Shock jock-turned-movie-star Howard Stern may have declared himself King of All Media, but some of his fiefdoms appear to be rebelling. Fueled partly by the Porno for Pyros single Hard Charger, the soundtrack to Stern's movie, "Private Parts," debuted at No. 1 last week, but the songs on the album aren't being played at all on some radio stations.
Many prominent alternative-rock- and album-rock-oriented stations have added "Hard Charger" to their playlists, and the single is at No. 2 at the San Diego-area station XRTA, according to Broadcast Data Systems airplay-monitoring figures. But some stations that don't carry Stern's show aren't playing it, for fear of giving a boost to their cross-town rivals that do have the show. A source at trend-setting modern rock station KROQ said DJs there play "Hard Charger" without identifying the album it's from.
"Not with a gun to my head [would I play songs from the album]," said Bob Newmann, program director of the Cleveland rock station WMMS, which doesn't carry Stern's show and won't play "Hard Charger." "That's my quote: Not with a gun to my head....Howard is in our market. And I'll be damned if I give him any extra publicity."
The soundtrack, which also includes new songs by Marilyn Manson,Ozzy Osbourne, and members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, sold 176,000 copies in its first week of release, according to SoundScan, but still fell short of the sales some industry observers expected.
Dave Lombardi, national promotions director for Warner Bros. confirmed that stations not playing anything on the album caused a minor sales dent. "In non-Stern markets, it didn't necessarily do as well, which means it will take a little longer," Lombardi said. "It's just frustrating from a promotions standpoint when you've got great music and you're still not able to turn people around on it for whatever reason."
But Lombardi calls the anti-Stern dilemma a "good problem." It's hard to complain too much when your first video is all over MTV, your first single is pushing heavy rotation at radio stations around the U.S., and Stern's nationally syndicated radio show gives the soundtrack a daily five-hour promotional push. "The Howard Stern phenomenon is big enough to make up for the lack of airplay in some of those places," Lombardi continued. "And I think it might get airplay in some of those places. I think it'll even out."
Unsurprisingly, the Chicago rock station WRCX, home of Stern's shock jock rival Mancow Muller, plans to ignore the album completely. "We didn't find anything on the album that was really suitable for this radio station," said program director Dave Richards, who echoed Newmann in refusing to give Stern more publicity.
And what if the soundtrack yields hits s