Fact of Fiction?

... reporting from Tampa.

In these days of the internet and high speed everything, when you read or hear a story you never know if it's true or something made up.

The Urban/Kidman relationship/engagement whatever comes to mind. And today, on Foxnews.com, we get a story on a flight attendant telling a planeload of Southwest passengers that she was Kenny Chesney's lover for 10 years pre-Renee. Is this true or something made up? Or maybe half-truth. You don't know what to believe from these Internet wags.

Trying to read between the lines or separate the bull is very hard to do. The more I read (even the trades), the more I ask what is going on. The Disney sale of their radio assets, Cumulus not reporting adds to the trades. What's the real story in both of those stories?

Why do the Grammy people do so little Country music on the show when most of our artists are crossover and have stronger concert gross figures than these so-called pop successes? People take the hand-outs from the industry and don't ask questions.

In Hollywood, a few folks like Peter Bart try to find out the real WHY of what's going on. In Nashville, it's just not done. So many are scared they will get cut off.

The soap opera stories of Chesney and Urban are a symptom of a bigger issue. Country music badly needs some interesting stars and exciting music.

Everyone has ratings to live by. In TV, it's a daily ratings world; radio should get on their knees and thank God everyday that's not an issue. In TV, you know the next morning before 8am if you did great or sucked. It's harsh and probably not even accurate, but the ratings are what they are. You live by the sword and die by the sword.

The Grammy people must feel the Country folks won't get it done for them in the major cities. Simple as that. If you take the Hollywood/Nashville love affairs out of the mix, you get a lot of married singers that live very normal lives. It's hard to get the butts in the movie seats with normalcy. Hard to get those TV measuring computers going on with normal. What's normal about American Idol at the end of the day?

Gretchen got press because she was different, sort of. The Dixie Chicks did because they were a rock attitude band with country instruments (the banjo is hard to disguise). Carrie Underwood gets attention because she is such the American Dream small-town-girl-makes-good story (the old Hollywood story of the girl off the bus getting discovered at the drug store soda counter).

Nashville needs some juice. Some stories. Some interesting people who can also sing and entertain. It's the whole package. Not everyone has to be a trailblazer. Some of the folks need to be interesting, and the rest can enjoy the wake.

The wide range of music coming from Music Row right now is a good thing. Terrestrial radio's charts and playlists are still too constipated and safe. Many of the consultants are over the hill folks with old ideas. Many of the programmers today think in caricature of what they think country radio is. Either too redneck and stupid or too slick and unfeeling. A jukebox that never tells you what the machine is playing.

Some get it ... a lot don't. As Disney decides their future in radio, you have to wonder what do they know that you don't.