HEATED DISCUSSION MARKS ACTIVE ROCK PANEL Radio and Records Friday's R&R Convention featured a feisty panel entitled "Active Rock: Between A Rock And A Hard Place," marked by an oftentimes heated exchange between Virgin's Ray Gmeiner, Reprise's Raymond McGlamery, In De Goot Entertainment's Bill McGathy and WRIF/Detroit PD Doug Podell.
WAAF/Boston PD Keith Hastings moderated the session, and at one point sardonically proclaimed, "Rock radio sucks. We're getting our asses kicked by iPods. Where did all this shit come from?" Underscoring the panel's call for increased communications between radio and record labels, Gmeniner said, "We've got to push away from our computers and Blackberries and talk a lot more. We need to cooperate a lot more."
But, Podell countered, "The dialogue has to change from the same old shit about spins to, 'How can I help in your market?' and 'What can we do to make things better. Enough about spins -- we need to get a better grasp on how to develop new artists and how to make their stories worth telling."
Meanwhile, McGlamery espoused concern that the format no longer aggressively supported new music, saying, "If a kid is on the Internet and finds out there's a new Disturbed song out, and you're not playing it, why would they want to listen to you?" Podell added, "We're paranoid about the fact that a lot of this new music isn't doing very well. We're being forced to cut back on new music."
McGlamery responded, "Then you're cutting back on your excitement level! And if you're not telling your audience that what you're doing is exciting, then why the f-ck should anyone listen?" On a lighter note, McGathy noted that the pursuit of "beer money" was "killing rock 'n' roll," adding, "We need to lower the drinking age to 14." |