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3/29/04 pkmiller from That's The Clay board Tulsa Coordinator reporting back from the trenches. We had dinner with Robby Dee from KIZS 92.1 last night. I gotta tell you, we had so much fun, it was like the CD Release party all over again. I would highly recommend that all coordinators plan one of these. We had signs that said "Tulsa Claynation Welcomes Robby Dee, KIZS 92.1", paid for his dinner, had Krispy Kremes and CD's to give him. He already had MOAM and liked Clay so we gave the CD's to waitresses and other people eating at the restaurant. He said he probably would never get to interview Clay but has talked to others who have and they all said how nice he was and they really liked him. We only had a little over an hour (he was going to a CD Release party for a local band but that's a whole other story!) but we DID get a LOT of information--some things we already knew--some were new to me and will really make you mad. 1. Research: Briefly, he said there were 257 different marketing areas. Tulsa is #65. Marketing areas are determined by population. They all look to the largest-LA and NY and then comparative populations. 2. Call ins, Call outs: Call ins are us requesting songs at our local stations. Call outs are people who are paid to track requests nation wide and let stations know what is being requesting. Tulsa does NOT do call outs. He said it was VERY expensive. 3. Program Director (PD) decides what the station plays. DJ’s have no control. They get about 15 CD's a day and it takes time to listen to them all and see what is good for their station. Some PDs will see a certain artist and not liking that artist will not listen to it or will keep putting it aside. However, if they get a lot of requests for a song, it will force the PD to listen to it. 4. Requests: He said they get sporadic requests all day long for different songs, artists. He compared it to a pin dot. This is the NORM. But when fan groups get together and tell everyone to request a certain song, it shows up as a fist-sized dot. This is NOT the NORM and they pretty much DISREGARD it. This is important. We need to spread out our requests. ALL requests are recorded and they DO keep track of them. Phone calls and email have the same effect. At this station, the emails go directly to the PD so to me, emails are better for this particular station. I asked him about emailing requests, that it always asked for my birth date or age and did I have to be a 16 year old again like I do on TRL? He said that was a good idea on TRL but not for them. He said they WANT to know if we are outside their age target. He also talked about playing for the majority--if they just played Clay they would make a lot of people mad. We stressed to him that we liked other artists also and just wanted to hear Clay sometimes and they were making us mad. I mean after all, we have to listen to the @#%$ we don't like. We also told him a lot of us were seriously thinking about turning the radio OFF so maybe he will take that back with him and tell the PD. Another thing about requests, He said the Tulsa area looks to large cities-LA and NY. Said Rick Dees was very important. If it is played there, it will be played here. 5. RCA. (WARNING, THIS WILL MAKE YOU MAD.) RCA tells them what and when to play. He said they had NOT been told they could play The Way yet. We told him another station here played it but stopped. He said he did not understand this but would check into it. Said every station wants to be the FIRST to play a song everyone wants to hear. We asked about Solitaire but he did not know but would check on it. (Maybe the switch to Solitaire being the A side has something to do with it. I think this has more to do with why the stations stopped playing The Way than the Clear Channel thing.) He said RCA has more artists than just Clay. Clay is BIG and NO. 1 so RCA doesn't have to promote him. They will spend their time and money on the artists NOT doing well. So there you have it--it is confirmed--RCA is leaving it up to us. It seemed like almost every question we asked he referred us back to RCA...that was an RCA decision, not the radio station's. He might just be trying to put the blame on RCA but I have to tell you, a lot of what he said made sense and he LIKES Clay and has MOAM so I don't know. 6. We tried to bring up Clear Channel (this is a Clear Channel station) without going into it too much...just that we had heard rumors. He just kept asking, "Why would we do that? RCA gives us the records to play...we get paid by RCA...there are a lot of RCA artists...why would we NOT want to play their CDs? (Paid might be the key word here though. Someone asked about "payola" and he just kept stressing that was illegal.) He just kept saying that made no sense...why would they want to alienate RCA? We just kind of dropped it at that. 7. MTV, TRL: He said these were important. That we SHOULD request and vote here. They DO look at this. Now here is something that was new to me. He said there was a 3-day delay time. We discussed Clay's video premiering at 6 or 7 (sorry I could not remember) after our marathon voting session. He asked me how long it took to get him to No. 1. Answer-3 days! So can he be right here? 8. We also discussed downloading and how it was hurting the music industry. We, as a group, could not understand this. We asked him if you liked someone didn't you want to help that artist? He got this funny look on his face and put his hands up like he was weighing something and said "free" vs "pay" and said most would take free. Ummmm. We told him that was definitely not us. 9. He compared us to Britney fans. He said Britney had a larger fan base but Clay's fan base was MORE POWERFUL! Said Britney had the 13-14 year olds but we were older. A funny note here. One of the men asked him if he had ever come across a fan base made up primarily of women who were educating themselves and learning everything there was about the music industry. (GOOD QUESTION!) His answer--NO, NEVER and laughed. He was surprised we were all taking notes. One man was giving him a hard time because their slogan is "The New Sound of Kiss FM" but they weren't playing Clay who is the “new sound". You could hear the frustration in some of the ladies' remarks but they did go up to him later and apologized and tried to explain themselves more clearly. He said he understood. Perhaps he will take that back to the PD also. Said Invisible was great for radio. Said The Way was also but NOT as good as Invisible. We asked about radio stations sponsoring concerts since Clay is looking for smaller venues. He said the bands/artists contact the radio station, not the other way around. He also kept stressing how Clay should NOT be this popular...this should NOT be working in today's music. He said the music industry was at a loss and didn't understand it. Of course we kinda knew that. Said nothing is fast in radio and that we just needed to have patience. Oh, if I could only be invisible or a fly on the wall Monday when he goes back to work! I can just hear him now..."The Clay Nation--Don't go there!" |
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Letters to the Clay Report: Letter to Fred that came out of pure frustration today. ----- Original Message ----- From: Bertie Smith To: fbronson@billboard.com Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 8:58 PM Subject: Clay Aiken Dear Fred: What is happening to all our efforts to help Clay. His fans run into a brick wall at every turn. Not that it will stop us. The concert tour is going great and proves that we are not just a sn on a computer. We so badly wanted Solitaire to debut at #1, but we all had trouble finding copies to buy. They call it a Limited Edition. That means we had to be careful to leave copies for people coming in behind us, even though we had promised people and couldn't buy enough. Most people aren't sure whether to request The Way or Solitaire on the radio, not that it does much good anyway. We run into a brick wall there too. Now they say without airplay he can't debut at #1. We can't get airplay. Not to mention TRL. Clay makes these videos and they don't fit the format of the program at all. The VJs obviously dislike them. You can't cram morals down people who don't want them. The other videos are all the same. The subject matter, style of dancing, genre of music is all the same--disgusting and unappealing to us. Do you think the label is trying to spread Clay too thin? We are trying to do our best voting for THE WAY as fans, but it is very discouraging. Is there any chance that there will be a new category for people who have hated the direction music has taken for years. We will hang onto Clay for dear life because he has brought us to this point and we don't want to go back. There is no one that can compare to Clay. Thanks for listening. Bertie Smith Paonia LOL...Poor Fred...guess I wasn't done. ----- Original Message ----- From: Bertie Smith To: fbronson@billboard.com Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 9:31 PM Subject: PS to Clay Aiken PS: Something that I forgot to mention. What is up with absolutely no advertising for Clay? We see Josh Groban advertised everywhere. There was not a word about The Way/Solitaire being released at the stores. No one had any way of knowing about it but the fans who had been notified through the internet sites. We sometimes feel we are all alone in promoting Clay...all word of mouth. What is up with RCA? Do they know the frustration we are feeling? People complain that Ruben hasn't gotten a fair shake, but he did have huge posters with his picture for his albums to be displayed in. Just once I would like to see an advertisement for Clay at the record stores. Sorry I have been such a grump.. :) Just hoping you will come in contact with someone and can pass the word that this has not been a happy day for us. We voted hours on end for The Way Video and it has dropped to #4 and then Solitaire debuting at #4 was JUST TOO MUCH!! Bertie Smith March 25, 2004 Bertie Smith suggested I write to you. My radio station this morning was complaining that people from all over were doing mass mailings requesting The Way. They were very upset about this because people that couldn't hear the station are sending letters and e-mail. This station was very reluctant to play Clay in the beginning particularly the morning show. Claims were made that Clay didn't pay his dues, etc. Once TITN finally made it into their rotation it was played regularly and the same with Invisible. The morning dj's saw him perform Solitaire on AI3 and were blown away by him. They bragged about him and said he should have won. Now however, this morning they were saying The Way is okay, but they prefer Solitaire and too bad it isn't the A side. There goes all hope of them playing Solitaire. It is a concern that there would be mass mailings (if true) to stations out of peoples hearing range. I don't know what if anything can be done, but wanted to let you know what is going on in my area any way. Can you get the word out to people that they need to only contact radio stations in their own areas. To send mass mailings to stations in many instances causes more harm than good. Thanks, Norma |
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Clay Nation News: Guest Editorial March 21, 2004 We've received a lot of feedback from fans concerned about airplay for Clay's current release, "The Way." In response, we've invited Dev Sinha (known online as 43dudleyvillas) to contribute an opinion piece on the issue. Dev is a contributor of airplay and sales information for ClayNation News. She has followed trends in radio airplay and album and concert sales for over 3 years, as a hobby. This hobby has taken on a new level of intensity with the emergence of Clay Aiken. Despite Clay's phenomenal success as a recording artist, radio play has always been a challenge for Clay fans. We’ve become accustomed to jumping through extra hoops to be able to hear Clay on the radio. But thanks in part to fans' efforts, "Invisible" became a solid hit for Clay on both top-40 and AC radio. Its success gave us every reason to believe that Clay had broken through, and that his follow-up single "The Way" would be well-received by radio stations across the US. As you have probably noticed by now, however, "The Way" has stalled on top-40 radio, despite our continued requests and support. This article is intended to present one possible explanation for what has happened to "The Way" on top-40 radio, and examine the question of where fans go from here. The bottom line? It appears "The Way"’s struggles on radio may be rooted in unresolved issues among RCA and various radio station-owning media groups, including Clear Channel. Ironically, despite the apparent lack of response, this means our requests are more important now than ever. While the politics of such negotiations are beyond our control as fans, our requests demonstrate our commitment to getting Clay’s music heard and give ratings-seeking radio stations an incentive to work things out with RCA. By now, many of you have read rumors that Clear Channel (hereafter, CC), which owns nearly 1,200 radio stations nationwide, may have issued a directive against radio play for new music from Clay Aiken and Kelly Clarkson (Kelly is unaffected because she does not currently have a new radio single; older singles from both Clay and Kelly would also be unaffected, since recurrent play does not affect the singles charts). Why? Purportedly because the Independent Tour is being promoted by AEG, a competitor of Clear Channel Entertainment. CC reportedly ties radio play to its services as a tour promoter--choose CC to promote your tour, and the media group’s radio stations will play your music in an effort to drum up interest in your tour. Choosing another promoter would, by logical extension, dampen CC’s interest in playing your music (see http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/stories/939033.html). Has this happened before? Well, when Britney Spears chose Concerts West to promote an earlier tour, airplay for her next radio single seemed to suffer. CC denied accusations that the lack of airplay was due to her choice of concert promoter, but that album failed to produce radio hits of the magnitude of any of her other albums (all of which were supported by tours promoted by CC). Incidentally, Concerts West is now known as--you guessed it, AEG. If you're wondering why an artist would choose a promoter other than CC if radio play is such an issue, the answer is that CC can command a much higher promoter’s fee/percentage from artists for their support of a tour, because of the radio play advantages it can offer. Artists therefore stand to earn more money from a tour by choosing another promoter. Without knowing the difference in the terms that CC vs. AEG demanded from Clay and Kelly, it would be tough indeed to question their choice of tour promoter. In any case, it is not just with CC that there seem to have been problems. We are also now hearing that a Cox Media station, WBLI (Long Island) is not playing new RCA music (except for that of Maroon 5), because of a dispute over WBLI’s upcoming Summer Jam. Another corporate dispute. What is the fan’s place in such a conflict? It’s on the outside. Given the dearth of available facts, letters to radio stations, CC, Cox Media, etc. that castigate them for not playing Clay’s music are unlikely to spur positive change, and may in fact adversely affect Clay’s long-term radio prospects. However, intensified fan support at the grassroots level, via continued requests to local and streaming radio stations, will communicate to radio stations that getting Clay’s music on air can only be to their advantage, and will encourage radio station owners to overcome whatever issues they may have with Clay’s record label. Clay's current problems with airplay are not insurmountable. Artists have most certainly recovered when their airplay has been limited by situations like this. The resolution often involves the artist agreeing to do some concerts, sponsored by the relevant media group. Just look at Britney Spears--as far as airplay and sales go, she's obviously doing just fine today. Moreover, it is worth remembering that Clay has been seen on television repeatedly since late January, promoting his album and commercial single. His profile is also high thanks to the tour and because of the generous coverage accorded to him by entertainment news shows like Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood. There's more good news. The fact that obstacles to radio play lie in the upper reaches of corporate politics means that those with whom fans have actual daily contact, the DJs and Program Directors at the radio stations, are not the ones holding up airplay. In fact, we are hearing more and more stories each day of positive DJ responses to Clay, thanks to an interview or a televised performance. Just this week, several previously unfriendly DJs were heard gushing about Clay's performance of "Solitaire" on American Idol 3. DJs in Chicago and Kansas City, whose stations have refused to play Clay's music, were heard replaying Clay's 15-second glory note and commenting that he deserves respect. New Orleans's top-40 station (92.3 FM) has historically been quite unreceptive to Clay, and yet its morning show DJs were heard raving about "Solitaire" on Thursday morning. NYC's Z100 has been resistant to playing Clay's music. But after two lengthy interviews (in November and in February), the staff at Z100 seems to have really warmed to him. Clay recorded a Reality Radio segment for Z100 that the station has since re-broadcast on no less than three different weekends (including this weekend), multiple times each weekend. This re-broadcast brings us back full circle. Clay plays "The Way" about midway through his stint on Z100 Reality Radio. Z100 has not added "The Way" to its playlist, and all indications are that this is because of a directive from "higher up" not to do so. That Z100 has re-broadcast Clay’s Reality Radio stint so many times shows us that the station is hearing our requests, and acknowledges Clay’s popularity with its audience. The re-broadcast may well be Z100’s way of giving us something. NYC-area folks, we should tune in this weekend (noon Sunday), and e-mail and phone in our thanks to the station for giving us Clay. This may not get "The Way" added to Z100’s playlist, but it will go a long way toward showing the strength of our interest in hearing Clay on the radio. There is a more urgent message here. We have all felt the frustration that comes from lack of response to our requests for "The Way." But now is not the time to give up. There are stations that are playing the song. Keep requesting. KIIS-FM LA (a major market, streaming station) has given the song limited spins--we can and should keep up our efforts there. And we do need to keep up our efforts at our local stations, as well. Z100 would not be re-playing Clay’s Reality Radio segment if the NYC-area folks had given up, or if Z100 thought that interest in Clay was no longer there. The same is true of all radio stations. Once it seems that listener interest in a certain artist’s music has waned, the radio station has no incentive to push that artist’s music. When that artist’s subsequent radio single is released, the radio station has less of an incentive to take it seriously. So it’s time for us to shift our attention from the short-term towards the long-term. Our requests for "The Way" may not have the immediate effect that we would like--that of getting the song added to a station’s playlist, but our requests will have a longer-run effect of compelling radio stations, and the media groups that own them, to take Clay’s subsequent singles seriously. By then, it’s a good bet that whatever corporate obstacles that currently prevent Clay from getting the radio play that he deserves will have been resolved. The last few months have brought us many small victories with individual radio stations, DJs and PDs finally opening up to Clay and his music. The radio landscape is becoming friendlier to Clay. Through our continued requests, we play an important role in keeping it that way. One final note. In terms of radio aiplay, fans have one job,
and one job only: to request. Contacting RCA or Clear Channel over any
of the rumored problems discussed here would do nothing to benefit Clay and
might well have a negative impact on any ongoing negotiations. Make a
point of contacting your local station at least once each day to request
"The Way." Vary your times so that you aren't always speaking to the
same DJ. Don't engage them in debates about spins or Mediabase numbers or
rumors of stonewalling by Clear Channel or other corporate politics. Just
request Clay. Be pleasant. Be a fan. Let the corporate issues work
themselves out.
3/19 quote a post from ca.com: . On my way to work
this morning I was scanning through the radio stations in my area which
include WBLI, Z100, WALKFM, etc. I started to listen to BLI and realized
that they were talking about William Hung and mentioned that because they
got SO MANY requests for SHE BANGS that they would play it. I could feel my
blood pressure rising rapidly but I calmed down before I made the call. When
I got through I spoke with the dj and requested THE WAY and asked if they
would be playing it anytime soon as I know that other people have been
requesting as well. He very nicely said to me.."to be honest with you, we
can't play that song right now because we are currently in a dispute with
RCA over the Summer Jam and we refuse to play any new RCA records until it
is resolved." So I said, I've heard you play Kelly Clarkson and Maroon 5 and
his response was "we only play Kelly's old records, not the new one, (?) and
the ONLY RCA song we'll play is Maroon 5 because they are the top 5 selling
record in the country right now." So I brought to his attention that that
The Way was #1 on TRL yesterday and he said that until this matter with RCA
could be resolved THE WAY will not be played. He also said that after Clay's
performance on AI last night, he would love to play Solitaire but can't. I
don't know how much of this is true but needless to say it was very
upsetting. Any thoughts on this? |
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3/4 Clay Aiken's simple food requirement before his show Tuesday with Kelly Clarkson at the Liacouras Center: a No. 2 combo from Wendy's (cheeseburger - no lettuce, onion or mayo - fries and the American Idol-approved Coke). Clarkson's meal was not known, but she did get a half-hour massage. A crew from ABC's 20/20 tailed Aiken on-stage and off; look for the piece Monday (8 p.m., Channel 6). |
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2/25 Duluth, GA
More from same poster at Bolt: "YAY ! I went to
the concert last night and I have to say KELLY ROCKS !!!! |
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2/24 Charlotte, NC
Pictures from concert
link to
pictures of souvenirs Kelly is wearing an "I LOVE CLAY" tee shirt!
kelly done Clay is getting a WHOLE NEW STAGE |
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Concert presale password - We are happy to announce Kelly and Clay's 2004 tour! Please be aware that ticket pre-sales will become available at 11:30 am, local time, Wednesday January 21st for all of the upcoming tour dates. To purchase your pre-sale tickets, simply visit the site below: www.kellyandclay.musictoday.com To access the page, click on Log In & please use the following user name and password: (all lowercase) User Name: kellyclay Password: independent Date City Venue 2/24 Charlotte, NC Charlotte Coliseum 2/25 Duluth, GA Gwinnett Center 2/27 Tampa, FL St. Pete Times Forum 2/28 Miami, FL American Airlines Arena 3/1 Raleigh, NC RBC Center 3/2 Philadelphia, PA Liacouras Center 3/4 Long Island, NY Nassau Coliseum 3/5 Washington, DC MCI Center 3/7 Wilkes Barre, PA Wachovia Arena 3/8 Worcester, MA Centrum Centre 3/10 Columbus, OH Schottenstein Center 3/11 Detroit, MI Joe Louis Arena 3/13 Winston-Salem, NC LJVM Coliseum 3/16 Houston, TX Houston Rodeo 3/17 Austin, TX Austin Rodeo 3/19 Grand Prairie, TX NextStage 3/21 St. Louis, MO Savvis Center 3/22 Chicago, IL United Center 3/24 Omaha, NE Qwest Center 3/26 Salt Lake City, UT Delta Center 3/27 Las Vegas, NV Thomas & Mack 3/30 San Diego, CA Cox Arena 3/31 Sacramento, CA ARCO Arena 4/2 Glendale, AZ Glendale Arena 4/3 Anaheim, CA Arrowhead Pond 4/5 Los Angeles, CA Staples Center 4/6 San Jose, CA HP Pavilion 4/8 Seattle, WA Key Arena 4/9 Spokane, WA Spokane Arena 4/13 Denver, CO Pepsi Center 4/15 Kansas City, MO Kemper Arena 4/16 St. Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center I just talked to a rep. for ticketmaster re: presale password for Charlotte I asked her about the presale password, and she said that if you already have an account at ticketmaster, then they will email it to you. I told her that we do (my family and I) and we haven't received anything about it yet. Then she said that if it's not on the official fan club yet (or we don't know it yet), that when you go buy tickets during the presale on Friday, that ticketmaster will provide you with the password. She said it would be like a link on the page like "For info about presale password, click here." Finally, she said if all else fails, go the to promoter's website. (AEG) And that it would be on there on Friday at the latest. Claynation (operator of the Clayboard) has talked to Suzanne (fan club prez) she said we are not to worry that they will be getting us the information we need. Im guessing that means on Friday morning Suzanne will put out a new letter via all the boards......I WOULD WATCH FOR THIS!!! Kelly fans will be informed in a similar fashion. Below is a copy of Claynations post. Dear Everyone, Just so you know, I contacted Suzanne. She assured me that there was nothing to worry about and that she will get the information out to us as soon as she can. She also stated that Kelly does not have an official fan club. Neither Clay nor Kelly fans need to worry that one group of fans will have an advantage over the other. Sit tight. We'll find out soon. -CN According to the clayboard the password for Duluth is claykelly |
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| There's a rumor going around on Bolt that RCA is hesitating about releasing The Way; and may release another cut from the album instead? Have you heard anything to this effect? (1/20/04) | |||||||
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Clay
Aiken MUSICAL guest on SNL
FEBRUARY
7th!!!!! Host- Megan Mullaly MG- Clay Aiken Saturday Night Live rumor has it that Clay will host and/or be musical guest on SNL in February possibly sweeps week. (1/9/04) |
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Clays Offical Site To Sell Bobble
Head Dolls!!!! (1/10/04) As many of you know, the Clay bobble-head dolls that will be given away at tonight's game are showing up on E-bay--79 dolls so far, I believe. Please keep in mind that a reliable source on claytonaiken.com said that Clay's official website will soon be selling the dolls. If you buy them on e-bay, you may pay an outrageous amount. You may want to inform other message boards about this. |
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| American Idol 2 (Second Season) DVD
will be out March 16th (1/9/04)
mandersme from the Clayboard |
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