Merle’s Bad News on Radio

Singer Merle Haggard just may be the best country songwriter since Hank Williams. But this “poet of the common man” is unlikely to get his songs played on commercial country stations because his point of view often is too out of sync for broadcasters content to peddle feel-good entertainment.

Haggard isn’t the only voice in danger of being pushed off the airwaves as a result of consolidation in the radio industry. In a July 8 Senate Commerce Committee hearing, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) questioned how long it would take increasingly powerful executives to pull controversial politicians and muzzle talk show hosts discussing abortion, war, the economy or other tough issues.

As if on cue, Haggard has weighed in with “That’s the News,” a tune that nicks big media firms for parroting the Bush administration contention that major fighting in Iraq has ended: “Suddenly it’s over, the war is finally done; soldiers in the desert sand still clinging to a gun. No one is the winner and everyone must lose.... That’s the news.”

Haggard will keep pushing his song. But “thoughtful” and “provocative” are unpopular words among station execs, including those at Cumulus Media, which banned the Dixie Chicks after their lead singer said she was “ashamed” that President Bush was a fellow Texan. Passionate fans are jamming the Chicks’ tour in Los Angeles, Anaheim and other cities, proving that the nation’s No. 2 radio chain had no reason to silence the group. (Ever-bigger outfits have had no qualms about playing songs appealing to the hard-core love-it-or-leave-it crowd -- witness Charlie Daniels’ post-9/11 hit song that opens: “This ain’t no rag, it’s a flag, and we don’t wear it on our heads.”)

As radio chains grow larger and more powerful, a handful of execs shape the medium to fit their own narrow vision -- as giant Clear Channel Communications did after Sept. 11 by tossing songs like “Imagine” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” off its post-9/11 playlist.

Radio deregulation, which cleared the way for consolidation and a dearth of diverse programming, occurred years ago. Any fixes would require care by the Federal Communications Commission and Congress, enmeshed now in efforts to deregulate other media. It’s wrong for radio execs to force country artists to leave social commentary to folk singers and rappers. And it’s scary to think what media execs will do next. As the first Californian elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame says, “That’s the news.”