Vivashania
07-27-2002, 07:38 PM
By JOHN GEROME
Associated Press Writer
July 26, 2002, 2:25 PM EDT
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Kevin Hughes' job was compiling a country music magazine's record charts and deciding which albums got a "bullet." One night in 1989, as he left a recording studio along Nashville's storied Music Row, he was gunned down.
This week, 13 years later, a former Nashville record promoter was charged with the slaying in an arrest some industry insiders say casts a spotlight on crooked practices in the country music business back then.
Richard F. D'Antonio, 56, was arrested Wednesday in Las Vegas and charged in the slaying of Hughes, a 23-year-old researcher for now-defunct Cash Box magazine who was shot by a gunman in a ski mask.
Police said the shooting was related to the two men's work in the music industry. They would not elaborate.
But Jim Sharp, editor at Cash Box until 1986 and a longtime fixture in the city's music industry, said he and many others who worked on Music Row were interviewed by police over years. And he said police examined several leads, including the possibility that Hughes was killed because he refused to manipulate the record charts.
Sharp and others said the practice was once widespread in Nashville. Record promoters working mostly for small, independent labels would give gifts to radio programmers in exchange for airplay and to chart researchers for a "bullet" signifying the record is climbing the charts.
"The radio stations looked at the charts," said Sharp, now publisher of American Songwriter Magazine. "If the record was still going up and bulleting, they would keep playing it."
At the time, the upper half of Cash Box's list of the top 100 country records was dominated by major-label artists and the bottom half by independent-label artists.
"It sounds incredible that somebody would kill someone over chart position," said Robert Oermann, who writes about the industry. "But there was an underbelly of the music business." He said airplay is monitored electronically now, making it much harder to tamper with the charts.
Hughes' job involved calling radio stations around the country to track airplay. D'Antonio had worked with Hughes at the magazine before leaving to become a promoter.
Investigators would not say what led to the arrest.
"We always hoped that something like this would come about," Hughes' 31-year-old brother, Kyle, said from his parents' home in Carmi, Ill. "We prayed about it."
Kyle Hughes described his brother as a "very honest person" who loved songs and wrote poetry. Kevin Hughes moved to Nashville in 1984 to attend Belmont University and started at Cash Box as an intern. He quit school to work there full time and was at the magazine about 18 months before he was killed.
"He would spend a lot of hours at Cash Box not even getting paid for it because he wanted to get the job done right," Kyle Hughes said.
D'Antonio, now a casino pit boss, was charged with first-degree murder. He was also charged with attempted murder in the wounding of country singer Sammy Sadler during the attack.
Hughes and Sadler were leaving Evergreen Records when they were confronted by a gunman. Sadler was hit in the shoulder and ran to a building. Hughes was shot as he fled. The gunman then stood over Hughes and shot him again. He was hit three times and died of a head wound.
Police believe Hughes was the target.
Sadler did not immediately return calls Thursday. Ron Cotton of C&M Productions, Sadler's agent, said Sadler is "scared to death" and hiding out in Texas because police say others may have been involved and more arrests are possible.
D'Antonio had been interviewed in connection with the case in the past. D'Antonio has a criminal record in Alabama and Georgia that includes drug charges, aggravated assault and aggravated burglary, police said.
D'Antonio's lawyer's name was not immediately available.
Associated Press Writer
July 26, 2002, 2:25 PM EDT
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Kevin Hughes' job was compiling a country music magazine's record charts and deciding which albums got a "bullet." One night in 1989, as he left a recording studio along Nashville's storied Music Row, he was gunned down.
This week, 13 years later, a former Nashville record promoter was charged with the slaying in an arrest some industry insiders say casts a spotlight on crooked practices in the country music business back then.
Richard F. D'Antonio, 56, was arrested Wednesday in Las Vegas and charged in the slaying of Hughes, a 23-year-old researcher for now-defunct Cash Box magazine who was shot by a gunman in a ski mask.
Police said the shooting was related to the two men's work in the music industry. They would not elaborate.
But Jim Sharp, editor at Cash Box until 1986 and a longtime fixture in the city's music industry, said he and many others who worked on Music Row were interviewed by police over years. And he said police examined several leads, including the possibility that Hughes was killed because he refused to manipulate the record charts.
Sharp and others said the practice was once widespread in Nashville. Record promoters working mostly for small, independent labels would give gifts to radio programmers in exchange for airplay and to chart researchers for a "bullet" signifying the record is climbing the charts.
"The radio stations looked at the charts," said Sharp, now publisher of American Songwriter Magazine. "If the record was still going up and bulleting, they would keep playing it."
At the time, the upper half of Cash Box's list of the top 100 country records was dominated by major-label artists and the bottom half by independent-label artists.
"It sounds incredible that somebody would kill someone over chart position," said Robert Oermann, who writes about the industry. "But there was an underbelly of the music business." He said airplay is monitored electronically now, making it much harder to tamper with the charts.
Hughes' job involved calling radio stations around the country to track airplay. D'Antonio had worked with Hughes at the magazine before leaving to become a promoter.
Investigators would not say what led to the arrest.
"We always hoped that something like this would come about," Hughes' 31-year-old brother, Kyle, said from his parents' home in Carmi, Ill. "We prayed about it."
Kyle Hughes described his brother as a "very honest person" who loved songs and wrote poetry. Kevin Hughes moved to Nashville in 1984 to attend Belmont University and started at Cash Box as an intern. He quit school to work there full time and was at the magazine about 18 months before he was killed.
"He would spend a lot of hours at Cash Box not even getting paid for it because he wanted to get the job done right," Kyle Hughes said.
D'Antonio, now a casino pit boss, was charged with first-degree murder. He was also charged with attempted murder in the wounding of country singer Sammy Sadler during the attack.
Hughes and Sadler were leaving Evergreen Records when they were confronted by a gunman. Sadler was hit in the shoulder and ran to a building. Hughes was shot as he fled. The gunman then stood over Hughes and shot him again. He was hit three times and died of a head wound.
Police believe Hughes was the target.
Sadler did not immediately return calls Thursday. Ron Cotton of C&M Productions, Sadler's agent, said Sadler is "scared to death" and hiding out in Texas because police say others may have been involved and more arrests are possible.
D'Antonio had been interviewed in connection with the case in the past. D'Antonio has a criminal record in Alabama and Georgia that includes drug charges, aggravated assault and aggravated burglary, police said.
D'Antonio's lawyer's name was not immediately available.