Will criticism prompt Chicks to fly the country coop?
As the Dixie Chicks launch their 59-date Top of the World tour tonight in Greenville, S.C., two questions regarding their career loom: When will country radio start playing their records again? And if it doesn't, how long will country's biggest act remain country?
Other radio formats already want to fill the vacuum. One of adult-contemporary radio's leading consultants, Mike McVay, posted a column on his Web site (www.mcvaymedia .com) this week stating, "Attention Dixie Chicks, if they don't want you at Country radio, we'll take you at AC."
"I'm afraid the Chicks and the label won't necessarily wait for country radio to come back," says Radio & Records' Nashville bureau chief Lon Helton. "They're going to forge ahead. I hope we don't lose them as our superstars and let them go on somewhere else." (Oh NOW you love them)
Walker adds, "There are two things I feel good about. It does look like the biggest performing act in country music might get to come back again. The other is they'll be a lot more well known and have a lot more notoriety.
"And there's nothing wrong with that."
Come on over to rock and roll, Chickies. We LOVE mouthy broads! Leave all those toothless, illiterate, wife-beating, wife-beater-wearing, twang-talking, beer-swilling, sister-kissing, cousin-marrying, sheep-rapers, in the dust!
