NOYB wrote:
"Chuck Gould" wrote in message
oups.com...
Weren't just about the same folks now calling for a boycott of CITGO
demanding that everybody smash all of their Dixie Chicks CD's a couple
of years ago? The DC's seem to be back stronger than ever now

Nope. The Dixie Chicks had to cancel numerous concert dates across this
country due to poor ticket sales, and replace them with concerts in Canada.


It's probably a rare day that we can both be reasonably right on the
same issue, NOYB.
Record sales are through the roof right now for the Chicks. Last album
sold over a half million copies in the first week! One of the reasons
their concerts didn't sell very well in the south didn't have much to
do with the fans. After all, somebody is buying all those records,
aren't they? The biggest problems the Chicks had was that certain radio
stations, notably those owned by the network that airs Rush Limbaugh
(and that can be all of the stations in a lot of smaller communities)
refused to allow the promoters to buy advertising time on their radio
stations.

From an article on the net:


The Chicks' new album, entitled Taking the Long Way, was released in
stores and online May 22, 2006. The album was produced by Rick Rubin
(who had worked with Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny Cash,
Neil Diamond, and the Beastie Boys among others) and was publicized to
be more rock-intensive than country-oriented. [5] [6] All 14 tracks
were co-written by the three Chicks, alongside various other
songwriters. The album contained additional tracks that seemed to
indirectly reference what the group called "The Incident", and the
group remained outwardly defiant. For instance, in the May 29 issue of
Time, Maguire said, "I'd rather have a smaller following of really cool
people who get it, who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for
life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba
McEntire and Toby Keith. We don't want those kinds of fans. They limit
what you can do." Maines also retracted her earlier apology to Bush,
stating, "I apologized for disrespecting the office of the President,
but I don't feel that way anymore. I don't feel he is owed any respect
whatsoever." [7]

Despite minimal airplay, Taking the Long Way debuted at number one on
both the U.S. pop albums chart and the U.S. country albums chart,
selling 526,000 copies in the first week (the year's second-best such
total for any country act) and making it a gold record within its first
week. The Chicks became the first female group in chart history to have
three albums debut at #1.[8]

The group's Accidents & Accusations Tour began in July 2006. Ticket
sales were strong in Canada, decent in some Northeastern markets, but
notably weak in other areas. A number of shows were cancelled due to
poor sales, and in Houston, Texas, tickets never even went on sale when
local radio stations refused to accept advertising for the event [9].
In August, a re-routed tour schedule was announced with a greater
emphasis on Canadian dates, where Taking the Long Way had gone
five-times-platinum. The tour's shows themselves generally refrained
from any explicit verbal political comments, letting the music,
especially the central performance of "Not Ready to Make Nice", speak
for itself.



But here's a practical suggestion for you. I would suspect that, unlike
roadside filling stations, CITGO probably doesn't own very many of the
fuel docks. It would be more likely that the fuel docks are privately
owned and buy fuel from CITGO wholesale (so part of your money supports
an independent American small businessperson who probably votes a lot
like you do- see how complicated this can get?) If you have a privately
owned fuel dock selling CITGO fuel and you *really* feel strongly about
the situation, get up a petition signed by yourself and several other
people on the dock *requesting* that the fuel dock owner switch to a
different brand of fuel.


Why get a petition? He'll get the point more effectively when he sees
declining fuel sales.

No, the point here is that he probably *won't* see any declining fuel
sales if (as in most locations) there isn't another fuel dock in the
immediate vicinity. If there's no choice people will buy it. Same thing
as with these silly "Don't buy any gas for a day" boycotts
that pop up from time to time. Ok, so one day is slow.....sales are all
the more red hot for three days thereafter because nobody stopped
drving, they just timed their fill-up differently. Oil company/ gas
station/ fuel dock sells just as much product for the week as always,
just on a different day.