Earlier this year, when local Birmingham radio station Live 100.5 underwent a format change, the musicians and music gurus of the area admitted that it would have a large impact on the music scene in the city.
“It’s really going to hurt the scene. It’s going to hurt a lot of up-and-comers like me,” locally born artist Matthew Mayfield said.
The company that produced 100.5, Citadel Broadcasting, was in debt and had to make changes. People in the area began calling for fans to support the station.
“If something good is around, it may not be around forever. You really need to get off your rear and support it,” Bottletree Café promoter Brian Teasley said.
In the following weeks, fans came out in droves to support the cause. The SaveLive100.5 Facebook group quickly surpassed 20,000 fans.
However, this was not enough to save Birmingham’s favorite station.
Corporations did not jump on the support train and the station was shut down in March 2010.
With the station’s downfall, fans, supporters and venue owners began to express the idea that Birmingham’s music niche was experiencing a massive overhaul.
“That whole niche of music is gone. It’s wiped away with them closing down,” Teasley said.
The loss of Live 100.5, only a year after City Stages’ $1 million debt drove the festival out of business, clearly foreshadowed trouble for the music scene.
At the beginning of November, news came out that WorkPlay, another of Birmingham’s unique, independent music venues, was going through foreclosure.
WorkPlay is a nationally respected concert venue that caters to the independent audience. In 2007, it was included in “America’s 40 Best Music Venues,” by Paste Music. However, days of success seem to be a thing of the past for the heralded venue.
WorkPlay, founded by Alan Hunter and his three brothers in 2001, recently invited investors and co-owners into the financial ownership of the building. The company was subsequently split into two businesses. One side owned the property and the other ran the venue. In the process of looking for a potential buyer for the future of WorkPlay, the loans on the building matured and Superior Bank began the foreclosure process. The side of the company responsible for the property is the one undergoing foreclosure.
In the past six months, WorkPlay and Superior were in talks with a potential buyer, but when the talks fell through the bank went ahead with foreclosure.
“I feel like we are in a battle,” Hunter said. “Two years of bad economy definitely took their toll.”
Once again, music fans are coming out of the woodwork to voice their support for a struggling venue. It took only 24 hours for the save WorkPlay group on Facebook to reach 5,000 fans. In just over a week, the group reached more than 13,000 strong.
WorkPlay issued an official statement to fans thanking them for the support and encouraging fans to continue spreading the word.
But the question still remains: Will the efforts of the fans be enough?
Music fans in the area are fully prepared for yet another of their sacred venues disappearing. However, they are extremely concerned about the affect that WorkPlay’s absence would have on the local scene.
Matthew Stewart, lead singer of “On the Rocks,” winner of the 2009 Battle of the Bands at WorkPlay, spoke about Birmingham’s fading music scene.
“It’s almost dead anyways, it’s gotten worse,” Stewart said. “That whole scene is almost dead, (WorkPlay) is just one step closer.”
Samford University juniors Matt Davidson, an undeclared major, and Trevor Starnes, a history major, have expressed their own concerns with WorkPlay’s recent struggles.
Both Davidson and Starnes have a stake in Birmingham’s music culture, as they are instrumental in bringing artists to Samford’s venues as a part of the Student Activities Council.
“I really do think it will be a huge loss for Birmingham,” Davidson said. “Now people will be more apt to drive to Nashville and Atlanta instead of seeing shows here.”
“Either Bottletree or the other music venues will have to take over the artists that come to WorkPlay or the entire music scene will be lost,” Starnes said.
The Birmingham musical community understands the importance of WorkPlay as a venue. It is a unique place that, with recent losses of City Stages and Live 100.5, has given a place for music fans in Birmingham to hold on to hope.
Hunter expressed the value of his business in an interview with the Birmingham News last week.
“I don’t want to overstate the importance of WorkPlay in Birmingham,” Hunter said. “But a lot of people here depend on it as a unique place to go to events or see a show, and there would be a hole left in the Birmingham music scene where WorkPlay had filled a niche over the past nine years.”
It is yet to be seen if the gaping holes in the music community of Birmingham will be detrimental.
Cinema and Culture 