Bless the Children is honored for community service
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
The Bless the Children
Program and 4-H Club knows
all about true success.
Feb. 19 marked the first
year of The Bless the Children
Program and 4-H Cluh being a
legal, chartered organization.
The group has achieved a lot.
The group received a cer
tificate of appreciation for
community service at Forsyth
County 4-H Achievement
Night. Thirty-five youths,
seven staff members and six
volunteers, all representing
The Bless the Children Pro
gram and 4-H Club, were pre
sented the award after pulling
up in their first van. sponsored
by Beauty World.
The theme of Achievement
Night was "The Power of
Youth" (4-H emphasizes head,
heart, hands and health).
Awards and certificates were
presented to more than 1 (K)
youths and their 4-H groups.
Johnell and Debra Hunter and
their youth group were pre
sented with a 4-H Club
achievement certificate. The
Hunters wish to thank all of
the children, parents, staff vol
unteers and sponsors for for
supporting the Bless the Chil
dren Program and 4-H Club.
This has been a blessed
year for the club, which has
obtained a new office, com
puter, national base station,
three new sites for neighbor
hood tieautification. a new 4
H youth committee and sever
al new sponsors.
Club activities include:
field trips, missions, outreach
programs, arts and crafts,
awards, garden projects, com
munity clean-up, neighbor
hood beautification, and cele
brations and giveaways.
The club wishes to thank
Don Mebane and Jackie
Hilton. 4-H agents; Mrs. Stan
back and Beth Thompson of
the junior master gardener
program; others with the N.C.
Cooperative Extension Ser
vice and the U.S. Department
of Agriculture; and John Kim
of Beauty World. ,?
Also, 4-H celebrated 100
plus years of service as the
world's Jargest youth organi
zation.
The Bless the Children
Program and 4-H Club meets
on the third Thursday of each
month from 6-8:30 at New
ness of Life Family Worship
Center, 4125 Indiana Ave. Fot
more information, call the
church at 744-5080 or the
Hunters at 725-7073.
Members of the Bless the Children Program and 4-H Club
Johnell and Debra Hunter
Retailers
. from page C7
compact disc. Eighteen were
on sale just as vinyl records.
Seventeen songs, including
Creed's "My Sacrifice," No
Doubt's "Hey Baby," Enrique
Iglesias' "Hero" and Alanis
Morissette's "Hands Clean,"
were only available if you
bought a full album. Record
retailers complain this alien
ates fans, particularly young
ones, by forcing them to spend
more than they want or -
worse yet - retrieve songs
online.
"I think they're losing a
whole generation of record
buyers," said Carl Rosen
baum, chief executive of Top
Hits, a Buffalo Grove, HI.,
company that supplies music
to 15,000 stores nationwide.
"You either have to steal it
off the Internet or you just
don't buy it at all," he said.
"The other option is to buy a
full CD for $18. If you're just
introducing yourself to an act.
you don't want to do that. It's
hard to figure out what their
thinking is."
Music executives, in turn,
blame retailers for discounting
singles so heavily it's impossi
ble to make money.
"We can't work it out,"
said Val Azzoli, co-chairman
of the Atlantic Group of
record labels. "We're not an
industry that works together."
If the single dies altogeth
er. the beginning of the end
can be traced a decade back to
the start of Soundscan, which
provided the first precise
measurements of music sales.
Executives who long sus
pected that singles cut into
sales of the more profitable
full-length CDs now had evi
dence to back that up, said Jor
dan Katz, senior vice president
of sales at Arista Records.
There's some debate about
the extent to which that's true,
though.
Bob Higgins, chief execu
tive of the Albany, N.Y.-based
Trans World Entertainment,
which owns 950 music stores,
said he believes singles hurt
album sales in only about 15
percent of the cases.
Nickelback's "Silver Side
Up" album is currently in the
top 10. seemingly unhurt by
the CD single for the song
"How You Remind Me." And
Santana sold boatloads of its
most recent album despite a
succession of singles, he said.
In the late 1990s, there was
a brief period when record
companies put singles by
singers such as Mariah Carey
on sale for a money-losing 49
cents, artificially boosting
sales to secure flashy chart
debuts.
To avoid manipulations of
its charts. Billboard changed
the way it computed the Top
40 to reflect radio airplay as
well as sales. Therefore, it was
possible to have a hit "single"
without a song ever being
released as a single.
CD singles, which usually
have two or three songs, gen
erally retail for between $3
and $4. Many retailers rou
tinely discount them, by 50
percent or more. Azzoli said.
And there are still music com
panies that encourage this by
secretly giving singles away to
retailers to inflate sales, he
said.
"If I could get $5 a single
and sell a million of them, hey,
there's a business there,"
Azzoli said.
The demise of the single
means more of music's
romance is disappearing, just
like when colorful album cov
ers were replaced by tiny CD
booklets. In a song being
released this spring, Elvis
Costello waxes nostalgic
about collecting stacks of 45s
(a phrase already consigned to
history, because it refers to the
number of revolutions a 7-inch
disc made each minute on a
turntable).
"Nine-year-old puts his
money down," he sings.
"Every scratch, every click,
every heartbeat. Every breath
that I held for you."
Music companies recog
nize the -danger, but "their
short-term motivation is to get
as much profit as possible,"
said Ed Christman, retail edi
tor at Billboard. "The fact that
young kids aren't buying
records is a long-term worry."
It's not easy to find the
section where singles are sold
at the Virgin megastore in
New York's Times Square.
Walk past the display of
top albums, go down the esca
lator and wander to the dance
section in a back corner.
It's close to where Jeannie
Imperati of North Haven,
Conn., was grumbling one
recent day when she took her
15-year-old son shopping.
"I'll spend $100 on CDs
just so he can get one song out
of each of them," she said.
Her friend John Cas said
he found the lack of choices in
the singles section frustrating.
"Most of the CDs have
only one good song out of a
dozen," he said. "At 18 or 20
bucks a pop. you want to be
able to enjoy the whole CD."
The space that music stores
used to devote to singles is
dwindling, or disappearing
altogether. One worry for
Rosenbaum's Top Hits is that
the chains he supplies with
music, such as Eckerd Drugs,
may simply use the space for
non-music products.
Now he's distributing golf
balls as well as music.
At Arista, Katz is sensitive
to concerns on both sides and
is among executives experi
menting with ways to make
more singles available, though
maybe not in the way many
consumers would want.
In some cases, singles are'
made available before an
album's release but pulled
from stores when the album
comes out. Arista also makes
singles for songs after they
have cooled off as hits. Pink's
"Get the Party Started," cur
rently in Billboard's Top 10,
isn't a CD single now but may
be in a couple of months.
Labels also are experi
menting more with so-called
maxi-singles. They may con
tain five or six songs - often
different remixes of the same
song - and are sold for
between $7 and $8. The costs
of manufacturing them are
? similar to regular singles, so
profits are higher.
Some artists also release
DVD singles with videos
included with the music.
"We have to get kids in the
habit of buying music," Katz
said. "I'm trying to figure out
innovative ways to have sin
gles and albums co-exist."
Author
. from page C7
country.
"My mother was a social
worker and inspired us to do
for other people." Taylor said.
"The issue of domestic abuse
is in the book, so I felt I had to
do my part."
Taylor said that her book
gives a voice to the 50 million
American women who are
abused by their spouses.
"A Silver Tongue" is pub- ,
lished by Oshun Dynasty Pub
lications.
| EVERYONE'S CONCERNS
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Friday Nights
at 9:30
March, 2002
Black Issues Forum
Friday. March. 1 (g> 9:30 PM
Join Jay HoUoway for uplifting profiles and
issue-oriented discussion. See unctv.org/bif
Friday. March. 8 (g> 9:36 PM '* *
Join Jay HoUoway for uplifting profiles and
issue-oriented discussion. See unctv.org/bif
Friday. March. IS @ 9:30 PM
Join Jay HoUoway for uplifting profiles and
issue-oriented discussion. See unctv.org/bif.
Friday. March. 22 @ 9:30 PM
Join Jay HoUoway for uplifting profiles and
issue-oriented discussion. See unctv.org/bif.
Friday. March. 22 QP 9:30 PM
Join Jay HoUoway for uplifting profiles and
issue-oriented discussum. See unctv.org/bif
A 30-minute review of
critical issues that affect
the black community and
influence the quality of living
for all North Carolinians.
Host, Jay Hoiloway
I
T"???
The National Black Theatre Festival
In Association With The
Lyceum Series Of Winston-Salem State University
Present
The Show That Electrified Winston-Salem With
Pure Joy During The National Black Theatre Festival!
Is Back!
The Jackie Wilson Story
(My Heart Is Crying, Crying ...)
Black Theatre Ensemble (Chicago)
Written, Produced and Directed By Jackie Taylor
Photo by
Bruce Chapman
Starring Chester Gregory II
April 5 & 6 At 8:00 p.m.
Kenneth R. Williams Auditorium
Winston-Salem State University
Tickets $35 General Admission
Limited Seating Call (336) 723-2266 Now
Or Purchase Tickets At
The NC Black Repertory Company
610 Coliseum Drive, Winston-Salem, N.C.
The North Carolina Black Repertory Company is a Funded Member of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Arts
Council and receives Funding from the North Carolina Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts