September 6 2016, Issue 515
Radio, Record Reps & Harassment
Sexual harassment of the type that brought down Fox News CEO Roger Ailes has been the subject of much attention. Less understood are the dynamics at play between companies. For instance, the landscape inhabited by reporting radio stations and record label promotion staffers seeking their favor. In more than a dozen off-the-record, background-only and not-for-attribution discussions with female and male regional record reps, label executives and radio pros, Country Aircheck has found an environment where a small number of PDs and MDs may be putting themselves and their companies at risk with unwelcome sexual advances, language and behavior. Further, because of the highly charged business relationships at stake, record companies may be knowingly sending female employees into problematic environments. Ground Level: "When you’re in it you don’t realize how bad it is," says a male former label executive who asked not to be named. "But it’s bad. And it goes deeper than anyone probably wants to admit. I’m no saint and things get pretty loose in this business. There’s no filter. People say and It’s bad. And it goes do things that, deeper than anyone looking back, probably wants to admit. aren’t okay. I was part of that in some way. I knew about things I never did anything about. It’s unspoken, but it’s really prevalent. Even the artists know. They see it." Speaking on condition of anonymity, a female regional recalled her rookie stint in record promotion. "The first time I called [a station decision maker], he asked if he could lick my [genitals]," she says. "I hung up, called my boss and said, 'I'm not doing this, I can't deal with that.'" Given another person at the station to call on, the rep began a very professional relationship
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Philadelphia Seen Him: Capitol’s Keith Urban (c) in Philadelphia with (l-r) WXCY/Wilmington, DE’s Brad Austin, the label’s Diane Lockner, consultant Joel Raab, WXTU’s Shelly Easton, WGTY/York’s Scott Donato and WXTU’s Mark Razz.
that eventually soured after that married radio exec made repeated propositions during CRS. "I had to call the front desk and ask them to put privacy on my phone so he couldn't keep calling," she says. "The next day I told my boss what happened, and he said, 'Oh, you can handle it.' I started to cry because I knew this was beyond okay. It's like something we read Gloria Allred about in our women's magazines where he's going to show up some day with a knife. It was not comfortable and I couldn't laugh it off." In numerous conversations, current and former regionals described unwanted advances, touching and innuendo, though all stressed the vast majority of female rep to male programmer interactions are completely professional. (continued on page 9)
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