July 6, 2021, Issue 763
Part Two: Country Pride
Country Aircheck continues last week’s look at the reality of being openly gay in the country industry. And while acceptance seems to be the rule, exceptions remain. Albright & O’Malley & Brenner’s Jaye Albright came out as transgender more than 25 years ago. (Read the page 1 story in the Nov. 3, 1995 issue of Radio & Records here.) After leaving the Air Force in 1970, Albright began attending a support group and registered for college as a woman but ended up in radio as her male self. Twenty years of “trying to be normal” ended in 1994 at a lunch with Broadcast Programming/ Seattle President Edie Hilliard. “After taking Jaye Albright time to get used to the idea, she showed her compassionate side and decided to approach it all as a marketing problem,” Albright says. “Edie advocated for me with our corporate owners, who proposed setting me up as an independent consultant and funded a relaunch of post-surgery ‘Jaye’ in place of Jay. The entire staff was positive and so helpful. “It all worked out for the best, and I am now retired, having reached a level of self-acceptance that has allowed me to open up completely about all of the events, people and identities that have shaped me,” she says. Even with the acceptance she’s found, Albright knows deciding to live openly is no easier today. “Just as I discovered back in 1995, acceptance is not a given, and taking the risk of opening up remains scary, never to be taken lightly.” Within the music industry, the ability to be open may be about individual comfort levels. “Once I lived honestly, everything got Wes Vause easier in my life, including in the industry,” says Warner Music Nashville SVP/Publicity Wes Vause. “I don’t think it was a huge surprise to a lot of people and probably made them more comfortable. I never had a bad experience. The only thing holding me back was probably me.”
COL Story: Warner/WAR’s Chris Janson (r) with WCOL/ Columbus, OH’s Dan Zuko. For The Format: Nevertheless, examples of bigotry remain and, if not that, fear of audience resistance manifesting as business concerns. “There were program directors who elected not to carry my show because of my sexual orientation,” National Radio Hall of Famer Blair Garner says. “And there have been instances where people with whom I’ve worked have made me feel I was being held at Blair Garner a distance. But homophobia is more common with people who are dealing with their own issues, which rings true for some of my former bosses.” A radio personality who asked to remain anonymous says, “A GM once told me I might be struggling in the ratings because I ‘didn’t choose to live around your people.’ My people? There are also companies that would never grant me an interview because of religious-leaning ownership. (continued on page 9)
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