Aspiring Artists Ripped Off

The two-week Beach City Tour, from Miami Beach to Rocky Point, Mexico, was supposed to begin in early March. All performers were promised plane fare, a tour bus, hotel rooms and a meal plan that included lasagna, baked mostaccioli, hamburgers and tacos.

Ellee Ven, 28, was one of seven U.S. musicians who told Rolling Stone they paid a total of $10,500 to a Sun City, Arizona, company called 97 Radio to join the tour. But a few weeks before the first supposed show, 97 Radio stopped returning artists' calls. The tour never happened.

"I was pissed off and embarrassed," says Ven, who paid the company $3,600 for a slot on the tour. She also ordered 10,000 promotional condoms for fans -- it was spring break, after all -- and hired nine musicians to play in her band.

According to the artists contacted by Rolling Stone, 97 Radio has set up at least two bogus tours since last fall. The company, according to its Web site, has accrued "years of working with radio stations and record retailers" and promises exposure and music-industry connections for fees ranging from $597 to $25,097. But those who've paid say the company's once-friendly executives stop returning calls and e-mails after receiving the money.

"They talk a really good game," says John Foxworthy, a Salt Lake City Microsoft employee who editorializes against 97 Radio on a Web site, garageradio.com. He estimates that fifty to sixty musicians have contacted him for help after they paid the company to join the bogus tour.

97 Radio executives didn't return numerous e-mails and phone calls for this story. But through an attorney, Randall Salter, a company spokesman said that all artists would get refunds upon e-mailing their information to refunds97radio@aol.com. He claims many have received refunds already. But at press time, none of the artists Rolling Stone contacted had been refunded.

97 Radio is housed in the same office suite in Sun City as Talent2K, a company that charges musicians to send demo tapes to record labels. Talent2K's owner, Carlo Oddo, said through Salter that he started 97 Radio but then gave it to ex-employees to manage. Salter said 97 Radio and Talent2K are not connected in any way (though they make statements through the same attorney). But Mike Hayes, of the Dallas band Hazeland, produced a $500 credit-card receipt showing 97 Radio's address to be the same as the one listed on Talent2k.com. Several artists -- including former teen star Leif Garrett -- also said that they have paid Talent2K for services that were never rendered. Garrett eventually did get a refund.

Despite promises of a refund, many artists say that it's not just money they lost but a rock & roll dream. "It really dragged us down," says Dave Manning, drummer for the Greenfield, Massachusetts, rock band Promize, which paid 97 Radio to be part of the Beach City Tour. "Everybody took vacation time, and everybody put in their $200. And here we are playing in Springfield again, and it's like, 'Big deal.'"

STEVE KNOPPER
(March 22, 2004)