Posted by chicagomedia.org on February 12, 2009 at 11:28:07:
Chris Brown to remain on area playlists, for now
By Mark Caro | Tribune reporter
February 12, 2009
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Turns out Chicago isn't Cleveland, and Chris Brown isn't Michael Jackson, at least not yet.
So although Cleveland's KISS-FM 96.5 announced Tuesday that it was dropping Brown from its playlist after he was arrested for allegedly attacking girlfriend/pop star Rihanna, Chicago stations continue playing the 19-year-old singer's music.
"I think that taking music off the air is cheap publicity," said Todd Cavanah, program director of the Top 40 station WBBM-FM 96.3 (B96). "We haven't heard the whole story."
Chicago's hits-oriented KISS-FM 103.5, a Clear Channel station, also hasn't followed its Cleveland cousin's lead.
"Clear Channel Radio Chicago has not made any adjustments to our playlist in reference to Chris Brown and has no plans to do so," said Angela Ingram, vice president of communications for Clear Channel Radio Chicago.
She said the same holds true for Clear Channel's R&B/hip-hop station WGCI-FM 107.5.
The Cleveland KISS announced that its Brown ban came in response to listeners' "outraged" calls.
The station stated it would not support Brown "until the alleged situation gets resolved."
Indianapolis's WNOU-FM 100.9 also cited listener response in deciding it would "temporarily suspend" the airplay of Brown's music.
"We do not take domestic violence allegations lightly," the station stated.
At Chicago's KISS and WGCI, Ingram said feedback regarding Brown's and Rihanna's music "hasn't been anything out of the ordinary."
B96 music director Erik Bradley said listeners there haven't been calling for a ban, although Brown's alleged in-car assault on Rihanna "has been quite a hot button, and the audience is livid about the allegations."
Said Cavanah: "If you really want to help the situation with domestic violence, you talk to listeners on the air, you take call-ins and you let people know where they can turn. But taking music off the air I don't really think does anybody any good."
Cavanah's position has evolved over the years. When R. Kelly was arrested in 2002 on child pornography charges, several Chicago stations dropped his music, including B96, which determined that the two Kelly songs then in rotation, "Feelin' on Yo Booty" and "Down Low (Nobody Has To Know)," were especially inappropriate in context.
Cavanah told the Tribune at the time: "Child pornography is not a funny thing. ... If he is found innocent, we will definitely re-address the issue, but right now, there is no R. Kelly on B96."
But B96 reversed course as Kelly continued making popular music while his case dragged along in the courts for years. The station concluded that listeners cared more about the tunes than the allegations, a feeling that for now applies to Brown.
"At the end of the day, I think people like those songs," Bradley said. "If we took everyone off the radio who had any kind of personal issue, I think we'd be facing a lot of dead air."
For instance, rapper T.I. had a No. 1 hit duet with Rihanna last fall, "Live Your Life," although he's scheduled to enter prison next month for a year after pleading guilty to U.S. federal weapons charges.
Bob Burke, managing director of the radio trade publication Friday Morning Quarterback, said it's too early to judge the allegations' impact, particularly given that neither Brown nor Rihanna has a new release in heavy rotation.
"If these pictures [of an allegedly battered Rihanna] surface, that could be trouble," Burke said.
Cavanah figures listeners will let his station know if and when they no longer want to hear Brown, just as they did with Michael Jackson after he faced child sexual abuse charges, never mind his acquittal.
"If he is found guilty of these terrible things," Cavanah said of Brown, "people aren't going to want to support him or his career, so I don't think we'll have to make those decisions."