Renee Reacts: The Dixie Chicks Controversy Was Way Worse Than Y’all Remember
Wes over at our sister station FMX recently wrote a blog, "Lubbock Got What It Wanted in the Natalie Maines-Dixie Chicks Fight." It was a matter-of-fact and fairly light-hearted opinion piece basically saying, 'Hey, we rejected her, now she rejects us.' Of course, a few folks 14 years later are still pretty salty about the whole thing.
I don't really have any desire to beat a 14-year-old dead horse, but I feel like it bears mentioning that the fallout on this was much more extreme that people seem to remember.
At the time of all this nonsense, I was pretty young and worked the front desk up here at the stations. Basically, I picked up the business line.
I received weeks of abuse because of The Dixie Chicks - everything from having multiple lines of screaming people to deal with to much more extreme and frightening threats to my person. It seems that most people remember it as a polite disagreement. But in reality, a lot of people were still so swept up emotionally in post-9/11 patriotism that anyone questioning any aspect of Bush's presidency deserved to be burned at the stake.
Now, 14 years later, most of us just think he's kind of adorable. But it got UGLY back then. Above is a little video explaining how crazy it was.
Quick note: I say it was our music director who made this decision. That's how I remember it, but it really could have been a corporate decision from Clear Channel. If I find out definitively, I'll update the blog .
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