06.16.02
Clear Channel Communications
From a mailing list I’m sub’ed to:
ONE OF MY INTERESTS is “the media” in general. Long gone are the old days when one company could only own a few radio or TV stations. While you were sleeping, one company has managed to buy up *1,200* radio stations with over a billion listeners. Waldo in Virginia, a reader and friend of mine, alerted me to this — as well as a new web site that’s dedicated to letting people know what’s going on. He notes: “Clear Channel’s 1,200 radio stations control 60% of all rock programming, they own the vast majority of the musical venues in the U.S., they own the lion’s share of billboards, talk show hosts, and popular musical acts. THEY decide what bands get famous, and what bands are doomed to play the bar circuit. If you don’t understand why your favorite local band just can’t seem to make it big, http://www.ClearChannelSucks.org (new window) has the answers. The music that you hear on the radio isn’t played because it’s popular, but because the labels paid for it to be played. If that’s a problem for you, that site is the place to do something about it.”