Wednesday, April 2, 2014

iHeartRadio Country Fest Caused Dust-Up

Feeling heat from a host of country music artists, Clear Channel pulled a planned TV broadcast of its inaugural iHeartRadio Country Festival, The NY Post has learned.

The iHeartRadio Country Festival, a new entrant in the increasingly crowded country music award circuit, took place in Austin, Texas, last weekend and featured major acts such as Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Carrie Underwood and Lady Antebellum.

The Internet radio platform had planned a TV broadcast of the festival on April 5, but under pressure changed instead to a live stream of the event with Viacom’s CMT after the planned broadcast date caused a major backlash with artist management.

That air date would have clashed with CBS’s own Academy of Country Music Awards, coming up April 6. CBS’s show also stars Luke Bryan and features Blake Shelton and Taylor Swift.

“Managers and artists in Nashville were very supportive of the [ACM] and were horrified [about the conflict]. They were aggressive in letting Clear Channel know that,” said a source close to conversations.

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