DIXIE CHICKS UPDATE

I just got this from one of the people in an online political group I belong to:

Country radio nixes Dixie Chicks
NASHVILLLE, Tenn., May 22 (UPI) -- It appears the war U.S. country radio stations mounted against the politically outspoken Dixie Chicks has not abated in the least.

Although the album hits stores Tuesday, the first two singles from the album are not getting widespread airplay, Billboard.com reported Monday.

The first single, "Not Ready to Make Nice," only peaked at No. 36 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and the second single, "Everybody Knows," is moving downward after its peak at No. 48.

WKIS FM in Miami reported it pulled "Not Ready to Make Nice" due to listener complaints after only one week.

The program director at KUBL/KKAT in Salt Lake City told Billboard he was angered by its "self-indulgent and selfish lyrics."


As I was going to post this, I found this report in my local paper:

Dixie Chicks get cold reception on many Tucson, Phoenix radio stations
By Sarah Mauet
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 05.26.2006

The politically outspoken Dixie Chicks released a new album this week, but the band’s new music is absent from most country radio stations nationwide, including those in Tucson and Phoenix.

Only 14 of the nation’s 123 country music stations played the single this week, according to Mediabase-Music Info Systems, which keeps track of radio station play lists. Tucson’s KIIM (99.5-FM) and Phoenix’s KNIX (102.5-FM) have not played “Not Ready to Make Nice,” Mediabase reports show.

“Our job is to program to the tastes of our listeners,” KIIM program director Buzz Jackson said. “If the Dixie Chicks make a hit song and the majority of the audience wants to hear the song then we’ll definitely consider playing the song.”

In Phoenix, KNIX program director Ray Massie said the decision not to play the song is based on listener feedback.

“We are receiving a lot of e-mail on both sides of the issue, people who want to hear them played and people who don’t, and our goal is to do what our listeners tell us to do,” Massie said. “We always keep our focus on the listeners, not any political statements from either side. What the listeners want, that’s what the radio station reflects.”

Music director Chris Huff of KSCS-FM and KTYS-FM in the Dallas-Fort Worth area instructed DJs not to introduce the song but to simply announce the name and artist when it was over.

Huff stood back and watched what happened. What he saw did not bode well for the Chicks.

Hacked-off e-mails filled the station’s in-boxes, and listeners called the request line with anti-requests, demanding the song’s removal.

“The negatives outweighed the positives,” Huff said. “The passions run deep on either side, those who want to hear them and those who don’t. But ultimately, we have to listen to the majority of our audience and if the majority says don’t play them, then we don’t.”

Because of decisions like Huff’s, “Not Ready To Make Nice” peaked at No. 36 on Billboard’s country singles chart, which reflects national airplay. But elsewhere in the industry, the trio seems to be doing well: “Taking the Long Way” tops the sales lists of both Amazon.com and iTunes.

In Tucson, the single is getting some play — on community radio station KXCI (91.3-FM).

“We just got the new album and I haven’t even finished listening to the whole thing but the first five or six songs are so good I wanted to share them immediately,” acting general manager Randy Peterson said Thursday, moments after the song aired.

While KXCI has an eclectic format, 10 percent to 15 percent of the music played is country. The station has Dixie Chicks CDs and material that dates back to the early ‘90s, well before the band had its mainstream hits, and Peterson said he has every intention to continue playing the band’s old and new music.

“We don’t make decisions about music based on politics — although when we hear another station is banning an album, our ears do perk up,” he said.



Going by memory, it wasn't until 1970 that a majority of the Republicans thought the Vietnam War was wrong, so I was thinking that maybe it's just a matter of time before the entire country comes around but according to Pew Research, I'm wrong again:

Although Vietnam is recalled as a divisive conflict, opinions about whether the war was a mistake did not divide sharply along partisan lines. Gallup trends from the mid-1960s through the early '70s show that the difference of opinion between Republicans and Democrats about Vietnam never exceeded 18 percentage points.

In contrast, Iraq divides America along partisan lines in a way that Vietnam never did. The latest Pew survey finds that 73% of Democrats believe that military action in Iraq was the wrong decision, compared with just 14% of Republicans - a gap roughly three times as great as the largest partisan gap in opinions about Vietnam. (In June 1967, 51% of Republicans viewed Vietnam as a mistake, compared with 33% of Democrats.)