Chris Brown’s Radio Spin: Some Stations May Be Dropping Him Without Dropping A Press Release

noah | February 12, 2009 9:30 am

As the Chris Brown-Rihanna saga drags on and the legal investigation moves forward, more radio stations are taking a stand by announcing that they won’t play Brown’s music until a clear picture of what happened after Clive Davis’ party on Sunday night emerges. Brown’s spins slightly declined in the immediate aftermath of his arrest on making criminal threats against a woman, but more and more stations are coming out of the woodwork to claim that Brown’s music—including the airy gum jingle “Forever” and the ballad “With You”—is off their playlists, while others are waiting and seeing: “I think that taking music off the air is cheap publicity,” Todd Cavanah, program director of Chicago Top 40 station B96, told the Chicago Tribune. “We haven’t heard the whole story. For us to make a judgment and pull his songs would be premature.” A radio station trying to drum up publicity by hitching itself to an icky news story? Perish the thought! Anyway, a list of what some radio stations around the country are doing after the jump.

• New York: Brown’s name doesn’t pop up on pop station Z100’s playlist (which does include “Stan” by Eminem), nor is it on the recently-played list of sister station Power 105. Hmm. • Chicago: Still in rotation on top 40 stations B96 and KISS-FM, as well as hip-hop/R&B hit-player WGCI. • Cleveland: WAKS is still getting press for being the first station to announce its ban. • Indianapolis: CHR station WNOU pulled Brown from its playlist, but a listener poll at hip-hop station WHHH resulted in Brown’s music getting the A-OK. • Fargo, N.D.: Off top 40 station Y94. • Long Island, N.Y.: Off top 40 station WBLI—but not until tomorrow. The station is also holding a very tacky event for people who were “unlucky in love.” Yeah. “Unlucky.” Keep it classy, Long Island. • Fort Myers, Fla.: Top 40 station B103.9 has kicked Brown off its playlist until his legal issues are resolved. In a super-classy move, video of a news report on the ban is currently the lead item on the station’s Web site.

We’ll run more Mediabase numbers tomorrow to see just how these “bans” are panning out.

Chris Brown: To play or not to play [Pop Machine] WBLI To Stop Playing Chris Brown [Backstage Pass] Fargo radio station Y94 bans music by Chris Brown [InFORUM]

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