Radio's bully finally gets investigated (1 Viewer)

[LanceJ]

Clear Channel Corporation, one of my most unfavorite organizations is being grilled by our government-FINALLY:

http://stereophile.com/shownews.cgi?1580

For background info on this company & an explanation of why possibly in your city radio suddenly began sucking big time (CC owns six in my city):

http://www.salon.com/ent/clear_channel/

In 1996, when the Telecommunications Act was approved to let companies own more stations, to placate the small stations & people worried about lousy music, the FCC made it easier (I think it was smaller licensing fees, less paperwork, etc) for small, low-power stations to get on the air. These were stations around 5000-10,000 watts. This translates to about a 10 mile radius, so the music can reflect that community's tastes (big stations can transmit up to around 100,000 watts). A nice idea, right? It was until the bill went through the approval process and a little-noticed caveat was tacked onto it: the low-power stations had to be (I can't remember the exact number but it's not important) at least 1.0mHz away from any other station. In a big city with all its stations crammed together, that's basically impossible to accomplish. So, the FCC's cool new law had its n**s cut off and few, if any, small budget stations made it onto the air.

The broadcasting industry lobbyists are extremely powerful--I'm pretty sure they had their fingers in this matter.

LJ

 

[John Watson]

This gives me the same depressed feeling I get when I consider how Microslob has shaped the home computing experience.

Tho it makes Dick Clark look like a harmless jerk.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I love my Microsoft-based PC because there is wonderful third-party software for it, and Microsoft cannot control what third-party software I run.

Clear Channel is much worse than Microsoft. They control the infrastructure and the 'software' that gets played on it. Radio has been dumbed down and America is getting dumbed down with it.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Thank the stars for college radio...

I *hate* Clear Channel.

 

[Rachael B]

Me too Kevin! My radio listening is nearly exclusive to WUTK and WUOT from the U. of Tennessee. Thanks for posting this Lance. I read the book Hitmen years ago and this is the same old, same old scenario.

 

[Joel Fontenot]

Well, I'm just down to the public radio station here. Our college radio station, KLSU, pretty much follows MTV programming now and experiments very little like it once did. The once bright shinny star in Baton Rouge from the early 80's to early 90's is long gone now.

Joel

 

[Matty P]

I would like to dig up some writings/books on Clear Channel and their practices/monopolizing over the past couple of years...does anyone have some recommendations? Thanks!