Morgan Wallen’s Hometown Station Lets Listeners Decide About Airplay

WMYL

Following last week’s controversy surrounding MORGAN WALLEN’s use of a racial slur (NET NEWS 2/3), one of his hometown stations, M & M BROADCASTING Country WMYL (96.7 MERLE)/KNOXVILLE, TN, is asking its listeners to decide whether the station should continue to play his music. The move comes after all of the major broadcast chains dropped WALLEN’s records and his label indefinitely suspended the artist from its roster.

The station is airing a message pointing listeners toward the “MORGAN WALLEN Verdict Poll,” which is on the station’s FACEBOOK page here. The poll states, “We think listeners should determine if 96.7 MERLE plays MORGAN WALLEN or not. Vote now.” As of MONDAY afternoon (2/8), the vote was 92% “yes” and 8% “no,” and the poll had generated almost 21,000 votes, a thousand comments and more than 500 shares.

The poll, which began YESTERDAY (2/7) will continue for seven days, with results to be announced on TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16th at 5p (ET) live on the air. It’s not clear how the station will determine how many of the votes were cast locally. Station owner RON MEREDITH did not respond to an inquiry about that.

While MEREDITH said, “we're disappointed by the behavior” WALLEN displayed in the TMZ video where he was heard using the slur, “we were also uncomfortable with sitting in judgement. If you’ve lived long enough, you probably have said at one point or another you were glad video and social media wasn’t everywhere when you were young and did stupid things. While nobody liked the behavior, we are a radio station - not in the censorship business.

“We changed the music on our station last year so it focuses now only on what East TENNESSEE Country fans like,” MEREDITH continued. “So, this situation is like being between a rock and a hard place. We felt uncomfortable with all the different institutions making decisions for Country listeners. We didn’t want to do that at 96.7 MERLE. For that reason, we are going to now literally let East TENNESSEE Country listeners vote. If they say no, MORGAN’s music stays off 96.7 MERLE. If they vote yes, we will play the songs local Country listeners want to hear most. That’s the business we are in. We will leave the judgement and punishment to others and it will all be transparent on FACEBOOK.”

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