'s AEG Live, would give them only 90 percent of the ultimate gross of the show. Instead, they negotiated a deal for 95 percent of the door with no guarantee -- a move that backfired when it became clear that ticket sales were below expectations. AEG Live Chief Executive Randy Phillips couldn't be reached for comment."
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06164/697892-42.stm
This was also posted on www.hitsdailydouble.com on 6/9...
"On the other hand, execs at Dixie Chicks tour promoter AEG are very visibly high-fiveing one another after manager Simon Renshaw and the band turned down a 90/10 split and $30 million guarantee in favor of a 95/5 arrangement, which may have cost them as much as $20 million, with advance ticket sales reportedly soft in several Red State markets. (6/9p)
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