Radio stations pull Arcade Fire amid sex misconduct allegations

Some North American radio stations are pulling Arcade Fire’s music after frontman Win Butler was accused of sexual misconduct.

At least three radio stations in Canada have made statements regarding their decision not to play the Canadian rock band’s music.

Ian March, a program director at Toronto music station Indie88, confirmed to CBC News that they made “a quick decision over the weekend to pull the band’s music,” though they haven’t had any internal discussion over whether the decision will be permanent.

“In light of the recent allegations against Win Butler, CBC Music will pause on playing Arcade Fire’s music until we learn more about the situation,” Chuck Thompson of CBC Music added.

Canadian Broadcasting Corp. will “pause” playing Arcade Fire’s music on its CBC Music FM station and SiriusXM CBC Radio 3 station “until we learn more about the situation,” a representative told Ottawa City News and CBC News.

Meanwhile, a radio host in St. Paul, Minnesota, told CBC News that he’s been tracking radio stations in the US also pulling the band’s music — even if they’re not publicly announcing so.

Radio host Bill Childs shared that at least six of the stations that regularly play Arcade Fire slowly stopped by sometime Tuesday.

“I’m always curious about how radio stations respond when core artists of theirs get caught up in allegations of whatever sort,” Childs said.

On Saturday, Pitchfork released a report with four people’s claims, accusing Butler, 42, of sexual misconduct. 

One of the accusers — who uses they/them pronouns — claimed the frontman sexually assaulted them twice in 2015 when they were 21 years old. The other three accusers were women who say the age gap and “power dynamics” between them and the singer were reportedly inappropriate.

The alleged misconduct occurred between 2016 and 2020, when the women were between the ages of 18 and 23 and Butler was 36 to 39, according to Pitchfork.

Butler denied any wrongdoing and claims all interactions were consensual.

The allegations and decisions to pull Arcade Fire’s music off the radio come as their world tour starts. It kicked off in Dublin on Tuesday with Feist and Beck opening the show.