Missed Opportunities

... reporting to you from Los Angeles.

After 3 days of red carpets and interviews, I am amazed at Country Music's low self-esteem. It seems the Country Music system doesn't feel like the Grammy's and the world press care a thing about them.

It's still an education process really. IF the larger music world got exposed to the fantastic talents of most in Country music, it would reap untold wealth. Country music plays to its base well, but playing to sectors outside the base is where the format can experience real growth. Establishing, introducing, and generating some buzz has to be the name of the game in the digital age.

The Grammy's, for example, is the Superbowl of music. The world's press is there to cover. The show runs all over the planet in places that never see a country act or hear a country song. Sugarland, Keith Urban and Faith Hill got lucky this year and got to sing on the show. That will reap untold goodwill and sales.

It's the off-show events that get attention, too, just like the Superbowl. Getting the nominees and other stars to events such as MusicCares seems to be where the ball gets dropped or simply ignored.

The multi-media stars do get it … Tim and Faith feel comfortable on a red carpet anywhere! They are great on and off stage and prove that to me quite often. Trisha Yearwood with husband Garth in tow gets it. Jennifer Nettles and her Sugarland partner make a good photo op. She is simply the IT girl right now in the format and you just know the bosses above see that star potential. Bon Jovi has already seen it.

The voters of the Grammy's year in and year out vote not on what's selling but via some other esoteric method. An artist's charity work, ticket sales … how these Grammy people vote is hard to completely understand. The Kanye's or cutting edge trends often are ignored or minimized. The Beatles, Beach Boys, Sly and The Family Stone … looking at this years tribute, it was a non-event in the Grammy history books.

Regardless of the idiosyncrasies, it is a world stage and it's the worlds press. Even the Dixie Chicks ventured out on the red carpet one time if only for a few meaningless words and some waves. At least they showed they were back in the game.

Even when the artists do get on the carpet, their label pr people often miss the boat. I was covering the red carpet at the Grammy's on the TV row, KNBC Los Angeles position (their news director lets Access Hollywood do all the entertainment news). NBC News nationally wanted the material and as soon as the red carpet was done the material was rushed back to Burbank and fed raw to the network back in NY and fed raw to all of the NBC affiliates to pick through to go along with their late news and morning news the following day. The network itself will cherry pick it for shots and bites forever. We obviously ran it on Nashville's NBC affiliate after the show and Thursday morning in the recap.

Jamie Foxx, Elvis Costello, Lee Ann Womack, Tim and Faith, Sting, Shirley Caesar, Earth, Wind and Fire, Tony Bennett, Teri Hatcher, Jenna Elfman, Gene Simmons, and many more got their face out in front of the public all around the world. Despite the best efforts of one Nashville label publicist (who shall remain nameless), we even got good video of the stunning Jennifer Nettles, Garth and Trisha. It's like pushing a rock up a hill sometimes to help country artists get the attention they deserve. The petty politics or whatever criteria some use for who gets their star is just screwed up. The ineptness hurts the artist involved and even the industry.

I understand why Keith Urban didn't walk the line, because the Nicole thing would have been a zoo. But the no shows of many -- if not most -- country artists was indeed a missed opportunity.

In the LA Times, the paper lamented on the fact the once darling Gretchen Wilson didn't win this year. She was nowhere to be found to put the spin out she was still very much in the game.

Big & Rich were on the carpet and they would have made a Tonight Show segment if they had a sharp eye helping them. (The Tonight Show was shooting a fun segment next to me and how cool what that have been if our country artists had gone with everyone else for that spot?)

Missed opportunities. Artists better wake up and think about it.

The Nashville label folks are mostly sharp, and they don't control the artists like they once did. But when you do have them at such a large media events, know who is shooting what and for whom!

Often when a local TV station is shooting we are also shooting for the network's other stations. We all feed and share. One person on a local radio station may be on other radio stations reporting, too. What it seems is not always what it is. In my case (and there are others), I am on Nashville TV/NBC and on Nashville's WSM-AM. But watch how this grows. WSM is on Sirius. I am also on radio stations in Atlanta, Tampa, Charlotte, Austin, Edmonton/Alberta Canada and 50 others whose signal goes out on satellite and the internet all over the country and in fact the world. The TV material is seen in Nashville, but in cases like last night, made available to all of the NBC world which includes MSNBC, CNBC … do I need to go on? It's also in the video section of the TV's website. It's millions and millions of people.

The bottom line is simple: Country music is missing opportunities to get their stars and their great music in front of a new potential audience. It's a digital world. Artists, help them help you. It's uncharted territory, but, like Columbus, you better get in the water for the new world. Petty Nashville politics and bad PR people don't help the situation.