It’s unlikely listeners will hear one of Morgan Wallen’s songs on any radio station in America until further notice. After the country star was caught on video using a racial slur, iHeartMedia, Entercom, Beasley, and Alpha have all publicly denounced Wallen in a swift fall from grace.
The video that has Wallen in hot water was recorded by Wallen’s neighbors, showing him yelling profanities after a night out partying in Nashville, including the N-word. TMZ was first to air the video.
Wallen’s record label suspended him as well. SiriusXM also announced no more plays for Wallen.
Wallen issued a statement after the drunken incident on Sunday went public: “I’m embarrassed and sorry. I used an unacceptable and inappropriate racial slur that I wish I could take back. There are no excuses to use this type of language, ever. I want to sincerely apologize for using the word. I promise to do better.”
An interesting sidebar. The 2021 Country Radio Seminar is set to begin in ten days. Typically this time of year news stories pop up about the number of female artists being played on country radio stations, intentionally written to try to raise the topic at the Country Radio Seminar, when the music and radio industries occupy Music City together for several days. Then…Morgan Wallen happened. However, the normal hotel lobby chatter will not be taking place, with the 2021 conference being held virtually. It will be interesting to see how the topic is raised during the event.
Here are the statements provided by radio…
iHeartMedia: “In light of Morgan Wallen’s recent actions involving the use of a racial slur, we have made the decision to remove his music and content from our stations effective immediately.”
Entercom: In light of Morgan Wallen’s recent use of a racial slur, we’ve discussed the incident with our Country brand leadership team and together have made the decision to remove Morgan’s music from Entercom’s playlists.
Beasley Media: “We were deeply saddened and disappointed to hear of the recent comment made by Morgan Wallen. Beasley is a company that celebrates diversity, equity and inclusion. We have pulled his music from our seven country stations’ playlists.”
Alpha Media: “Alpha Media has decided to remove all of Morgan Wallen’s music and content from our radio stations and digital destinations, effective immediately. Alpha has zero-tolerance for racial slurs and practices diversity and inclusion in all levels of operations.”
Hubbard “Hubbard Radio is not currently playing Morgan Wallen’s music on any of its stations.”
We also understand that Townsquare is no longer playing Morgan Wallen’s music.
Cumulus Media did not provide a response to our request for a statement.
Turn all the radio stations OFF!!! This is such crap!!!
The most outstanding feature of the radio is the OFF switch. CLICK!! I don’t listen to iHeart, I don’t listen to Alpha, I don’t listen to Entercom, and I sometimes listen to Beasley…time to listen to CD’s and leave the radio OFF if this the game they play….
So he has been “black” listed?
I see Entercom is on board with this. I’m surprised Townsquare joined in as well.
Cumulus was first to drop him.
Who hasn’t dropped Wallen? Smaller station groups, regional groups, and mom-and-pop stations.
As a Christian, I believe in redemption and forgiveness, if the ‘offender’ is sincere.
The ‘n’ word is certainly an ugly one, and its use not to be tolerated. So, if Wallen gets the substance abuse help that he needs, and then apologizes, he should be able to return to his music career.
If he goes through all of the redemptive steps and is still ‘cancelled’, then that is a real problem that also needs to be fixed.
He already did all that stuff when he got bounced from Saturday Night Live last fall. He promised it would never happen again. He promised all the people close to him, the ones he works with, that he learned his lesson. Then this happened. So all of HIS people dropped him. This is more than just radio. This is more than the industry. His record label and his agent dropped him. Because he lied to them. He doesn’t fix that by going to rehab. That chance passed the last time. So he needs to start at the bottom again.
iHeartMedia, Entercom, Beasley, and Cumulus must not have any hip-hop stations.
Or maybe they do, but they’ve decided to just play dead air full time.
Welcome to the “woke” double standard, Chapter whatever we’re at now…
The difference is he’s done this twice before. So this is the third strike. He needs help. Maybe now he’ll finally get it. He promised to get it the last time.