Nashville May Be Last Outpost For MCA Label By: JEANNE A. NAUJECK Staff Writer Music Row executives think MCA Nashville will be the last outpost of the storied MCA name, which is folding its pop label under a restructuring by corporate parent Universal Music Group. UMG officials said yesterday it was cutting jobs at MCA Records' New York and Los Angeles offices. It was reported that as many as 100 jobs might be cut and remaining employees will be wrapped into its Geffen label. MCA Records and country-oriented MCA Nashville are two of more than a dozen U.S. labels owned by UMG. MCA Nashville dominated country music in the 1990s with a roster that included Vince Gill, Trisha Yearwood, George Strait, Reba McEntire, Mark Chesnutt and Wynonna. The changes will not affect MCA Nashville, said Lauren Murphy, senior vice president of artist and media relations. But the Music Row office has gone through a restructuring that left it with little more than a promotion staff. Last month UMG cut five staffers and consolidated marketing functions for MCA and its other two Nashville labels, Mercury and Lost Highway. MCA and Mercury cut nine positions a year ago. Lost Highway runs as an independent "alternative country" label under the leadership of Luke Lewis, who also oversees the other two labels, and Mercury's roster includes mainstream hit makers such as Shania Twain and newer acts Terri Clark, Steve Azar and Marcel. Yearwood, Strait, McEntire and Gill remain on MCA, along with Rebecca Lynn Howard, Gary Allan and Lee Ann Womack. But in the past few years the label has had little success in breaking new acts, said Scott Borchetta, an MCA executive during most of the 1990s. MCA chief talent scout Mark Wright left last week to become Sony Nashville's executive vice president of artists and repertoire. The mature roster still is viable, Borchetta said. But MCA Nashville today is a far cry from the "Label of the Decade" it was in the 90s, when a "dream team" of talent development, marketing and promotion executives all seemed to have a Midas touch. In its heyday, the label commanded about 40% market share and breaking gold- and platinum-selling acts was the rule rather than the exception, said Walt Wilson, a sales and marketing executive at MCA for 16 years. "We were almost tired of being congratulated," he said. Not only did MCA's roster virtually control 1990s country radio, but also its creative side flourished under veteran producer and talent scout Tony Brown, who signed edgier acts that help define today's ''alternative country,'' including The Mavericks, Kelly Willis, Steve Earle and Lyle Lovett. Brown and the rest of the label's executive dream team moved on at various times after a 1990s merger that put MCA in the hands of Seagram's Co. and a series of other ownership changes. MCA alumni are scattered up and down Music Row. Longtime Chairman Bruce Hinton retired last summer; Wilson now heads the Compendia label; Brown is a principal in Universal South; Susan Levy joined Brown as vice president of artist development; and Borchetta and sales and marketing executive John Rose are two of four principals in DreamWorks Nashville. "There was an intensity to that company that was rare," Wilson recalled. "There were direct challenges between departments — sales, promotion, publicity. There would be yelling and at times it got ugly, but at the end of the day we were celebrating together." MCA Nashville's own story goes back to the 1940s, when it was known as Decca Records. Decca, which spawned hits for Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee, Ernest Tubb and others, was folded into the MCA name. It eventually was reactivated but shut down in 1999, with Chesnutt, Womack and Allan moving to the MCA roster. The passing of pop's MCA Records marks the end of another incredible run. The name Music Corporation of America dates to 1924, when Jule Stein founded a talent agency to book acts for Chicago clubs, including some reportedly owned by reputed mobster Al Capone, Wilson said. The colorful media Hollywood mogul Lew Wasserman, who died last June, ran MCA for years, when its clients included Frank Sinatra, James Stewart, Henry Fonda and then-movie actor Ronald Reagan. "There's a tremendous history," Wilson said. "What's sad is, from now on people will have to dig to find that history."

Originally Published In The Tennessean On June 11, 2003







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