Audio problems at record-breaking Rodeo concert

(3/04/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- A record-breaking crowd of more than 73,000 converged on Reliant Stadium to see Hannah Montana and the Cheetah Girls. Except thousands of them couldn't hear anything except echoes. The audio went out sometime during Hannah Montana, the opening act. Some concert-goers say it never came back on.

It was a concert Cheyenne Duree waited all year to see. But it wasn't seeing the performance that was the problem. It was hearing it.

"It was boring and stuff because you couldn't hear singing and everything else," she said.

More than 73,000 people attended the Hannah Montana concert, making it the biggest show ever for the Rodeo. And after only the fourth song, Rodeo officials say a breaker blew. About 35% of the house was left listening to distorted music.

"You felt cheated just because you spend all the money. You wait in line. You spend at least $200 to $300 down here," said parent Brooke Duree. "The kids are upset. They can't hear the music. They're not dancing."

Officials say the audio was restored toward the end of Montana's performance. Still, about 7% of the crowd still had sporadic problems hearing during the Cheetah Girls act. Rodeo officials apologized for the inconvenience, but reassured it was a good show.

"I guess the one thing we could have done was stop the show, but then we'd have had a riot," said Rodeo Houston CEO Leroy Shafer.

Still, for a record night, officials wish they would have avoided any problems at all. So does Kim Crandall, whose seven-year-old girl left disappointed.

"It was heartbreaking for me," she said. "We worked so hard to make it such a special day and then we didn't get to hear it all."

We asked her daughter, Reagan, if she would come back for another concert at Reliant.

"If the speakers won't go off," she told us.

Rodeo officials tell us that the breaker system will be inspected before Monday's Josh Turner concert. There are 14 more concerts left in the Rodeo season.
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)

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