Fan club pros say Wright's went too far
Paula F.
Fan club pros say Wright's went too far
By JEANNE ANNE NAUJECK
Staff Writer
Most artists of every musical genre use a fan club to help promote
their music and get it on the radio.
But professional fan club organizers said yesterday that the alleged
actions of Chely Wright's fan club president in promoting the
pro-troops song The Bumper of My SUV crossed an ethical line if fans
were asked to misrepresent themselves.
Country singer Wright dismissed Chuck Walter on Saturday after he was
accused of directing a 17-member special team of fans to say they had
personal military ties when calling radio stations to request the
song.
The tactics suggested fabricating ''sob stories'' to deejays about
relatives fighting overseas and posing as military personnel while
talking about the song on armed services Web sites, according to
e-mails and transcripts of a Web bulletin board provided to The
Tennessean by one of the fan club members.
''It doesn't baffle me that they're calling. That's what fan clubs
do,'' said Loudilla Johnson, who founded the International Fan Club
Organization in 1967 with her sisters Loretta and Kay Johnson.
''But never as posing as military families or anything other than who
they are. Absolutely it crosses a line, if that's actually what
happened. That's outside the boundaries of good promotion.''
Johnson's organization represents about 300 registered fan clubs, most
for country artists. She said several fan club presidents contacted
her yesterday, concerned about being perceived in a negative light.
''That's not typical of what they would condone if they knew about
it,'' Johnson said.
Walter took over Wright's fan club operations shortly after meeting
her in Nashville in 1996. He was not paid for his work, but Wright
described him as her best friend.
Wright acknowledged ''unethical behavior'' by Walter on Saturday and
said she neither condoned nor endorsed those actions.
Mobilizing fans
Enthusiastic fans often are enlisted to perform such work as handing
out free CDs and information at concerts, requesting songs and videos
on the radio and video channels, and simply chatting about the artist
to others. In exchange, they usually get perks such as either free
tickets or preferred seating at concerts, merchandise and ''meet and
greets'' with the artist.
Getting fans to call radio stations in support of a song can be
especially helpful to artists such as Wright who don't have the
backing of a major label with promotional staff.
Wright has been distributing Bumper independently.
Listener response to a song can influence a DJ's decision to play it
more, which, in turn, can move a song up the hit chart. Billboard's
Hot Country Singles chart is tabulated by counting the number of times
a song is played on a sample of large-market radio stations. The more
''spins'' a song gets, the higher it moves up the chart.
Wright's team was asked to call stations in other states to maximize
airplay around the country.
The strategy surprised Johanna Mitchell, who runs fan clubs for
country artists Brooks & Dunn, Buddy Jewell and Pam Tillis.
She said members of those clubs are encouraged to call stations with
requests but are provided only with local station information, not
numbers for stations around the country. They also are expected not to
flood stations with multiple calls.
''You're asked to request only where you can hear the station, which
is the fair way to do it,'' she said. ''The information provided is
limited because it can backfire when you have one person calling the
same station every five minutes.''
A key to success
Fans were instrumental in getting Toby Keith played on the radio long
before he became a multimillion-selling country superstar, said Kay
Johnson (no relation to Loudilla Johnson), who has run Keith's fan
club since 1993.
Johnson started as a volunteer but is now compensated for her work.
''They've been key figures in getting him radio play,'' she said.
''Toby calls them his warriors because they fight for him.''
Johnson said she lets fans know on the Web site when either a new
album or single is coming and encourages them to support it. But she
said she'd never ask them to pose as military to support airplay for
Keith's recent pro-troops hit American Soldier.
''That's fraud. I never have asked fans to lie about anything like
that. Even when Toby wasn't what you'd call a huge star, we never
asked anyone to do that.
''You can have a song touch you without being in the mili-tary.''
mslinda
We did a story on fan club presidents when I was the editor of Country
Fever and we talked to both Kay and Loudilla. Both are real pros and
should be held up as examples for other FC presidents.
Linda C.
Barbara Sherrill
"mslinda" <msl...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:41C90A43...@earthlink.net...
> We did a story on fan club presidents when I was the editor of Country
> Fever and we talked to both Kay and Loudilla. Both are real pros and
> should be held up as examples for other FC presidents.
>
> Linda C.
>
Wonder how the sisters are doing. One of them had cancer a few years back. I
think about them from time to time. I guess I should go over to their
website and ask huh?
Barb
mslinda
Let me know if you find out anything - they've always been the class
acts of FCs. We interviewed several more at the time and they had very
interesting things to say about obsessed fans. ;-)
Linda C.
Barbara Sherrill
Yea, they know about obsessed fans! When I first got my computer and got
online YEARS ago...lol... IFCO was the first country music website I found.
I lived at their site. They had a chat room there and I use to chat with the
Johnson Gang, their webmaster and of course country music fans. This is
where I had met the Kenny Chesney Fan. I think I told bits and pieces of the
story here. This grown woman left all of us shaking our heads. Poor Kenny
was being *stalked* by this woman. She was one of the most obsessive people
I ever came across. Because of her, KC changed his meet and greet policy and
other things.
I know some story's about KC, that would make you howl. Things I know from
knowing some people in the industry, that were behind the scenes that
happened at IFCO chat room. I had met several of the up and coming artist.
They use to pop on and just chat! They felt safe there, for the most part
all of us protected them from anyone that came around to stir it up! Some of
the story's I am not comfortable talking about here.. Email me if you want
to know what they are...
You brought up some fun memories! I will email the Girls today and I will
let you know what I hear back from them.
Janice Brooks
They use to pop on and just chat! They felt safe there, for the most part
all of us protected them from anyone that came around to stir it up! Some of
the story's I am not comfortable talking about here..
Patsi and Linda can vouch for some up and coming folks or legends I met on AOL.
BUS Janice
There's one less Philidelphia lawyer in old Philidelphia tonight---Woody
Guthrie
Reno Blues Merle Haggard
nojunkinthetrunk
>Fever and we talked to both Kay and Loudilla. Both are real pros and
>should be held up as examples for other FC presidents.
Wow, Country Fever magazine. Damn, you sure worked in the business. LOL
mslinda
Let's see *your* resume, nutso fan.
Linda C.
nojunkinthetrunk
>
>Let's see *your* resume, nutso fan
Ah, look at that. Struck a little cord with the lunatic Linda. Whats the
mater, upset, it was such a nothing job in the entertainment business. You
call that "something"! LOL And lo and behold, it took you all of what, 5
minutes to begin responding. Someone spends a little too much time online
trolling in the newsgroup. But you've been doing this what? 8 years or so?
And you've always been great at attacking artists. Especially their personal
lives.
Rick and Debbie Caudill
(nojunkinthetrunk) wrote:
Uh Lunatic Linda is most respected in here for her knowledge of
country music, as is Rock and as is Patsi.......it wouldn't kill you
to listen to them.....
And Jessi.....you're doing nothing for Chely's cause in here but
causing people to be turned off.......after reading all of your posts
I wouldn't buy a CD of hers because I'm already sick of hearing about
her. Perhaps if you would drop it it might die down.
mslinda
Yawnnn. Typical trollshit. We're are *not* impressed.
Especially since you're lying again, little desperate one. I've seen so
many acts go down the tubes over my years in the biz that nothing
surprises me anymore. In a year Chely will be sharing a reception desk
with Mindy McCready and the machine will have moved on to some size 0
teenager who just moved to Nashvegas. The road goes on forever and the
party never ends...
Linda C.
T. Jones
<d.ca...@fuse.net> wrote:
>Uh Lunatic Linda is most respected in here for her knowledge of
>country music, as is Rock and as is Patsi.......it wouldn't kill you
>to listen to them.....
>
>And Jessi.....you're doing nothing for Chely's cause in here but
>causing people to be turned off.......after reading all of your posts
>I wouldn't buy a CD of hers because I'm already sick of hearing about
>her. Perhaps if you would drop it it might die down.
>
You won't buy someone's CD just because of reading posts in a
newsgroup, but YOU HAVE NO FUCKING PROBLEM BUYING AND SUPPORTING THE
CAREER OF TRACY 'WIFEBEATER' LAWRENCE!!!!
bone
it dated December 5th
I quote,
"I'm so thankful that when I have a new record or a new mission, that I
can count on my super fan club members to rally behind me and "make
things happen". I know that you all now realize that because of this
song...people who never had heard of me are writing letters to the fan
club, to the website, to their radio stiatons...and I'm so humbled by
the experience.....With the initial "push" from my tried and true
fans...this song had the opportunity to be heard."
Barbara Sherrill
"bone" <bonecol...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1103910804.2...@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
From lies told... the song was played
James Carter KC
I'm not a fan club member, so I haven't seen this. I don't know what point you
are trying to make.
How is the weather there in LA Stephanie?
bone
Rick and Debbie Caudill
How can I put this politely........Screw you!