The Future of Country’s Hot Exec : Management: The music industry is talking about the possibility that MCA Records’ Tony Brown may be in line for top jobs with competitors. But Brown isn’t talking.

Rumors about the music industry are tossed around lunch tables here faster than hot buttered rolls. But even the tartest-tongued veterans are expressing amazement at the epidemic of gossip surrounding the future of country music’s hottest executive, Tony Brown.

According to the most persistent rumor about Brown, MCA Records’ No. 2 executive here is preparing to take over the top spot at Sony Records’ struggling Nashville operation, which has been largely aced out of the top spots on the country charts lately and has not had one million-selling album in 1992.

Brown has also been the subject of talk about RCA, where practically the entire artists-and-repertoire staff was axed a few weeks ago. Then there’s Mercury, where the chatter has Brown building a country roster with the profits that the company has made on Billy Ray Cyrus. Just about the only place that isn’t said to be wooing Brown is Garth Brooks’ label, Liberty Records.

“There’s always rumors in this town, but I’ve never seen one cause this much commotion before,” sighed Susan Levy, the MCA publicist in charge of Brown damage control. “It’s truly bizarre.”

In rankings of the music industry’s most powerful players, Brown is often the only Nashville executive to make the cut. That his future is the subject of such intense speculation is probably as much of a statement about the importance of country music today as it is a comment on the fate of its most important behind-the-scenes person. The Brown rumors are coming at the peak of country’s new popularity and amid tremendous growth and upheavals at the leading country labels.

Brown, MCA’s senior vice president of artists-and-repertoire, is credited with building the company’s country division into a powerhouse.

As a producer, he has guided the recent recordings of Reba McEntire, Wynonna Judd, Vince Gill and George Strait. He also signed Trisha Yearwood as well as such alternative country acts as the Mavericks and Kelly Willis.

For now, Brown isn’t talking about his future, and MCA denies any move is afoot, albeit in carefully worded statements. “Tony Brown has a long-term contract with several years left on it and, as far as MCA is concerned, he is an MCA employee and it’s business as usual,” said MCA publicist Levy.

“MCA can’t function without Brown,” said an executive at a different label who asked not to be named. “He produces all of their stars, he has given the label a hip image and he has this high profile in L.A. and New York. People think he’s the most powerful man in town, for God’s sake. And Nashville is about the only place where MCA is making money. They’re not going to let him go.”

At Sony/Nashville, division chief Roy Wunsch recently has assured employees that his position is secure. “Roy Wunsch is not leaving Sony,” said company spokeswoman Holly Gleason. “As far as what’s going on with Tony Brown, that’s MCA’s business. He is not a Sony employee.”

Gleason admits that she, too, has heard the rumors. But she contends that Wunsch has been successful in starting to rebuild Sony’s reputation as a country music power by developing several new acts into solid album sellers.

Sony, back when it was known as CBS Records, once ranked with Nashville’s strongest companies. The CBS roster at one time included Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Marty Robbins, Ray Price, Charlie Rich, Lynn Anderson, Tanya Tucker and Rosanne Cash.

But the company slipped markedly in the 1980s. Its veteran stars no longer sold in significant numbers, and few new signings turned into successful acts. However, Gleason points to such newcomers as Doug Stone, Mary-Chapin Carpenter and Collin Raye--all artists with recent albums with sales over 500,000--to say that the label has been more effective in bringing along fresh talent in recent times.

At RCA, the rumors no doubt have been fueled by the company’s recent firing of its A&R; staff, including vice presidents Josh Leo and Randy Talmadge, as well as the letting go of its vice president of promotion, Ed Mascolo.

Last summer, the company hired Thom Schuyler, a songwriter and singer with no executive experience, to head its Nashville operation, and he’s responsible for the housecleaning. Schuyler, who didn’t return phone calls last week, has been interviewing several people for A&R; jobs, but it isn’t known if he’s held discussions with Brown. In the early 1980s, Brown worked with RCA under Joe Galante, who now heads the company’s American operation out of the New York office.

At Mercury, the rumors concerning Brown probably come from the recent hiring of Luke Lewis to head the company’s Nashville operation. Lewis and Brown are said to be old friends, and the speculation has been that Lewis might be trying to persuade his pal to help build a new empire from the ground up.

Mercury has hired a new vice president, Ann Weaver, to head its promotion department, but company spokeswoman Sandy Neese says no other major changes or hirings are planned.

Meanwhile, no one mentions Liberty Records when talking of Brown’s future. At Liberty, where Garth Brooks continues to provide a secure future for the company, Brown’s former mentor Jimmy Bowen is ensconced as president, and he is preparing to announce that he has hired Kim Buie as his new vice president and chief A&R; executive.

Buie, a former Nashville resident, has been working in A&R; at Island Records in Los Angeles since the late 1980s. Buie, according to a source close to her, had grown tired of signing artists that received too little promotion. (Her acts at Island included Drivin’ N’ Cryin’, Kimm Rogers and the Buck Pets.)

Bowen gave Buie her first A&R; job when he hired her to sign pop and rock acts to MCA/Nashville in the mid-1980s. Buie’s role met resistance from MCA’s other pop offices in Los Angeles and New York, so the experiment didn’t last long and she moved over to Island.