Posted on 03/15/2003 3:33:16 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Some Texas stations drop Dixie Chicks tunes
03/15/2003
By DIANA HEIDGERD / The Associated Press
DALLAS — When it comes to President Bush, the Dixie Chicks are singing a different tune. But not every country radio station is playing it.
Natalie Maines, the Grammy Award-winning group's lead singer, apologized Friday for her criticism of President Bush and possible war against Iraq. That didn't stop some stations in Texas and other parts of the country from pulling Dixie Chicks songs off their programs.
Radio stations started getting angry calls from listeners after Maines told a London audience Monday, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."
The Dixie Chicks are touring Europe, supporting their recent release "Home," where Maines said Friday they are "witnessing a huge anti-American sentiment as a result of the perceived rush to war." Maines said she is a mother and wants to see "every possible alternative exhausted" before lives are lost.
In her apology, Maines said, "As a concerned American citizen, I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful. I feel that whoever holds that office should be treated with the utmost respect."
Bush was born in Connecticut but grew up in West Texas. He has a ranch near Crawford, Texas and served as governor for six years. Maines is a native of Lubbock.
"We've had a huge listener reaction and movement against the statements," said Paul Williams, program director for KPLX-FM in Dallas-Fort Worth, the nation's fifth largest radio market.
On the Web site for KSCS-FM, also in Dallas-Fort Worth, was a photo of the three-member group, with black tape over Maines' mouth. The headline at www.kscs.com read: "Have The Dixie Chicks Gone Too Far?"
Ted Stecker, KSCS program director, said he had never had this kind of response from an audience during his 30 years in the music business.
"A lot could depend on how the Dixie Chicks respond and face their fans," he said.
In Kansas City, WDAF set trash cans outside the radio station for people to throw their Dixie Chicks CDs away. The station has boycotted the group's music on air, and its Web site displayed more than 800 e-mails from listeners. Most people voiced outrage about Maines' comment and praised the station for its boycott.
A few voiced support for the group and for their right to freely speak their opinions about the country and the president.
But Tom Fontaine, an on-air personality at KILT-FM in Houston, said, "We stand behind our president and we are proud he is from Texas."
The station has suspended playing the Dixie Chicks.
"We have run polls and the overwhelming majority of the calls have been for us not to play the Dixie Chicks," said Fontaine.
El Paso station KHEY-FM has received complaints and won't play any Dixie Chicks songs this weekend, said Program Director Steve Gramzay. The temporary ban will "give everybody a chance to cool down," he said.
The Dixie Chicks' U.S. leg of their "Top of the World Tour" was scheduled to kick off May 1 in Greenville, S.C.'s Bi-Lo Center to a sold-out crowd. But attendance is now more uncertain.
Jill Weninger, the center's marketing director, said the first call she received Friday morning was from a woman who felt Greenville didn't need the group after its "anti-American" statements. She said she also received two e-mails but that was the extent of the complaints.
"One person that e-mailed said she had tickets but she wouldn't be coming," Weninger said.
The Bi-Lo Center sold out during the Dixie Chicks' first appearance and again this year on the first day they went on sale, Weninger said.
After more than 250 listeners called in a two-hour period Friday morning to complain about Maines' comments, WTDR-FM in Talladega, Ala., dropped the Dixie Chicks.
"The emotion of the callers telling us about their fathers and sons and brothers who are overseas now and who fought in previous wars was very specific," said Jim Jacobs, president of Jacobs Broadcast Group, which includes WTDR.
In North Platte, Neb., a radio station joined the boycott. "Due to un-American comments made by the Dixie Chicks very recently in London, we here at KXNP/KODY will be putting their music," Program and Operations Director Tony Lama said in a prepared statement Friday.
The Dixie Chicks, who performed their hit "Landslide" at the Feb. 23 Grammy Awards, won four Grammys at this year's show, including Best Country Album for "Home." Their next stop is Wednesday in Munich, where American policies against Iraq are widely criticized. They return to Texas on May 21 in Austin.
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On the Net:
www.thunder927.com (ap.state.online.tx 0448 03/15/2003 05:10:54 )
Probably not much demand for country music in New Hampshire?
I have a very good friend that works in a major distributing hub for country music . I'll be asking him to keep me informed as to the effect on the "Vichy Clucks" sales and will share it with ya here when I get it. BTW does anyone know if any of these three are really from Texas or are they just claiming such for PR ? I could'nt find such in the on line bios. Just what state do they live in ?
Stay Safe !!
HAHAHAHAHA! Good one.
I also like the "Bill Clinton Apology Tour" line....
I'm very disappointed and extremely upset. My dad's ashes are in Arlington National Cemetery. He died for your freedom of speech Natalie. Lord willing, your son will always have his patriotic mother around, but my dad is gone and my children will never know their grandfather. Along with free speech comes responsibility...and sometimes consequences. I have seven family members in the military fighting for your freedom right now and they will be giving freedom to the women and children of Iraq who have been tortured for 30 years which you care so deeply about. 1,000's and 1,000's of liters or anthrax means nothing to you. Sharing recipes with terrorists, the same terrorists who killed 3,000 innocent Americans on September 11th, means nothing to you. HUMBLE YOURSELF! Shame on you! You tear military families down when you say crap like that. I will be removing your CD's from my collection and I will no longer support any business endeavor of yours....EVER.
The LEFT organizes "letter writing" campaigns too, but they are always hollow and phoney. Letters like yours are real, and that shines through.
I bet the Vichy Chicks managers is mainlining Alka-Seltzer these days....
No, actually it isn't important that you comment. I really don't give a *&^% what you think. But thanks for letting me know. Your CD is getting smashed too. My CD's have been in need of a good spring cleaning anyway.
Let's go on to deliver them their "Appomatox", too!
They deserve to be run out of business, if for anything, two important reasons: a) it is a great psy war against the anti-Bush left in the US that thinks they are as hot as French toast with their rallies; showing the sleeping giant of grassroots America is actually pro-America and does not suffer fools and traitors easily; and b) it will send a strong message to the Entertainment Industry, teaming with traitors, to keep their traps shut and don't use their visibility for anti-American purposes, particularly when overseas and in public.
I say we do not rest until they have had their careers ruined, for these two reasons alone. Appommatox for the "Dixie Chicks"!
I think I'm gonna call my local radio station and ask them to play Merle Haggard's "Walkin' on the Fightin' Side of Me" and dedicate it to that midget cow Natalie.
Chrissy Hynde from the Pretenders said she hopes we get our asses kicked. Last night a young mother and wife of a Marine called into the Hannity radio show to comment. She started to cry over comments these ignorant people make. She said she faces the posibility of her husband not returning. It broke my heart.
These people make their anti-war comments but then jump in and say, "BUT we support the military". THEIR COMMENTS ARE NOT SUPPORTIVE TO THE YOUNG WIVES AND MOTHERS IN THIS COUNTRY WHO HAVE THE HARDEST JOB IN THE MILITARY!
I hate these people for hurting these families.
I have a question of my own for Johnny Cougar:
"How does keeping Saddam in power promote peace and justice in Iraq?"
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