6/9/1995
There’s a chill wind blowing through the entertainment industry, fueled by the cold front that’s building up in Washington, D.C. Politicians by the dozens are lining up for a run at the top spot and they’re doing whatever it takes to get a nod and some votes. The movie, record and radio industries should get ready to hunker low in the bunkers until this one blows over. But you better stack some rations, bud. This won’t be a summer squall. We could be sheltered in the basement surrounding the wood-burning stove for more than a year. Get fat now because there are some lean times ahead.
The symbiotic relationship between the radio and record industries is a hot house that provides the perfect environment for subterfuge, manipulation, back-stabbing and outright lies. Egos can run completely out of control.
Temptations lead easily to abuses. It’s understandable that the public might think, “Everything…all the time†is more than just a song lyric. To them, it could be our motto.
Because we’re in the spotlight, the average Joe thinks we toss money about like leaves falling from a large oak tree in autumn. The publicity we constantly seek sometimes backfires. We make an easy target.
To most of America, we’re all about lyrics and limos and baubles and beads…endless champagne and people who please…escargot from France and caviar by the pails… diamonds and glitter and fake fingernails.
We work in a wild business where only the strongest survive. It’s intense pressure on an hourly basis, a fast lane to success and excess that leaves lots of bodies bruised and buried in the ditch.
But as wild and crazy as our business seems, we can’t hold a candle to the carnival barkers who occupy the hallowed halls of Congress. The worst day in our industry would seem like a Sunday school picnic when compared to a normal evening on the banks of the Potomac.
Kansas statesman and Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole fired the first full frontal assault on our industry this past week while speaking in Los Angeles. Although Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has been rattling his saber for months, it was Dole who, in a cheap (and successful) attempt to steal the headlines for a few brief moments it time, unsheathed the blade.
Reaching out for the lunatics on the fringe of the Republican Party, Dole blamed the moral decay of America totally on the movie and recording industries. Listening to Dole’s speech, one could believe that we are the cause of whatever is wrong with our country.
Let’s step up to the plate and accept our responsibility once and for all. He’s right. It was all of those John Wayne movies that caused Presidents of both parties and the House and Senate to escalate the war in Vietnam and split the nation in two. It had to be “Disco Inferno†that caused riots and arson. I’m sure the Village People were responsible for Iran taking American hostages…it couldn’t have been our foreign policy. Were the movies the reason we invaded Panama and Grenada? Dole might have us there. It was his good friend, fellow Republican and former screen star Ronald Regan, who was getting top billing at the time. And I know for a fact that Guns & Roses inspired the Gulf War.
Where is this guy coming from? He’s the top gun in the Senate where, until a few months ago, its members were not held to the same standards of non-discrimination that he voted for the rest of the country. Here’s a man who accuses the record and radio industries of fostering violence, yet is leading a movement to repeal the ban on assault weapons.
It’s all about power, pure and simple. Why else would two people in California spend over $30 million in a race for a job that pays $80,000 a year?
Go figure.
The entertainment industry is a reflection of our times, not a dictator of human actions. Do we promote violence and sexual abuse as Dole claims? I think not. Do we document human behavior? Absolutely. It’s easy to pick on the excesses, but for every “Cop Killer,†there’s “God Bless The USA.†For every “Natural Born Killer†there’s a “Schindler’s List.†Unlike Dole, we cover the entire spectrum.
And don’t think that this is just about national posturing. You are going to have to deal with it at your radio station. You can bet that certain records will be singled out by one coalition or another and you’ll be hearing from them. It’s not whether you play the records or not, but how you respond to the pressure you will receive. Now is the time to come up with a game plan.
With all of Dole’s recent rhetoric (which he tried to downplay the next day) against the entertainment industry and our righteous indignation in reaction, who should really shoulder the blame? We should. We are quick to call press conferences in defense, attend fund-raisers and write a check for our favorite candidate…we’re all about blowing hot air.
What we should do is vote.
Dole can’t be condemned because he panders to the fanatical fringes of his constituency. They are small in number…but they vote. They have weight. It has nothing to do with his beliefs. He’s just trying to get elected. He shouts to the right that he’ll be their champion, while whispering to the rest of us not to worry.
We should all be ashamed…the politicians for snooping to the lowest common denominator and the rest of us for making them. If the majority of us marshaled our resources, we could easily become an entity that could take on the NRA or those other powerful Washington lobbyists with a backward sweep of our left hand. We reach more people in a day than they do in a year. If half the people we reach actually voted, we would be a force.
The election is over a year away, but it’s not too early to begin our campaign. The politicians have already started. If all of us, regardless of party affiliation, work toward bringing political posturing back to the middle, those running for office could focus on the real problems of America and develop solutions. We need to champion the Mainstream.
That’s what Network 40 is all about.