KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
The controversy over Jason Aldean’s country hit, “Try That In A Small Town” continues to increase.
Many media outlets are distorting the true message of the song and are doing everything in their power to have it cancelled.
That’s why KHTS decided to add it to our playlist. Jason Aldean is not an artist we would normally play, because his music doesn’t fit the “essence” of our format. However, we feel it is important to show our support and take a stand for free speech. The Progressive Left is attacking and trying to eliminate a narrative that doesn’t align with their view of the world.
These are the same people, who in their youth, were scrambling for tickets to hear Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie and dozens of other artists who were expressing their displeasure with the political environment of that era.
Lee Greenwood, the creator of the song, ‘God Bless The USA’ posted a powerful editorial defending Aldean. It’s a must-read for anyone who is set to write a negative comment on my editorial. Greenwood’s main point is, “Freedom of expression is under attack”’.. Canceling artists is anti-American, it’s insidious and if it gains a foothold, it will take another generation to weed it out.”
Rolling Stone Magazine wrote a post last week that Aldean bent a knee to the pressure by editing out six seconds of footage showing Antifa rioting. Many other media amplified the story. Rolling Stone failed to mention Aldean was forced to remove that clip because an Atlanta television station owned the rights to that footage and hadn’t given Aldean permission to use it. Typical of the media to leave out critical facts to fit their narrative.
We suspect we will get blasted by a vocal minority for playing Aldean’s song. It’s the majority that get to no longer cower to the vocal few. We must stand up. If you believe Aldean is wrong, you may choose to not listen to his song, and not tune in to KHTS. Just as we reserve the right to no longer drink Bud Light. But both Aldean and Bud Light have a right to exist. If they don’t, we’re living in the wrong country.
Here’s the controversial Aldean video.
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KHTS FM 98.1 and AM 1220 is Santa Clarita’s only local radio station. KHTS mixes in a combination of news, traffic, sports, and features along with your favorite adult contemporary hits. Santa Clarita news and features are delivered throughout the day over our airwaves, on our website and through a variety of social media platforms. Our KHTS national award-winning daily news briefs are now read daily by 34,000+ residents. A vibrant member of the Santa Clarita community, the KHTS broadcast signal reaches all of the Santa Clarita Valley and parts of the high desert communities located in the Antelope Valley. The station streams its talk shows over the web, reaching a potentially worldwide audience. Follow @KHTSRadio on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
So thrilled to see KHTS standing up for free speech. I back you up 100%. Keep on fighting the good fight.
Of course they are. Racism, bigotry, hate speech and lies what does it matter? KHTS has long tradition of answering to the abhorrent dog whistle of Nationalism, so who’s surprised said no one ever.
Looked at the lyrics. What exactly is racist? Maybe you should look up the definition of racism before you keep throwing that word around. Also, where is the bigotry, hate speech, and lies? Do you guys just throw these words around with no proof? If there’s proof in this song lyrics, then state it.
Lastly, “Alice”, what is your stance on free speech? Do you only think it’s allowed when YOU agree with what’s being said? Do you have a mirror?
Yikes, ruffle some feathers….
It’s not the song lyrics. It’s the sentiment around it, like, “Lets Go Brandon.” Which turned itself from a silly gesture to a badge of honor for those promoting hate.
Jason Aldean is not the problem. It’s the morons on the Right side, not all of the Right Side, again the morons, who take his popularity as an opportunity to peacock and think it supports their own, (not Aldean’s), racist and xenophobic beliefs.
Alice your not alone Randi is also a “piece of work”.
Leave it to Alice to come up with that.
More proof that KHTS is racist.
Looked at the lyrics. What exactly is racist? Maybe you should look up the definition of racism before you keep throwing that word around.
Very happy that you are standing up for what you believe in and that Jason is as well! Very happy to be a part of the vocal minority! Play on!
Christ almighty, talk about a stretch…. Promoting racism and bigotry is a far cry from Joan Baez or Bob Dylan. You’re out of your mind Carl.
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 excellent
Thank you for taking a stand KHTS! Love the song too!!
And there you have it. 1A baby…all the way. Without freedom of speech, including speech that might disagree with some, we may as well be China. The End
Amen. You go Carl. I was raised in a small town and my dad was a veteran and a sheriff. We need to get back to common sense and close to center. We need to shut down both the far- Left and far-Right.
Funny how the people upset with this song are silent over many other songs of this generation with horrible, violent, and sexist lyrics.
You nailed it right there as far as calling out the far left and far right, but not to shoot down any of their chicanery, the old adage of I might not like or agree with it, but I will die to defend it is the American way. These people like Alice and Randi expose themselves as people who act off of emotion without any logic and reason. They engage in group think through the corporate mockingbird media who disallow themselves of any big picture critical thinking, let alone think for themselves. You listen to the song, racism doesn’t exist, but because the video showed horrible actions of certain people during the summer of 2020 with the lies we were told by the same legacy media, which for thanking god is dying because people are sick and tired of their efforts to divide us.
Well stated, Carl. I applaud you and KHTS for your positions and willingness to speak up during this strange time in our country. It’s hard to figure out how once commonly embraced American values are getting twisted and distorted by a vocal minority of citizens. I guess it’s because the progressive, legacy media and social media outlets amplify those voices and then vilify anyone who expresses opposition to their radical ideas. I hope the silent majority of Americans soon realize that they must speak up, too, if there is any chance of reversing this troubling trend.
Thank God for the stable, reasonable people who have managed to hold true to their values despite the misguided Trumpers who bow to a crazy man who has no real understanding of the Constitution and lacks decency. These far right people think they are patriotic and are superior to everyone else.They think true Americans love guns. Thankfully most of us are not extreme fanatics and we are able to get along with each other just fine.
Jason Aldean can perform any song he wants and we don’t all have to like it. A person isn’t “unAmerican” if they have issue with “Try it in a Small Town.” It’s their right. Maybe they don’t like the macho gun lyrics or the implication that small towns have it all figured out when we know they don’t. It’s Ok for those people to state their opinion!!Others might feel the fondness for simpler times and like the song.
I’m so ready for kindness and understanding to take hold once the damage Trump caused is in the background of our lives and eventually gone.
Right on!!!
I strongly support your point of view and sincerely appreciate you standing up for the values that make USA the world’s best experiment in freedom. God Bless.
Good to see you supporting free speech and not caving to the insanity!
Well said! Thank you for standing up for our freedoms!
You are the media. I support free speech as long as it supports every humans right to exist. Your radio station has proven time and time again by the advertisers you chose what party and belief system you subscribe to. Purposely playing a song that doesn’t even fit your programming agenda. It’s embarrassing that a media outlet such as yours chooses to support people who don’t believe that other humans have the right to exist and thrive. Shame on you. All humans except ones who aren’t like you.
Let freedom and free speech reign!
Duh! We all hopefully believe in that!
Alice and Randi got properly spanked for their incoherent drivel. Shouting “racist” doesn’t work any more, so it’s back to your mother’s basement with you.
Oh Jerrod, properly spanked? What are you five years old? No one shouted racist, it was pointed out that the song’s lyrics and may I add, it’s accompanying video highlight a variety of crimes and unpatriotic or disrespectful behaviors and promise:”Well, try that in a small town, see how far ya make it down the road. Around here, we take care of our own, you cross that line, it won’t take long.” So let’s go over some FACTS:
Of course, the lyrics implicitly allude to Sundown towns, which were all-white neighborhoods, counties and suburbs throughout the US that were racially segregated and excluded people of color via regionally discriminatory laws, violence and/or intimidation. These places were well known for their open and sanctioned racial hatred and by their use of signs posted throughout said towns that ordered “colored people” to leave town by sundown.” Such small town values and charm must have been lost on me and others who know and understood the history of racism that continues in our nation.
I also need to point out the video was filmed at the Maury County Courthouse in Tennessee—the site of the lynching of Henry Choate, an 18 yr. old Black man accused of assaulting a white woman in 1927. The murder of Choate, was one of thousands of similar lynchings of innocent Blacks throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.White vigilantes refused to recognize the basic humanity and constitutional rights of African Americans to due process and equal protection under the law. This is nothing new, it is part of our nation’s history that should never be ignored, forgotten or dismissed.
Both the song’s lyrics and video are an example of tacit racism that celebrates vigilantism, “rogue” Justice, and a deeply sinister chapter in our past in which White communities committed and condoned violence against people of color as a form of political, social and economic control. So what’s worth celebrating I ask?
Go ahead and embrace Aldean’s song all you want, but don’t try to whitewash our nation’s history, deny the implications of the song and then act as if I was the one who’s been schooled. By the way, Uvalde,Tx is a small town…how did those small town values and virtues help the 19 now dead little children? Just asking for a friend.
You’re the best Alice. You actually know what you’re talking about and back it up with real data and info. Instead of the comment section here that just listens to their cult leaders.
Alice….thank you!! I was about to send this when I read your reply: You do realize the location where Jason chose to video his “Try This In A Small Town” song video was at the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tenn., where a Black man, Henry Choate, 18, was lynched by a white mob in 1927. Henry was wrongly accused of raping a young white girl who admitted she did not recognize Henry as being the suspect. Didn’t matter…even though the hunting dogs brought in to sniff out the direction the “suspect’ fled the scene…the dogs did not go in the direction of Mr Choate’s home. 220 something white men decided for themselves to find Henry guilty and beat and killed him. I would hope a newspaper would maybe want to explain both sides of this divisive topic and not choose to take sides when an innocent man was wrongly accused and was killed because of a small town mob. And your comment about free speech. Yes! Yet, there’s a list of banned books from some of the same people who want to support Jason’s video….what books does your newspaper think shouldn’t be banned that are on this list?
I read the editorial and still don’t know anything about the song that KHTS is so proudly playing.
Thank you, Alice. Maybe some people needed to hear your facts, because they weren’t in their school curriculum growing up.