LOCAL HIP-HOP GROUP TAKES THEIR STORY TO THE STREETS.
December 27th, 2010
Photos and story By: Andru Valpy
The Filthy Animals showed their home-town fans just how easy it was to take their music to the streets of their city during the 2010 Winnipeg Zombie Walk.
Member Jeff Bromley teamed up with various members of the community to help organize and promote the event in an effort to help film a music video for an upcoming single.
But when the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Award nominee band took their music to local radio station Streetz 104.7 things seemed to get complicated.
"To this day, we have NEVER posted the REAL reason why our music isn't in rotation on STREETZ FM"
writes Jeff Bromley, in a letter sent to Wake Up Winnipeg,
"A lot of people have asked us in the past, on Facebook, at shows, on the street, why we don't get play on STREETZ 104.7. Our fans and friends have never been able to figure it out."
Jeff's story starts earlier this year prior the release of their first album "Sounds of Nature" which was produced on Deep Cave Records. He was approached by a Streetz FM representative by the name of Mellisa Spence who claimed she was the program director for the Winnipeg based station.
It was suggested to Jeff that the band release a few singles for air-play on the urban radio station in an effort to promote the band and their talent.
Though the Animals had not released or mastered any of their tracks, they worked diligently to mix and master their single "BIZNESS AS USUAL" specifically for radio release to ensure they did not miss out on a opportunity.
As promised, the station played the single for what Jeff simply describes as a few weeks.
"I gotta say, being played on the radio was a real cool feeling. It Felt good to hear our music on there, I'm not gonna lie."
After a few weeks on rotation, Mellisa approached The Filthy Animals a second time and requested some additional tracks to add to their growing collection.
"We didn't have anything else mixed and mastered but Big Bear finally caved in and mixed, radio edits and masters three songs specifically for Streetz, and hand delivers them to their studio along with some giveaways, namely the old Deepcave/Factor album".
But after three weeks, the band had not heard any of their edited songs on the station.
It was only then that filthy animal Big Bear, e-mailed the contact at the station to inquire about their songs.
The response received from Streetz representative Mellisa Spence followed:
"(you) should up (your) sound quality and production values" and submit music with "studio production quality"
To which the band was not impressed.
After having spent the time to produce the tracks specifically for the station, member Big Bear e-mailed what Jeff states is a plain tone e-mail to the station to express his concerns.
The band admits the initial reply between Big Bear and Mellisa could have been approached differently, but letters of understanding and apology were later exchanged between Jeff and Mellisa and everything was what she described as "all love".
" I said in a reply e-mail to Melissa that if 'everything is all love' like she says it is, then we were good with that. I also apologized for Bear's overall tone in the original e-mail that he sent her".
What followed two days later however was a surprise to all of The Filthy Animals according to Jeff,
"Two days later one of our fans tells us that Melissa and fellow co-host Jules were talking about us on their Twitter page saying that 'The Filthy Animals need some tissue' and that we were 'just crying because we didn't get played.' "
But it was the final strand of tweets that upset the band and their image.
Messages were posted on the twitter profiles of both station representatives which read simply as followed:
"YOU WANNA KNOW THE TRUTH....YOU GUYS SUCK!!" "STEP UP YOUR RAP GAME".
At that point Jeff reached out to station representative Melissa Spence and asked her about the messages, to which she denied the allegations.
Moments later, the tweets were removed from the social media website in what was later learned to be the request of Streets FM management and program directors.
Jeff continues:
"So basically, we told Melissa that we did not want to do business with them due to the public slander and would not confess to the postings. We thought that the comments were corny, and we felt disrespected.. All we wanted or needed was an apology. But six months later, we still haven't heard one."
After speaking to Wake Up Winnipeg, Jeff and the rest of The Filthy Animals decided to go viral with his now six month campaign to raise awareness to the situation.
He hopes to finding a solution to settle the dispute, and bring the music of The Filthy Animals to the streets of Winnipeg.
Since launching his awareness campaign last week, fans across the city and the world have been advocating for The Filthy Animals by posting messages of requests, support, and love on the Streetz Facebook Group Page, text messaging systems, and various social media outlets.
Jeff continues to reminds his fans that the campaign is about more than airplay, but about the basis of fairness and equality within the music industry.
"This is NOT about radio play, but rather about what's right and what's wrong and we owe it to our supporters who have backed us 100% throughout this entire ordeal to stay true to the cause and see it through no matter what the costs are to us".
Though the battle has been going on for nearly six months, the awareness campaign has only been in effect for seven days. When asked about how he feels about the success of the campaign, Jeff humbly states,
"The community response has been "overwhelming".
With the help of the community Jeff and the rest of The Filthy Animals have managed to meet with mediators for discussions with Streetz Mellisa Spence.
Local contract DJ Dow Jones played a Filthy Animal single on his outsourced weekend show entitled "The Pre-Game" which as a result has Jeff hoping that a meeting with the station may come soon.
Jeff and The Filthy Animals are currently waiting to hear back from station administrators to see if Streetz are interested in addressing the issues in person to resolve the disputes.
Though The Filthy Animals have publicly stated they are not interested in having their music promoted on the radio station, they have decided to pursuit the matter for the best interest of their fans.
Jeff ends by telling us:
"No matter what the outcome, we will likely request that our music is not played on the station unless it's on Dow Jones show. We do however hope that Melissa might find it in herself to apologize to our supporters for deleting their requests and blocking them from posting on the STREETZ FM Facebook wall, as well as for hanging up on them when they would call the station to request our music."
When Wake Up Winnipeg received Jeff's initial letter we attempted to contact Streetz FM to inquire about the allegations against them and to date have not received a statement regarding this story.
Wake Up Winnipeg will continue to follow this story and will meet with The Filthy Animals for an interview in Season 3 of our radio program on 101.5 CJUM FM in Winnipeg.
-Av
(ED Note: Additional information about The Filthy Animals may be found online at: http://www.myspace.com/deepcaveproductions)
December 27th, 2010
Photos and story By: Andru Valpy
The Filthy Animals showed their home-town fans just how easy it was to take their music to the streets of their city during the 2010 Winnipeg Zombie Walk.
Member Jeff Bromley teamed up with various members of the community to help organize and promote the event in an effort to help film a music video for an upcoming single.
But when the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Award nominee band took their music to local radio station Streetz 104.7 things seemed to get complicated.
"To this day, we have NEVER posted the REAL reason why our music isn't in rotation on STREETZ FM"
writes Jeff Bromley, in a letter sent to Wake Up Winnipeg,
"A lot of people have asked us in the past, on Facebook, at shows, on the street, why we don't get play on STREETZ 104.7. Our fans and friends have never been able to figure it out."
Jeff's story starts earlier this year prior the release of their first album "Sounds of Nature" which was produced on Deep Cave Records. He was approached by a Streetz FM representative by the name of Mellisa Spence who claimed she was the program director for the Winnipeg based station.
It was suggested to Jeff that the band release a few singles for air-play on the urban radio station in an effort to promote the band and their talent.
Though the Animals had not released or mastered any of their tracks, they worked diligently to mix and master their single "BIZNESS AS USUAL" specifically for radio release to ensure they did not miss out on a opportunity.
As promised, the station played the single for what Jeff simply describes as a few weeks.
"I gotta say, being played on the radio was a real cool feeling. It Felt good to hear our music on there, I'm not gonna lie."
After a few weeks on rotation, Mellisa approached The Filthy Animals a second time and requested some additional tracks to add to their growing collection.
"We didn't have anything else mixed and mastered but Big Bear finally caved in and mixed, radio edits and masters three songs specifically for Streetz, and hand delivers them to their studio along with some giveaways, namely the old Deepcave/Factor album".
But after three weeks, the band had not heard any of their edited songs on the station.
It was only then that filthy animal Big Bear, e-mailed the contact at the station to inquire about their songs.
The response received from Streetz representative Mellisa Spence followed:
"(you) should up (your) sound quality and production values" and submit music with "studio production quality"
To which the band was not impressed.
After having spent the time to produce the tracks specifically for the station, member Big Bear e-mailed what Jeff states is a plain tone e-mail to the station to express his concerns.
The band admits the initial reply between Big Bear and Mellisa could have been approached differently, but letters of understanding and apology were later exchanged between Jeff and Mellisa and everything was what she described as "all love".
" I said in a reply e-mail to Melissa that if 'everything is all love' like she says it is, then we were good with that. I also apologized for Bear's overall tone in the original e-mail that he sent her".
What followed two days later however was a surprise to all of The Filthy Animals according to Jeff,
"Two days later one of our fans tells us that Melissa and fellow co-host Jules were talking about us on their Twitter page saying that 'The Filthy Animals need some tissue' and that we were 'just crying because we didn't get played.' "
But it was the final strand of tweets that upset the band and their image.
Messages were posted on the twitter profiles of both station representatives which read simply as followed:
"YOU WANNA KNOW THE TRUTH....YOU GUYS SUCK!!" "STEP UP YOUR RAP GAME".
At that point Jeff reached out to station representative Melissa Spence and asked her about the messages, to which she denied the allegations.
Moments later, the tweets were removed from the social media website in what was later learned to be the request of Streets FM management and program directors.
Jeff continues:
"So basically, we told Melissa that we did not want to do business with them due to the public slander and would not confess to the postings. We thought that the comments were corny, and we felt disrespected.. All we wanted or needed was an apology. But six months later, we still haven't heard one."
After speaking to Wake Up Winnipeg, Jeff and the rest of The Filthy Animals decided to go viral with his now six month campaign to raise awareness to the situation.He hopes to finding a solution to settle the dispute, and bring the music of The Filthy Animals to the streets of Winnipeg.
Since launching his awareness campaign last week, fans across the city and the world have been advocating for The Filthy Animals by posting messages of requests, support, and love on the Streetz Facebook Group Page, text messaging systems, and various social media outlets.
Jeff continues to reminds his fans that the campaign is about more than airplay, but about the basis of fairness and equality within the music industry.
"This is NOT about radio play, but rather about what's right and what's wrong and we owe it to our supporters who have backed us 100% throughout this entire ordeal to stay true to the cause and see it through no matter what the costs are to us".
Though the battle has been going on for nearly six months, the awareness campaign has only been in effect for seven days. When asked about how he feels about the success of the campaign, Jeff humbly states,
"The community response has been "overwhelming".
With the help of the community Jeff and the rest of The Filthy Animals have managed to meet with mediators for discussions with Streetz Mellisa Spence.
Local contract DJ Dow Jones played a Filthy Animal single on his outsourced weekend show entitled "The Pre-Game" which as a result has Jeff hoping that a meeting with the station may come soon.
Jeff and The Filthy Animals are currently waiting to hear back from station administrators to see if Streetz are interested in addressing the issues in person to resolve the disputes.
Though The Filthy Animals have publicly stated they are not interested in having their music promoted on the radio station, they have decided to pursuit the matter for the best interest of their fans.
Jeff ends by telling us:
"No matter what the outcome, we will likely request that our music is not played on the station unless it's on Dow Jones show. We do however hope that Melissa might find it in herself to apologize to our supporters for deleting their requests and blocking them from posting on the STREETZ FM Facebook wall, as well as for hanging up on them when they would call the station to request our music."
When Wake Up Winnipeg received Jeff's initial letter we attempted to contact Streetz FM to inquire about the allegations against them and to date have not received a statement regarding this story.
Wake Up Winnipeg will continue to follow this story and will meet with The Filthy Animals for an interview in Season 3 of our radio program on 101.5 CJUM FM in Winnipeg.
-Av
(ED Note: Additional information about The Filthy Animals may be found online at: http://www.myspace.com/deepcaveproductions)
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