Barrett: "I just want to dance."
image via LAWeekly.com
By now it's old news, blood over the dam. But I can't put this story down because I'm pissed the morning airwaves are so dead-boring now.
I listened to Indie 103.1 staging another artless clusterfuck during drive-time this morning - five voices yammering about nothing. It's further evidence that the station's shoveling in whatever crap it can find to fill the gaping void left when they fired Dicky Barrett for being - well â too indie.
Some guy was pimping his own movie. Some other guy - starring in the movie - was shilling for it. There was a third guy, a woman - and maybe another woman, I lost count, since they weren't saying much. And then poor Mighty Morning Show holdover Liz Warner, a sharp wit now going to waste, was gamely treading water on news until Indie puts some actual talent into the slot ...
Theoretically, program director Michael Steele is hunting for a replacement.
But I suspect he's also still doing quite a bit of damage control (not to mention fielding hate mail) over the decision to can one of their best DJs for being interesting daring to voice political views shared by the bulk of his listeners and play music they might like instead of hammering the same pay-to-playlist of a dozen songs into their ears.
The LA Weekly has a few more tidbits this morning, including the information that Indie was forcing Barrett to use a play list instead of his own impeccable (and much more engaging) choices of music.
âI respect their decision,â Barrett says. âIf itâs not working for them, they have the complete right to not have me in there. You make a decision, itâs not getting the numbers, this isnât what we want. Thatâs fine. But donât lie. If you tell me youâre letting me go because you want to go in a different direction, donât tell people I walked out âcause I want to go in a different direction and it wasnât my priority. Who wants a morning DJ thatâll up and leave his audience with no explanation?â
Why do I care so much? Well beyond the fact that a great talent was libeled for political expediency and the fact that it left a huge sucking hole in my morning radio options, I guess I'm just ... disappointed.
When the station launched two years ago, something great and cool poked its head up through the airwaves, promising to bring the random, unexpected irritating and and provocative to the simple pleasure of listening to the radio.
Instead, we got the status quo: people screwing artists and listeners - the most important people in the broadcasting transaction - over principles, politics and money.
Posted by: Mack_Reed on Thursday, March 30, 2006 - 09:55 AM
