You Bite My Back, I'll Bite Yours

Last Friday, Reeve Oliver was one of the two local groups to play 91X's 11-band X-Fest show at Coors Amphitheatre. The preceding Monday (June 5), 91X DJ/music director Marco Collins alluded to some inter-station squabbling over Reeve Oliver.

Collins said, "Another radio station in town, who shall remain nameless, called [Reeve Oliver] up -- that radio station's music director, who is also on at the exact same time I am [a reference to 94/9 music director Mike Halloran] -- called them up and said, 'I hope you are making a lot of money playing the 91X X-Fest, because if you do it, we are not going to play your record when it comes out next year.' " (The band is in L.A. now, recording their first major-label CD on Capitol Records.)

"That is ridiculous," says 94/9 program director Garett Michaels of Collins's claim. He says that before Reeve Oliver was signed to Capitol Records, FM-94/9 played the band's independently released self-titled album. "That first album was chosen as one of our monthly 'recommended' albums [in November 2004]. We had them play at our New Year's Eve show at 4th & B that year."

Halloran says he recently had a "private" conversation with Reeve Oliver bassist O but that "nothing was said about not playing their music" if they played the X-Fest. "In fact, I want to be the first to play it."

Contacted in L.A., O said he had heard about Collins's on-air comments, "but I have no idea where he got that."

As for music boycotts in the spirit of competition, Michaels says 91X "dropped Flaming Lips [music] as soon as possible" when that band agreed to play 94/9's Independence Jam at the Open Air Theatre on May 24. Michaels says 94/9 did not play less music by the Cult, Franz Ferdinand, or She Wants Revenge because those bands played X-Fest.

Though Collins would not comment about his on-air assertion, 91X program director Kevin Stapleford responds: "Between 91X, KBZT [94/9], O, and Reeve Oliver, we all know the truth. Our hope is that Reeve Oliver is supported by every radio station in San Diego."

As of June 8, 2006, the Reeve Oliver song "I Want Burns" has been played 230 times on FM-94/9 and 99 times on 91X, according to airplay monitoring service BDS.