CBS Radio has been getting a lot of national press the last few days and it has nothing to do with the Entercom merger. One day after her story went viral, Country Artist Lindsay Ell spoke to The Washinton Post about being cancelled by CBS Radio in Sacramento because she’s dating Bobby Bones, who’s syndicated by iHeartMedia. And CBS Radio is trying to do a little damage control over the incident. The station clearly realized the decision to cancel Ell was a mistake and appears to be doing whatever it can to make things right.
When Ell sent out a tweet that her show was cancelled because of her personal life, angry fans went social media crazy on CBS’ KNCI in Sacramento. We received this statement from KNCI Monday: “Lindsay is an amazingly talented, up-and-coming artist and today we regrettably made a bad decision to cancel her show. We only hope that she — and our listeners — will forgive us, and that Lindsay and her team will allow us to reschedule the show.” In addition, The Post is reporting that top CBS Radio executives called Ell’s people to apologize, admitting what they did was a mistake and asking her management team what they could do to make up for it.
On Monday, Ell told The Washinton Post that performing shouldn’t have anything to so with her personal life. “It felt like, all of a sudden, you can’t be a powerful female with goals and dreams and date another powerful person. It’s frustrating to me because I feel like it shouldn’t matter what a guy or a girl [does] in their free time — that shouldn’t affect their business.”
Before Monday, Bobby Bones wasn’t even playing Ell’s latest single on his program because he says he wanted to avoid being thought of as playing favorites. He spoke about the incident on his program Monday stating Ell was discriminated against because of her personal life.
Bones also said on his show that he’s been told by other PD’s they will not play Ell’s music because of him. “It really is a microcosm of what’s happening to females in country music. There is a group of programmers that look for things and reasons not to play female artists. I have a list of names that have told her specifically, ‘I’m not playing you ’cause of Bobby.’ Life’s not fair. It wouldn’t happen to a dude.”
Ell went on to say to The Post that she doesn’t think this was a one-time incident in Country radio. “It seems like women are having an extremely hard time getting on the radio as it is. Females are criticized for other things than just the music. It’s hard being a woman in a male-dominated industry. And I just don’t think what happened to me is an isolated thing.”
Nothing has changed but the date.
Clueless idiots once policed playlists with the iron-clad rule that no female artists could be played back-to-back and no more than one female artist per hour.
Same stupidity. Different day …
The PD of KNCI doesn’t have the slightest clue about the country format, He’s more of a HOT AC programmer and their consultant while credible, is wrong on calls about 50% of the time. Which explains why after dominating the market for so long that IheartMedia’s The Bull is closing in on them.
Having been a country radio programmer and the VP/Market Manager for a station in that format this is without a doubt the most asinine, stupid, knee jerk, idiotic move that could have been made by KNCI. Her personal life has nothing to do with her performing life. 99% of her fans don’t have a clue who Bobby Bones is anyway and she certainly isn’t going to be on stage promoting him. C’mon PD’s get a life and cater to your audience not your egos.