A NETWORK OF MUSICIANS AS PROGRAM HOSTS - THE NEW PAYOLA?

[cklw800]

It has been mentioned in other threads about the "appearance" of payola in the case of the BA Network having many of the musicians their Smooth Jazz format plays serving as program hosts. You do have hosts Ramsey Lewis, Dave Koz, Brian Culbertson, Kenny G, Norman Brown and Paul Hardcastle all releasing product regularly with the freedom to play it and promote it. Should there be disclaimers aired when they do this? It's been said that since BA chief Allan Kepler has a countdown show (also airing on non-smooth jazz stations) which no doubt will see all these artists played, it's a guarantee their projects will never suck. I couldn't imagine any of their projects flopping while they're on the network. In other threads it's also been said that since these instrumentalists will be adding vocals to their future projects to remain relevant, they could easily break the vocalists to the AC and CHR formats with an easy cheap promotion machine. The network hosts themselves. There's also guaranteed help from R&R since they don't have much else to report on this format other than what the network is doing. Many local smooth jazz program hosts are being forced out. What's really left? Looks like the kind of monopolization that should really be looked into. In a big way. It's not fair for a lot of musicians unless of course they do guest work on BA hosts releases. With the "performance tax" and royalty fees discussions, this shouldn't be overlooked.

 

[AnotherCat]

As we say in the south, "I'm just sayin' " when I bring this up but go to the website of any BA station or SJ network station and look at their list of recently played songs...it seems like every time I hit a site at least 2 of the songs on the last hour are by G, Hardcastle, Brown, Koz, or Culbertson or an old song that Lewis was involved with. add production credits and that goes up. Hit a few sites at random and see what comes up ???

Regardless of what one's opinion is of BA, their tactics, or the format they have created...whether you love it, hate it, or are somewhere in between the fact remains that too much power in too few hands is never a good thing.

As far as the idea that if an artist has BA input while they are recording then the project won't suck that has nothing to do with listeners, fans or consumers. The powers that be that are the key players at radio (and this field has been reduced to a few BA folk) will think it doesn't suck but that has nothing to do with the audience/fans/consumers who are not coughing up their hard earned cash for imitative, formula music that fits the radio format. They are spending on cruises and festivals where the musicians get to cut loose, and wondering why they can't get music like that on CD/download... hmmmmm....These guys have created an extremely insular culture, they don't get outside their little circle very often so they mostly just "yes" each other. Add to that that they don't interact with listeners or hang out with them. They just study them and quantify them. Big different. They lost touch a long time ago but radio listening in these times is about "better than nothing" and the corporate stations in other formats aren't any better so. It's all about settling for less.

 

[SiriusJazz]

Whoa, Anothercat, you hit the nail on the head. Yes, it is a very tight circle with those folks, and heaven forbid you should disagree with the Kepler. No nastiness on my part, it's just a fact.

Having those artists on the network is not a great idea, though Koz is pretty good. Ramsey, so so, but that's just me.

Everything is scripted out for the artists that are on the air, and that includes Dave, he doesn't a lot of time to really put together a show. So, some of the BA people are also in charge of putting words into the mouths of these talking heads. Do I resent it? Yes, I do. But that's radio, or will be in the very near future.

 

[Bill Harmonic]

I finds it very interesting that everyone continues to gripe and moan about the BA machine and maybe that's more of a cathartic exercise we all go through to try to rid ourselves of this disease that has plagued our format. But the time has come that we quit spending so much energy on those bozos and start to figure out the answers that will deliver us out of exile and into the promised land. Yes, Allen, Rad and Steve couldn't program their way out of a wet paper bag but they were smart enough and had enough leverage to exploit a weakness or two in the format. That turned into Frankenstein and the monster grew to be huge and started to run amok over the landscape and they just went with the flow because no one could stop them. They will stop it themselves because they want it to evolve into something else and as I said before "get on with it" and leave those of us who care to pick up the pieces to rebuild what the monster has brought down. The BA folks are not bad people but they are simply research geeks who know nothing else. They actually believe by taking out the passion and soul of the format that they were doing everyone a favor but in reality all they did was go way beyond their contributions to strangle the goose that laid the golden egg. Quit worrying about them because they are to stupid to know better but they are driving the bus. So get off the bus and build your own machine. It appears that some of the artists are seeing that there is no new suit of clothes on the emperor and in fact he's just ugly and naked. If Kenny G sees that then don't you think others will also see the light. But these artists will need new places to get their music played and we're too busy yapping about BA instead of putting together new outlets so listeners can hear this music. If you look around at what BA has really done, their focal point is to replace the outlets that continue to drop them. Yes they have a few success stories here and there but they lose more stations than they keep. For them it's all about maintaining those revenue streams and nothing more. There are now so many more possibilities and opportunities for those who care to put together a thread and try to get it on air somewhere be it radio, internet, bird or whatever. I am trying to sell my idea and if that doesn't work then I'm on to the next idea. I sense a wealth of talent on these posts with a lot to contribute but it gets very tiresome to keep throwing stones at idiots. I've got better things to do. I enjoy this post a lot more when I learn how someone else is doing something or I get turned on to a different look at the format. Turn that anger into something productive. Everything comes in cycles and I believe this one is about to end so what are you doing to get on the next one? We're creative people so let's use that to our advantage to build the future.

 

[AnotherCat]

I don't think its demonizing BA to point out that if you hit one of their network affiliate's websites and look at what is playing the instrumental artists that have a lot of presence on those playlists as artist or producer are the ones that are voicetracking for the network. Just makes you go hmmmmm...

Actually we are doing a roundtable of smooth jazz artist and label folk's comments on how they plan to get their music heard and reach their audience in the post-radio era. Some of these folks still think radio plays it, the label promotes it, and people go to the "record store" and buy it. Time to get their heads out of the sand and start strategizing re: new and alt-media. What is killing us in that realm is the RIAA. Even with the consent of an artist, label, and manger you are still limited to 30 second clips of songs unless you have a lot of money stashed for royalty payments. They can't police everything all the time but they can police anything that gets too high profile. The fact that a lot of us in the SJ community have been laid off and are making a patchwork income out of freelance gigs and "daytime jobs" indicates that we don't have thousands of dollars to hand over to SoundExchange. There are ways around and over this and we will find them.