INSIDE AUSTIN CITY LIMITS
America's Music Television Treasure

“Great music. No limits. Now the longest-running music series in American television history”, taken directly from the Austin City Limits website. The private, non profit, self-sustaining board that owns the copyright to Austin City Limits, have brought a guaranteed Saturday night of music entertainment into the living rooms of public television viewers for 35 seasons.

 

It is more than that, tells Ed Bailey, Vice President of Brand Development for Austin City Limits. It is a “sense of stewardship and mission” as “seen through the lens of public television.” The survival of Austin City Limits has given it permission to remain relevant. It is “not our goal to be retro, and only show things no one else will show.” “We have a responsibility to remain contemporary”, seizing the opportunity to do a show with the likes of Pearl Jam, REM, or Colplay. “Not that they needed us, but they considered it a privilege to be part of the lineage” to play ACL. Bailey continued, “I am proud to be part of an organization that takes diversity so seriously.”

 

“We work ourselves each year to put in different styles and strands of music. The hallmark is the eclecticism of the series.” There was a time where Austin City Limits was defined by their country oriented programming. They have evolved and continued to stretch themselves stylistically, “over time that has born itself out to be true.” There is a lot more World music on the show now, and they have diversified in other ways. They have developed the Austin City Limits Festival; now in its 9th year, it has “fairly and accurately mirrored its parents”, without being a loss of integrity.   

Austin City Limits
Music Festival

3 DAYS OF MUSIC AND PEACE

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Ed Bailey got started in the music industry in a somewhat unusual way. The Cleveland Tourism Division began messaging out to the world, that Cleveland would be the home of the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame. Bailey knew the tourism director through the work his agency had done for Cedar Point Amusement Park, and developed a pro-bono campaign to help with the launch. Through the success of the launch, he was recruited by the Rock Hall as a marketing executive, primarily for his branding, and planning expertise. This was the beginning of his music industry experience. I like to tell people “working at the Rock Hall was like getting an MBA in rock n roll.”
 

“Opening the Rock Hall was a once in a lifetime opportunity.” Three years into the Rock Hall, Bailey was involved in a traveling exhibition from an operating and business perspective. They brought the exhibition to SXSW (click here to learn more on SXSW), taking up significant space on the convention floor, near the Austin City Limits booth. Bailey came to meet staff from Austin City Limits, and toured their studio on that trip to Austin. Changes in their structure opened the door for Ed to fulfill a vision, and bring business development to the television production focused Austin City Limits.

 

The idea was to broaden the reach of the long standing public television show, and the “ACL experience.” Austin City Limits set its compass on their 25th anniversary, as a milestone point, for an expansion plan.

 

Once Bailey was on board in 1997, there was a 3 to 5 year business plan that needed to be developed to start growing Austin City Limits. One crucial factor that had to be addressed was the “shrinking carriage of the show.” Austin City Limits had been off the air in some markets, including Detroit, for quite some time up until the 25 year mark. “It became painfully clear”, losing Ford Motor Company who had been a leading sponsor of the series. Unlike prime commercial television, with exception to news and children blocks of “have-to’s”, the public television network is open to choose shows based on their market considerations.

 

Bailey eventually prevailed with Chevrolet for about five years, and with the growing cable systems, viewers in major markets were given several options of PBS stations to see ACL. There is a continued focus on station relations that go on to keep the show on air. Austin City Limits is even having trouble in New York City, where Manhattan viewers tap into ACL through surrounding PBS stations. PBS now broadcasts in different channels (primary, specialty, HD), creating greater options and difficulty in controlling exposure to the show. HD is a “great environment”, but smaller audience, and in many cases “harder to find us.”

 

Through all of the wrangling, Austin City Limits has outlasted many who came before or after, shows like American Bandstand, Soul Train and MTV (from a music programming logic). Their history germinated well before the actual launch of the Austin City Limits series in 1975. The Public Television Act had not been in effect all that long, being signed into law by President and Texan Lyndon B. Johnson on November 7th, 1967. LBJ held media assets in Austin, and may have helped pave the way for Austin City Limits to get one of the first PBS licenses. The upstart PBS needed content and had nothing remotely like ACL in their programming.

 

What has helped Austin City Limits, is that PBS did not want to emulate mainstream television. There is a purpose behind PBS, “the mission is not gathering eyeballs.” It is about education, public good, serve the under served, and to offer programming - unbiased and unaffected by commercial investment. Austin City Limits was a populous offering to America during the bicentennial years, different from the rest of music on television. It was originally “intended to put a lens on Austin, Texas, and the progressive music industry that was going on down here”, says Bailey. ACL was a mainline to what was going on at the Armadillo Headquarters. The Armadillo was a club that hosted Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison and other up & coming acts of the day touring through Austin (playing for $5 a ticket).

 

On one hand, it was an attempt by a local public television station to reflect back on its community, on the other hand, an effort to provide PBS at large a program that was different, and reflected America. Austin City Limits exemplified the “pride, and doggedness of the area, not just red, white & blue.” It was an attempt to “bottle up an interesting regional sound, with Doug Salm, Waylon (Jennings) & Willie (Nelson), all the stuff that was cookin’ up down here.” Austin City Limits, “reflected the roots, the region and a big dollop of Texas”, long before Austin was named the “Live Music Capital of the World.”

 

The original format reflected what clubs were booking in Austin, TX, “the ingredients that went into the pot were the ingredients that were readily accessible.” That has not changed much, Austin City Limits has a “Bedrock formula” of grabbing bands coming through Austin. Its just that now Austin gets more acts, following the independent music explosion and publicists discovering Austin.

 

Since the pilot episode of Austin City Limits (October 1974), with Willie Nelson as their featured artist, there have been several notable shows. Historic shows, that placed bluegrass greats Ralph Stanley and Bill Monroe on the same stage for the first time in decades. Lightnin’ Hopkins and Clarence Gatemouth Brown, performing together is part of the ACL archives “documented, and recorded for people to discover, and see.” Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen have performed together on the show, “people did not program Leonard Cohen” when this aired on ACL. Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Roy Orbison, Fats Domino, the architects of the sound of rock n roll have all performed on the ACL stage.

 

Austin City Limits had always been progressive in putting women on the air at a time when it was male oriented music world. When only those that crashed through the glass ceiling made it to prime viewing audiences, Austin City Limits held the door open. Emmy Lou Harris is one of the artists defying demographics on Austin City Limits. Bluegrass talent Alison Krauss was on Austin City Limits “as a kid”, well before she became music news with Robert Plant.

 

It is not just the prominent artists, eclectic genres have been introduced on ACL that were not being played anywhere else on commercial television. Performances from Tejano musicians like Flaco Jimenez or Zydeco episodes with Clifton Chenier. An important part of the ACL programming is to “put a spotlight on an art form that is a regional sound, an American music lexicon, regardless of their commercial reach.”

 

The creation of the ACL Festival is another part of the “public good” story, and a huge economic impact to the city of Austin. “The show put the city on the map from a brand standpoint; it continues to cement that image in people’s minds who encounter the show.” The tourism division of the city cares enough to help sponsor and produce the show. There is a belief that Austin City Limits helps Austin compete for tourists and international attention, convention business across the country. ACL is part of the proof about Austin; culturally diverse, dynamic, expressive, enthusiastic place that has a lot of music going on, and “walks its talk.” Ed Bailey states, “we are an ambassador” to Austin.

 

The music culture in America has gone from singles, to record albums, back to singles again. The Austin City Limits longer format has pluses and minuses, in an ageist, demographic way. The attention span to watch and listen to an hour of concert television for today’s sixteen year old is different from when the program first started. The artists have not changed in their desire to make long format recordings, and solid live performances. Austin City Limits benefits from providing that platform for them to express their talents, exemplified by bands like Kings of Leon, who performed on the show well before their celebrity status.

 

To the point, “there is going to be more, and more, and more music; the record industry is collapsing, but (SXSW gives evidence to) the making of music has never been more prolific.” Which is a pretty good place to summate what ACL’s future is all about, “it is about trusted curators, trusted sources to point you towards what you should not miss.” There are several options coming at music followers, in a world where anyone can record it tonight, and have it up and out there tomorrow, to discover, and find. “Music that matters to you is going to be a combination of these new technologies (Pandora) that find the soundscapes you like, and bring it to you, based on bits and bytes.” People will need a trusted source that says, “check this out.” PBS viewers would give it the benefit of the doubt, because “Austin City Limits is presenting it to you,” regardless of technology and allocation methodology.

 

In the beginning, it was a “broadcast world, analog world, from B&W to Color, it was all about rabbit ears and antennas on your roof.” Television consisted of three main networks, PBS came on as the fourth network (with exception to local UHF). It was a “less fractured” viewing audience in those days. Austin City Limits came online during a mass television media age and has survived a “helluva lot” of change in their environment. Today, Austin City Limits is stronger than ever, in the world of 500+ cable channels. Television networks like MTV, have turned to “Jersey Shore” reality show programming, to represent the “tween” to young adult audiences. “In part because the mission of PBS has not changed, we are not beholden to pure demographic achievement. It is not a discussion that comes up at all.”

 

Surviving the next decade, will require finding a way through, and adapting to the technological evolution necessary to preserve the ACL message, “responsibility and privilege of choice.” It must be done wisely or lose everything. ACL has invested millions of dollars keeping the show advancing technically, and “we’re not done.” Austin City Limits is in the process of building a new studio. The facility will accommodate a larger studio audience, and greater broadcasting technology. The opening date for a new studio is not set in stone, “we hope that it will be active by SXSW 2011.”

 

A lot of work is needed in figuring out the shifting habits of a digital world. An audience, wanting to watch, what they want to watch, when they want to watch it, creates even more challenges in programming. “It would be a joke if I were to say you had 500 channel options to watch something, it is worse than that.” Staying relevant means understanding the way media works in people’s lives, while still trying to “curate music that matters.”

 

Ed Bailey points out, through all of the external challenges, he is thrilled by the shows continued ability to air undiscovered artists like Esperanza Spalding. Spalding’s performance during the 35th season cut through the publicists, label agents, booking agencies, demos & requests inundating Austin City Limits every day. It was producer Terry Lickona’s standing out in a crowd to listen to live music, being blown away by her performance, that got Spalding on the ACL stage. Lickona used his VIP credentials to navigate through the back stage area, and stopped her while driving away from the performance. The 27 year old, upright jazz bassist, had never seen or heard of the show (Austin City Limits).

 

“I do not think there is any other music operation that is doing what we are doing”, says Ed Bailey. There is “real money” spent to put together a show on ACL, and the choice of what they want to share with America, is an investment “on our part and an investment in air time.” Producers “don’t lose any sleep over that”, they think artistically, and creatively. The history of the Austin City Limits and it is “egalitarian nature, is to look at equal measure, to a legend and an inspiring (new) act.”

 

Shows are aired four times over a season, and now are going to be available on demand, placed into the PBS digital online world. Soon, it will be “the lexicon of a generation”, to ask when are you going to play it again.

The 36th season of Austin city Limits will debut October 2nd, 2010. Confirmed artists are Alejandro Escovedo, Spoon, Robert Earl Keen, Hayes Carll, Brandi Carlile, Rosanne Cash, Steve Martin, Sarah Jarosz, Cheap Trick, Patty Griffin, and more to come.

 

Austin City Limits is a renowned American treasure and reminds us of who we are as a country, through the music of talented performers. If you have not watched Austin City Limits in awhile, block out a Saturday night on your planner and stimulate the sensation.

 

CAN’T WAIT ‘TIL NEXT SEASON

The Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, has a special exhibit on Austin City Limits, running through September 6th, 2010. 

Great Music, No Limits.

Celebrating 35 Years of Austin City Limits

Open March 22, 2010 - September 6, 2010
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LINER NOTES: Special thanks to Ed Bailey, Vice President of Brand Development for Austin City Limits for the great insight on this American treasure. Photos by Scott Newton Courtesy Austin City Limits