To anyone else, having your artists banned by one of the biggest radio station networks in the country would be a cause for concern. But for Mathew Knowles, it's an opportunity. Mathew Knowles' roster of gospel artists have been banned from Radio One by owner Cathy Hughes over a dispute between Mathew and Cathy over TVOne's exclusive rights to air the Essence Music Fest, which Mathew violated [click here if you missed that]. Mathew responds to the banning calling it an "opportunity to expand..."
From EUR
“We didn’t, as a company, we didn’t focus as much. And that was a mistake on our part as a label,” Knowles explained to EUR’s Lee Bailey. “It’s allowed us to give our focus to the entire radio community fully rather than just putting a lot of eggs in one basket. Not that we overlooked the other ones. We never would overlook them. It’s just that we didn’t focus as much as we should and we didn’t build those relationships as strongly as we should.
“It’s an opportunity for us. In the 20 years, we’ve always thought outside the box and it’s been real successful for us,” he continued. “I’m so happy to be able to understand AM radio better and continue to build relationships with all gospel stations. So it’s been an opportunity for us.”
When asked about the ban, Mathew Knowles stated he doesn’t get into the “legal side of that.”
“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.”
In regard to the influence of all radio outlets, Knowles noted how stations on the AM dial are underestimated by record executives in gospel who fail to realize their reach for the gospel community.
“It’s allowed us to approach our business differently and it’s a great thing because the results have been overwhelming as we’ve approached our business differently instead of before,” he explained. “Ninety percent of all our artist radio promotions was done with Radio One. Now this allows us to view that whole landscape differently…We’ve done all of our promotions differently. We’ve done all of our advertising differently. So it’s bit of an opportunity.”
“I’ve been in gospel since 2002 with our first gold album. People just don’t know the history, unfortunately,” said Knowles, who confessed to Music World being totally focused on gospel and is proud to see his label still around in its 10th year in the gospel industry as the 5th largest gospel record label in America. “Our first number one was “The Fighting Temptations” soundtrack. Our second number one was 2003 Michelle Williams. People just don’t the history. And I get that. We probably, at Music World, haven’t done a good enough job.”
