Country Music Legends to Testify at Nashville Hearing
Posted December 5th, 2006 by Jen Howard
Some of country music’s biggest names — George Jones, Porter Wagoner, Naomi Judd, Dobie Gray, Craig Wiseman — will testify at the FCC’s upcoming hearing in Nashville on Dec. 11. In the country music capital, one would expect nothing less.
The FCC announced yesterday that the music legends are slated for a panel on issues affecting the music recording industry. The issue sure to be at the forefront of discussion: radio consolidation.
Musicians and songwriters — in Nashville and across the country — are increasingly at the mercy of a consolidated radio industry. In almost every metropolitan area, the four largest radio owners combined dominate over 70 percent of the market.
And according to a study done by the Future of Music Coalition, radio’s corporate giants almost exclusively interact with a consolidated recording industry, creating a pay-to-play system of homogenized programming with shorter, cookie-cutter playlists.
With so much control in so few hands, new musicians and songwriters have little opportunity to get their foot in the door — 80 to 100 percent of radio charts are dominated by songs released by the five major label conglomerates. Seasoned artists face lopsided deals with little creative control.
Its no wonder that critical pieces of American culture are vanishing from the commercial radio landscape, including genres like jazz, classical, bluegrass, big band and folk.
Come to the Nashville hearing on media ownership to see the country legends — but stay to tell the FCC Commissioners to bring back local, diverse, original music to our radio airwaves.
