Morgan Wallen Tops The Chart – Without Radio!


Is this the new reality of how and where fans find and consume music these days, or, is it fans rejecting a cancel culture that has run amuck? Banned-from-radio Morgan Wallen is the best-selling artist of 2021, he has the most Spotify streams and biggest album sales.

As digital and streaming music listening has become a regular part of our lives, especially with younger generations living on their mobile devices, radio executives have been saying for years that their stations are still, and always will be, the destination for new music. That services like Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music are like our old cassette-tape music collections.

How does Morgan Wallen fit into that explanation?

Wallen’s album Dangerous has been on top of the charts for 6 consecutive weeks. Nearly the entire radio industry banned Wallen 4 weeks ago after a leaked video showed him using a racial slur. Was his momentum so strong nothing could stop him? Was he just too big to fail? Is this a wake-up call for radio’s power to create the stars?

Bob Lefsetz, who’s widely respected for his many years writing about the music industry, asks the question, “Is Wallen going to be excised from the airwaves and playlists forever? “When does he get out of music jail? “Maybe Wallen should apologize directly to those who’ve dropped him. Individually. Cumulus, iHeart, Big Loud and the streaming companies who have demoted him. Come on, what is worse than standing up in front of your parents, or the school principal, and admitting you’re wrong? Talk about shame. But if we never let Wallen back he and his fans will become embittered, the problem will only get worse.”

Digital Music News reports that radio is sticking to its guns with the Wallen ban and that’s angering fans who have vowed to stop listening if Wallen wasn’t reinstated. “So far, however, stations seem to be sticking to the ban. But that stance is having little impact on Wallen’s sales and popularity. That’s a far cry from the pre-digital days of traditional radio, when broadcast radio could easily make-or-break an emerging artist.”

Lefsetz says cancel culture in America today has gotten out of control. “I call for Morgan Wallen to immediately be reinstated on radio and streaming service playlists. Let this be a teaching moment. Let these outlets put out press releases saying what the point is, that it’s been made, and they’re embracing Morgan Wallen back into the fold, because America is one big tent and we all need to get along, that we all make mistakes, but they are all different and should engender different penalties and Morgan Wallen has paid the price.”

Should radio bring Wallen back?


  1. You can call any cancellation cancel culture, but when the consumer decides whether to consume or not consume; I’d call that the free market cancellation. That is not the same as this. When did corporate execs decide alcoholism and the behavioral issues that go with it is a pretext for cancelling careers? We’d not have those Hank Sr hits embedded into our culture. No Waylon; no Keith; no Hendrix. Future is screwed for music lovers under this new moral authorities that allow for porn music skits on family tv but no N-word in any context.

  2. Radio will not decide for me what I like to hear. I don’t depend on radio to hear Morgan Wallen. I have his cds his vinyls and I stream in my house and my car. My issue is is if radio is going to cancel someone who apologized, cancel them all! Luke Combs for his rebel flag video and his apology AFTER!! Morgan was cancelled. Notice when he apologized! Maren Morris for her posing nude and writing in the article how much she enjoys oral sex on a man. Like we need to hear about her sex life, if she enjoys it so much she needs to keep one in her mouth and shut her pie hole! And cancel Florida Georgia line for saying the same word Morgan said in a video I’ve seen it on youtube. And Cancel Kelsey Ballerini for being holier than though! And I don’t mean this mean but people are saying what want to these days, if I liked Mickey Guytons I would buy her music, I don’t care for it. I do have that right. Her song was offensive. And no I never heard it until I went and looked her up on youtube. I let my husband hear it without watching the video. He couldn’t understand her words clearly and didn’t care for it. And cancel all the artist who’ve had extra marital affairs, caused any type of controversial issues. I’m offended I have to hear about it and no one does anything until now. And I’m also offended POC think they own the N word. No human owns words or rights to words or has permission to use an offensive word in a derogatory way. And why would anyone want to own that word anyway considering how it was used toward POC.
    People are jealous and it shows. If your music is GOOD WE WILL BUY IT. if it ain’t we won’t. Here’s my example, if Whitney Houston had came out with I will always love you on country radio before Dolly did, I guarantee you she would have soared just as She did in the pop charts and just as Dolly did in the country charts. But I also think if you are gonna sing country music it really needs to sound country. With a twang, and a drawl! Or remove the country genre title. Y’all talk about diversity and being inclusive, how many black people work for CMT, Cummulus, Iheart, serious, Pandora, and how many work for record labels, if it ain’t 50/50 that’s on y’all not the listeners. I bet to every 50 blacks/Hispanics,Mexicans, Indians ETC!!, who try to make it in the country music 500 white people are trying to make it. Again, to all races and Male and female, if it ain’t country and it ain’t good we won’t listen and we won’t buy it. I said what I said.

  3. Morgan Wallen is the BEST EVER country artist. It’s a shame that what he said was taken completely out of context. He was talking to his friends. Why would he talk derogatory to his friends?? HE WOULDN’T!! He loves his friends!! Nashville needs to rethink this mess.. Morgan deserves this for all of his hard work and talent. He’s a down home, down to earth country boy.. The best kind there is… Love you, Morgan!! Keep your chin up!! We’re working hard for ya..

  4. Football players can knock their wives out in hotels and drag them into elevators, Chris Brown can beat the living daylights out of Rihanna, and Kanye West can take awards away from Taylor Swift and say they are not deserved, and they don’t get banned. Morgan got banned because of our current political climate and everyone knows it. These corporations are motivated by money period. They miscalculated this one. Morgan is about to be #1 for the 7th week in a row. If they thought they could make money off him and high five each other at the next shareholder meeting, they would do whatever it took. Please, this is about money and politics.

  5. Love me some Morgan. The guy apologised and he should be forgiven just like anyone else who has made a mistake and there has been plenty!!!

    But a lot of what happened here was a rebel against cancel culture and against the hypocrisy of this entire situation.

  6. Fans love Morgan! ABSOLUTELY and I am a huge fan. The boy apologized and that should be that along with alcohol treatment.

    But I think someone finally gets the bigger picture here! Folks DO NOT like to be told what to do or what they are allowed to listen to. And that is what radio did…they took away our choice. That NEVER works out well! The audience will rebel and find another way to prove their point. They need to stop this whole “we are deciding…” No one decides for me!

  7. It seems obvious to me that what we really need are two new formats:

    Republican Party approved music and Democratic Party approved music radio comrade. This way the warring tribes can fortify to their trenches, keep their prospective echo chambers billowing at full blast and the radio station owners can count the cash. And, of course, make sure the same group ownership in the perspective cities own both of the competing stations so the ideology and music can be appropriately coordinated.

  8. All of the work radio did in introducing him to radio listeners, and introducing this new album to audiences was done BEFORE the incident. That was almost five years of promotion. The fact that his new album is topping the charts shows radio did a good job. That doesn’t excuse what he did, and he understands that.

    Nobody on the radio is telling people what to do. If they want to listen or buy his music, they can. But they might consider that if Morgan took a stand on something, how dedicated to it would he be? Would he change his mind about something just because it was popular? Obviously not. When you believe in principle, you don’t compromise those principles just because others don’t agree.

    Recovering from alcoholism takes time. The reason this problem happened again is because he wasn’t fully recovered. This was the third time he was caught. It will take MONTHS, not weeks, for him to get his problems under control. It is HIS problem, not ours. Then he will have to face the black artists. Imagine the day he goes to the American Music Awards and a bunch of black rappers confront him. That will take time. He has fence mending to do. Then maybe it will be time to reconsider.

    • Country music has a lot of white, racist artists — and listeners. Certainly by no means not all –probably in fact MOST – country artists and listeners are NOT racist. But the country music ecosphere is 90%-plus white (usually with a low intellect too) , and is a safe harbor for racists to hide in. 90% of the PD’s in country music are white too — we know one who just went to work for a record company last year, and he definitely is a racist. So Morgan’s behavior in that universe, is not surprising.

      • “…But the country music ecosphere is 90%-plus white (usually with a low intellect)…” Really Roy? The latter part of that statement likely will not get you into mensa any time soon.

  9. Only 18% of Country radio listeners were aware of Morgan Wallen’s music being removed from Country radio one full week after the ban began, signifying Country radio has not communicated its position on Morgan Wallen with its listeners, according to a recent study of Country Radio listeners from P1 Media Group. Country listeners were split on the ban, yet the sample overwhelmingly agreed Morgan Wallen “should make a public apology, take steps to understand how his words were hurtful and change his behavior.” Will that be enough for radio to lift the ban?

  10. Yeah, just sitting down with some popcorn to enjoy while I watch everyone who dropped the Dixie Chicks complaining about “cancel culture”. Loving the lack of self awareness.

    • The difference is Dixie Chicks got a backlash from their fans, not the record label! This is the promoters telling us what we can and can’t listen to. Enjoy your popcorn with a Coke.

  11. “Should radio bring Wallen back?”

    Radio is irrelevant here. It won’t matter whether they bring him back or not. Wallen doesn’t need them.

    it should be a wake up call to radio.

  12. These radio companies who keep allowing the labels to “influence” the same ol-same-ol washed-up PD’s will keep running these songs up and down the charts all while the audience doesn’t care, because the real audience (most people), are already consuming on digital channels. Young artists aren’t impressed by singing in the conference room, or the kitchen, while pizza gets delivered and 6 interns and 4 sales people sorta just stare at them…. Radio is a lazy, old culture that needs a massive revitalization, which starts with programming talent. Don’t believe me? Revenue has been flat, or down for terrestrial advertising for over a decade.

  13. Enough with the cancel culture BS! Play the hits and if the man has a hit, play it. If people don’t like it, it will drop off the charts and you don’t play it. Let the market decide, not a bunch of snowflakes. As an aside: what he said in his drunken stupor was detestable. But how many other artists (from all genres) have said that or done even worse? Here’s a hint: quite a few. And very few are banned.

  14. Let people like him, find him elsewhere. there are so many talented artists that are actually GOOD people for stations to play and promote.

  15. Radio didn’t bring back the Dixie Chicks so why should they bring back Wallen? He’s not a kid. and it’s not the first time he used language like that. He’s 27 years old and that’s who he is. If I don’t like him as a person, I’m surely not going to listen to his music anymore.

    • These are two different situations. Radio’s audience demanded the chicks be gone. That generally happens when you insult them. Maines thought she was gonna be cool by insulting a president that the country radio audience overwhelmingly supported while she was overseas. The chicks were gonna be toast whether radio played them or not. What’s the saying ‘get woke go broke’. Maines forgot who her audience was, then proceeded to double down on stupid.

      For Wallen, the woke programmers in country radio made the decision with no input from their audience because they were afraid of being attacked by the blue check brigade on Twitter….people who don’t listen to country radio to start with. It’s backfired on radio because it’s showing just how irrelevant radio is now for creating stars.

      And radio is oblivious to it all.

      • “Woke programmers?” You mean the ones with confederate flags in their logos who call themselves “Dixie Country?” They’re not much different than Morgan. They just don’t get caught by TMZ.

        The people who first objected to the Dixie Chicks weren’t country fans. They were conservative talk radio fans. They didn’t know who the Dixie Chicks were. Conservative talk radio played the cancel culture card on the Chicks, and forced radio to stop playing one of their biggest acts. If cancel culture is bad, why is it OK when listeners approve?

      • Kudos for being, so far, the only commenter on this article who seems to get it.

        I worked in country radio at the time Natalie Maines insulted the President.
        Contrary to what TheBigA says below, there were many, many country fans who objected to them; I heard from plenty where I worked. That was a movement sparked by country fans and talk radio listeners alike.

        What’s happened with Morgan Wallen is that someone didn’t like him, so when they got the chance to take him out, they did so. Country programmers, scared of a tiny amount of screaming blue-checks on Twitter, caved, instead of letting the audience decide. It appears they have decided that they’ll listen to Wallen anyway…and they don’t need us to do it.

        That’s not going to help radio.

        • It’s not just country radio. He’s not getting played on Sirius either. He’s not getting booked on TV shows. His agent dropped him. His record label suspended him. Why is this not their problem too? Why didn’t people attack Saturday Night Live when they dropped him last September? This kid has some issues. They’re not going to be solved in three weeks.

          Once again, it doesn’t matter who objected to the Dixie Chicks. Cancel culture is the same no matter who does it, no matter for what reason. When they drop Wallen, they’re “woke programmers,” but they’re the same programmers who dropped the Chicks.


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