Miranda Lambert and Martina McBride rally against radio consultant's sexist comments
Multi-Grammy Award winners Miranda Lambert and Martina Mcbride have slammed a Texas-based country radio consultant for suggesting songs released by female artists cost station bosses listeners.
Keith Hill sparked controversy this week (begs25May15) after telling industry magazine Country Aircheck that the best way to boost ratings is to cut the airplay of music by female stars, even though the majority of listeners tend to be women, because the key to ratings gold is material by popular male singers.
He said, "If you want to make ratings in country radio, take
females out...
"Trust me, I play great female records and we've got some right
now; they're just not the lettuce in our salad. The lettuce is Luke
Bryan and Blake Shelton, Keith Urban and artists like that. The
tomatoes of our salad are the females."
His comments stunned McBride, who took to her Facebook.com account
to ask her fans for their opinions.
She wrote, "Wow... just wow. Do you not like to hear other women
singing about what you are going through as women? I'm really
curious. Because to me, country music is about relating... Did you
girls know you were being 'assessed' in this way? Is this how you
really feel? Hmmm..."
Lambert, who is married to Shelton, also took aim at Hill, blasting
the comments as "the biggest bunch of BULLS**T I have ever
heard".
She then vowed to do more to help raise the profile of other women
in country music, adding, "I am gonna do everything in my power to
support and promote female singer/songwriters in country music.
Always."