Matthew Knowles' Artists Banned From Radio Station Due to Bad Business
Matthew Knowles’ music artists were reportedly banned from TV One Networks, including the Radio One station where some of them were previously put into rotation, due to a bad business deal.
A source reportedly told Eurweb.com that Radio One founder Cathy Hughes told her staff that there would be consequences if Knowles’ artists were played on any of the networks’ programming.
“All Radio One personnel were told to pull all Music World artists out of rotation immediately and indefinitely,” said the source. “We were told that the mandate came straight from Ms. Hughes and that there would be ramifications for anyone playing or mentioning a Music World artist or song on air.”
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Hughes’ mandate reportedly stems from previous bad business between the network and Knowles. EUR reports that Hughes is suing Knowles along with other cable networks that obtained rights to the Essence Music Festival that he promised would exclusively belong to TV One.
The publication reported the Knowles was supposed to negotiate the deal for TV One, the sister company of Radio One. Since he failed to do so, the artists that he represents will also reportedly suffer the consequences.
Knowles told EUR that he did not know the specifics of the legal situation, but his company would learn and grow from the experience.
"I leave that to attorneys to handle this part of it. I think for me and my 20 years in the music industry…whenever situations like this come, I look at them as opportunities, an opportunity that this has allowed for Music World Gospel to really understand better the landscape to build those relationships at radio with the other different affiliates, like Sheridan and Clear Channel and many others,” he said.
Music World Entertainment, Knowles’ entertainment company, represents a multitude of gospel artists including Juanita Bynum, Trin-I-Tee 5:7, Brian Courtney Wilson, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, Micah Stampley and BET’s “Sunday Best” winners Le’Andria Johnson and Amber Bullock.
However, the source told EUR that all of his artists have been removed from the radio station’s lineup.
“Le’Andria Johnson’s song ‘Jesus’ was in heavy rotation on Radio One stations one day and the next day she wasn’t getting any spins,” the sources told EUR. “New music by Trin-I-tee 5:7 and Micah Stampley, as well as recurring hits by Brian Courtney Wilson have been pulled as well.”
TV One networks could not be reached at the time of press, while Matthew Knowles’ company declined to respond on the matter.
