Is WSM Living In Its Last Days?

As far back as I can remember WSM used to be ‘too country’ and dang it all – they were proud of it. Sadly, things are changing and WSM is about to take another step towards becoming ‘just another country music station.’ It was and could be so much more but it’s tangled up in a mess of business holdings where corporations are adverse to weak links in their chains.

Listeners tuning into WSM on a regular broadcasting day are going to be scratching their heads and checking the dial as they hear the same old stuff they hear on every other station they’ve turned off in the past few years. Classic country music fans have turned off mainstream radio in droves and found their solace in their record collections, internet broadcasts and wsmonline.com.

Sadly, it appears that listening to WSM online is about to change, but to astute followers of WSM’s recent history it most likely comes as no surprise. Owned by Gaylord, as is the Opry, the historic station’s future has been precariously unsettled over the past few years.

Back in early 2002 country music fans were shocked to learn that Gaylord was planning to turn change the format of the historic WSM 650 AM station that is home to the Grand Ole Opry broadcasts since 1925 from classic country to the more lucrative sports/talk format.

Ominously as Eddie Stubbs’ program ended the night that the news broke, it was the Bailes Brothers’ We’re Living In The Last Days that was broadcast across WSM’s airwaves. The song seemed to subliminally call on country music listeners to take notice and make a choice – to contemplate and mourn the loss of what was to come, or to fight with tooth and nail to keep it from happening. Fortunately they chose the latter.

Country music fans from around the world rose up, rallied and spoke as one voice. Listeners, songwriters, musicians and artists alike spoke up and wouldn’t take no for an answer. There were rallies, write in campaigns and an online petition that gathered nearly 9000 signatures demanding that WSM’s legacy be protected. The predicted move and the uproar it caused made national and international news. In the end, Gaylord backed off and whipped and beaten they reversed their decision as they headed back to the comfort of their boardroom.

There were those however, who cautioned that Gaylord wasn’t done yet -- they’d learned a lesson out of this fiasco of their own making and they learned it well. Taking down a monument in one quick decisive move was too public and emotive. It was widely believed that Gaylord would regroup and instead attempt to take down the monument one brick at a time, until there was so little left no one would notice them sweeping up the dusty rubble under the carpet.

The legendary Ray Price pulled no punches when he talked about Gaylord's defeat a few months later in an interview with TCB. "They don’t understand what country music means to the people. They don’t understand. There was so much hell raised that they had to back down, but if you don’t watch them they’ll come in the back door. I don’t know if they are very rich or very arrogant but they don’t care who they hurt. The only thing they know is how to count the money. And when they die you’ll never see a Brinks truck in the procession, money won’t mean anything then."

The first brick to be removed came one year after Gaylord's "change of heart". People come and go in businesses all the time, but the firing of Kyle Cantrell in February of 2003 was more than just another day to day boardroom decision. Kyle had been with WSM over 20 years as program director and Opry announcer but now the knowledge that he’d gained and shared during those decades was heading out the door along with six other WSM employees with no replacements announced. Also out the window at the same time was the Opry Spotlight program which had been on air for half a century. Ralph Emery had brought national recognition to the program as it offered exposure to country music’s legends and to those time had forgotten.

The programming shift after the firings was noticeable. It seemed that the only familiar things left at the station were the Opry and Eddie Stubbs. In May of the same year Gaylord announced the hiring of Brian Landrum as program director. Mr. Landrum brought with him 17 years of experience and there was hope that with the mention of heritage broadcast stations on his resume that Gaylord had hired someone who knew how to make WSM viable while maintaining it’s uniqueness and showcasing its history.

In the press release touting his hiring Mr Landrum spoke of WSM and his role in its future. “Coming to WSM-AM is a lifelong dream come true. Our efforts will be to focus on the imaging, presentation and delivery of 650 WSM-AM, and our personalities and station will be more active than ever in the Nashville community. Fans and listeners know WSM-AM is where country music all started, and we will ensure our audience enjoys great music and programming that enhances the station’s legacy.”

Nice words huh? So let’s look at what’s been happening at WSM since the change in program director. If you’re a regular listener to WSM you will have most definitely noticed an increase in advertising breaks. Less music, more ads. I suppose that makes some sense since radio has long been in advertising and marketing as opposed to the music business. Perhaps we could even suffer through the increase of ads knowing that this may help to keep WSM and the Opry alive. Think again – apparently increased ad revenue isn’t enough. Here we are one year later and struggling with another brick being chipped off of WSM. This time the changes are multifaceted and wide reaching.

First out of the pr box was the news that Eddie Stubbs' popular, long running Saturday Classic Country broadcast was being eliminated from WSM’s regular broadcast and moved to its online broadcast and satellite radio. Other than the Opry, Eddie is WSM’s most visible and viable component. Without him the nights would be filled with the same old music you can hear on any mainstream radio. Those who’ve listened in to Eddie learn something every single time and he’s one of the rare commodities in radio – someone whose knowledge is overshadowed only by his passion. Eddie garners respect from all corners of the country music community because he’s earned it. There are those who can’t imagine WSM without him but many more don’t realize he’s slowly losing airtime – first with the loss of free access airtime on Saturday morning to less talk and music during his evening shows due to more commercial breaks.

Wait – there’s more --- with the move to being available at WSM only through it's online feed comes the news that there will be fees charged to listen to it on broadband. Not only will Eddie’s show by a ‘pay for listening’ broadcast, but so will the Opry, its archives and other special events for the cost of $65 a year. In a nutshell we're talking about complete access to the overproduced, ultra slick, current big label names on free radio while the classic country music fans, who’s loyalty has kept food on the plates of legends and institutions like the Opry and WSM for years, will now have to pay to listen to their music of preference. If that isn’t a two class system that looks decidedly “anti-gray” I don’t know what is.

WSM manager Brian Landrum was quick to point out that WSM’s low band service will continue to be free. Thanks Brian – we love listening to stations that re-buffer ever 2 minutes or can’t be accessed because the listener load is too high. Yes, we realize that there are costs to provide broadband feeds but since you’re in the advertising business anyway why not charge more for advertising that’s obviously reaching a larger audience by being broadcast online. There is also an even more unsettling comment Mr Landrum has made to those who cared enough to drop him a line about the changes. There's been the suggestion that the subscription option was better than not having the Opry at all. Shame on him – that option should never even be on the table, and certainly shouldn't be used as a barely veiled threat.

Perhaps the most disturbing of the recent revelations is that the station has redefined what ‘classic country’ consists of and has basically boiled down a rich 100 year history to 2 decades. In a feature in this week's Tennessean Landrum is quoted as saying: ''We studied the market and talked to the fans, and we put together a mix of what we felt like they were telling us 'classic country' music is to them. The most popular classic country songs will be played more because that's what the audience wants to hear.'' According to Landrum that music will be from what is described as a regimented playlist with "familiar country music from the '60s to the '80s''

I suppose that should be an obvious expectation coming from corporate Nashville – they’ve become masters at defining ‘country music’ to suit their bottom lines, but I ask Mr Landrum this – If classic country consists of well known tunes from the 60’s to 80’s then what do we call the music of Hank Williams, Webb Pierce, Ray Price and Jimmie Rodgers?? And if I am correct in following your (ahem) logic – in ten years we can write off the Bakersfield era completely as well as the early years of Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash. I suppose the only salvation I see in this ‘new method’ of determining classics is that if I live long enough – in the year 2035 I can count on the current pop-country fare of Shania and Faith Hill to finally be off the air.

Lon Helton, Radio and Records executive and CMA board member, made the following statement in the same Tennessean article: ''It's difficult to try to serve as an educational institution when you're really an entertainment medium.'' Country radio has long seized to be primarily an entertainment medium, Mr Helton, it’s been a marketing and advertising medium for many years now and sadly WSM is slowly becoming 'one of the same' one brick at a time. The future looks bleak to many based on the recent changes to WSM. Ironically, Gaylord is sitting on the answer to their troubles - the history of WSM and its uniqueness in a sea of bland, corporate operated mainstream stations was a breath of fresh air. It was something special. Now it's been traded offhandedly for something mundane and predictable. In the end the losers will once again be the music and its listeners.

Too little, too late we’re realizing that nothing as sacred, or historically valuable and precious should have ever ended up in the hands of a company that appears to neither care, nor understand the treasures of which they’ve become keepers. It must be a terrible burden for Gaylord to have the responsibility that comes with WSM and the Opry. The only hope for country music’s beloved institutions is for someone (or a “group of someones”) to step forward and speak in the only language Gaylord seems to understand, cold hard cash.

Laurie Joulie Take Country Back

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