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Big & Rich's views swing far to the left when compared to lyrics from Clint Black's 2003 single "Iraq & Roll": "Iraq, I rack 'em up and I roll/I'm back, I'm a high tech GI Joe/I got Infrared, I got GPS/I got that good ole' fashioned lead/No price is too high for freedom/you better be careful where you tread."
WSOC played "Iraq & Roll" as well as the many other pro-war songs that came out after 9/11 and the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. But Black contends he has no problem with songs that offer the other view. "The greatest thing about our country and the thing that's kept our country strong is having the opposing view," he says. "If we didn't have that we'd swing all the way to the left or all the way to right and never come back."
Black can say that. But some country acts have paid dearly for offering opposing views. Take what happened to the Dixie Chicks, who were pulled from country stations nationwide (including WSOC) after singer Natalie Maines said she was ashamed to be from the same state as Bush.
Peters, who's first album of her own, The Secret of Life, is filed in the country aisles, drives a car with a bumpersticker that reads: "Natalie Maines was right." Peters compares the banning of the Dixie Chicks with the record burnings that occurred mainly in the South after John Lennon made the offhand statement that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus. "I think it was criminal," Peters says of the Dixie Chicks debacle. "It was one of the most shameful moments for our town [Nashville] and our industry. I'm ashamed. I think she had the right to speak her mind and she was crucified for it. It's disgusting."
Gradually, some Chicks classics crawled back onto WSOC until mainstream country fans caught wind of a January 23 Entertainment Weekly interview with Maines in which she continued to express her opinions. "For me, to be in country music was not who I was ... I guess I was ignorant to the fact that the stereotypes behind country music were true." Those comments incensed Charlotte listeners and listeners across the country, who called radio stations in droves to complain. WSOC left it up for the listeners to vote. "It was overwhelming," says Strout, "like 1000 to 30. The sad thing is, their music is great. But they have, for the most part, offended the country audience."
If WSOC followed the trend in banning the Dixie Chicks, McCracken credits the station for bucking it in 2003, deciding to play Jeff Carson's ultra-Christian song "I Can Only Imagine" (the lyrics "Will I dance for you Jesus?" and "Will I sing Hallelujah?" are repeated throughout). Carson's song had gone untouched by country stations before WSOC began playing it, and the song took off in part because of the Charlotte station's support. McCracken says the same is true for Randy Travis' "Three Wooden Crosses."
The bottom line is that when it comes to extremes, mainstream radio is squemish. But the WSOC experiments show that in country, the Christian right sells and the progressive left doesn't. "Everyone in country music was afraid to recognize that very hard-core Christian element. We jumped out on that," says McCracken. "This whole controversy thing works both ways. We actually did something that was a bit far right and almost considered sacred ground."
Despite left-leaning acts like the Dixie Chicks and Big & Rich and songs such as McBride's "Independence Day," contemporary country is the same as it ever was, according to Kara Edwards, of the Tanner in the Morning Show. Edwards sums it up simply: "It's all about God, country, family, being proud of who you are and where you're from. It's so great we can just pump it and promote it. We can go on the air and be appalled when certain songs can't be sung in a school because of Christ. We can go on the air and go, un-uh."
Before Black arrived at the station, Tanner and his morning crew had played a game with their audience. They asked people to answer the question, "Real men won't do what?"
A woman called in and said, "Buy women personal hygiene." Like most shows, Tanner runs on a delay so the producers can edit out comments they don't like. Tanner and producer Chris Allen made the executive decision to cut out the hygiene answer, opting to air less racy answers like, "Whine about their wives making them wear pink shirts."
