Offbeatgate

Scandal! I was reading a copy of Offbeat today at lunch. Apparently, the local music magazine has had a split with WWOZ, beloved New Orleans community radio station. The talked about it in a big editorial in their letters section (the link works for now, anyway).

See, at the top of every odd hour WWOZ does the Livewire Events Calendar - a listing of bands playing around town that daay. For years, Offbeat sponsored (and provided the listings for) the Livewire. According to Offbeat, WWOZ just dropped them and didn't even let them know.

[Disclosure: sometimes my alarm clock is set to WWOZ, but I get up around six. Last summer when I was jobless it went off at seven to wake Sonya up and I enjoyed laying in bed, listening to the rundown of live bands. That's really my only involvement in this. I'm for the Livewire!)

Anyhow, in their editorial Offbeat really lets the management of WWOZ have it. A quote:

"WWOZ station manager David Freedman is the person responsible for severing all of WWOZ's ties with OffBeat. In a recent meeting between myself, David Freedman and Dwayne Breashears, WWOZ's Program Manager, Freedman characterized OffBeat as 'not a friend of WWOZ,' 'not caring about the local music community'-assertions we found troubling and hurtful-and publishing a magazine with the sole interest of 'making money,' a statement we find absurd and ultimately, laughable."

I haven't heard the WWOZ side of things, but after reading this I'd have to side with Offbeat. It's always full of articles about obscure local musicians and really, it's a freebie magazine you get in a bar. Anyone who thinks that the people behind it are just out to make a buck is not looking at things realistically.

That said, I'd be very interested to hear what WWOZ has to say. It's certainly possible that we're not getting the full story from Offbeat.

UPDATE: Oooooh! Here's the list of WWOZ's problems with Offbeat. NB: This list was posted on Offbeat's forum, by the person who wrote the editorial, so enjoy with a grain of salt:

"I challenge Mr. Freedman to write a letter to us to get his side out to the public. These are the main reasons for his ire that he presented to me: 1) Barbara Hoover's ranting posts on OffBeat's old message board which we 'allowed' and did not edit; 2) The fact that Bunny Matthews chose not to testify in the case Hoover filed against WWOZ (he did not want to be involved with Barbara's case); 3) I suggested in a MetroVision meeting a few years ago that there be a separate music internet portal (other than WWOZ) to be fair to all the other sites in town who covered music (I did not at any time push OffBeat's site to be the 'official' portal); and 4) WWOZ did not make any money from Best of The Beat 2002 (we didn't make any money on Best of The Beat; we never do!). Freedman claims we did not give him an accounting of this event, although he did suggest we run expenses through WWOZ (which we chose not to do). That's it in a nutshell."

Interesting. It looks like these two are taking turns pissing in the communal small pond. Hurray! More drama for me to enjoy!