Right on the money with that post Gary.
And sadly, many many people have no idea at all about the way Clear Channel
controls the
media.
--- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, Gary Wien <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> From a Rolling Stone article on Aug 13, 2004 after the Dixie
> Chicks situation:
>
> Clear Channel controls roughly 1,200 radio stations and about seventy
> percent of all live events that are promoted in the United States.
>
> Critics say the company also has a political agenda, given Clear
> Channel executives' close ties to George W. Bush and the company's
> willingness to drop Howard Stern at a time when many media companies
> are fighting for free speech. "If you don't realize that they've sent
> a chill throughout the creative community, you're living on another
> planet," says Howie Klein, the former head of Reprise Records. "Clear
> Channel pretty much can dictate what they want."
>
> There is no bigger company in the music business, and none with such
> close ties to conservative politics. Along with Mays, Tom Hicks, the
> former head of AMFM and a Clear Channel board member, was an investor
> in the 1989 Texas Rangers deal that made George W. Bush a very rich man.
>
> No other company in recent history has had so much power over what
> the world hears -- and so few top executives with a background in
> music. Several of the Mayses' friends and business associates say
> that popular culture has never come up in conversation; radio-
> division CEO John Hogan is a career ad salesman who says that he
> prefers talk to rock, rap or country stations. Brian Becker, the live-
> entertainment CEO, cut his teeth on motor sports and theater. One
> former Clear Channel executive told Rolling Stone that at annual
> corporate meetings, sales awards are given out for more than an hour
> -- and programming prizes take up only ten minutes. "You're
> controlling all this media, and what you're saying is, 'We don't care
> about what's on the air,'" he says. "All they care about is moving
> product."
>
> ************************************************************************
> ***************************************************
>
> Tommy,
>
> I'm sorry but to many of us the idea of one company like Clear
> Channel basically owning the airwaves and being able to dictate what
> American hears goes far beyond any of the concerns you may have about
> the Fairness Doctrine. And for anyone to be upset at hearing an
> artist speak his mind at a concert is rather absurd to me. That
> artist has the right to say what they want and the audience has the
> right to either agree or disagree; however, when a corporation pretty
> much owns the airwaves from coast to coast and lays down the law as
> to what can be said - I don't care if they're liberal or conservative
> I think that's wrong. I'm against monolopies and this is a good
> example of why monopolies are bad.
>
> Clear Channel helped America push against the Dixie Chicks for
> speaking their mind on stage - an opinion, which if shared on stage
> now would cause very little controversy. I guess they were just
> ahead of their time. In fact, many artists are often ahead of their
> time, which is why artists should use whatever platforms they have to
> push their opinion. It's just their opinion and people can agree or
> disagree, but corporations (like Clear Channel) don't necessarily
> offer someone the chance to agree or disagree they just force it down
> your throat and in many markets there will not be any differing
> opinions.
>
> That's not free speech to me, it's propaganda.
>
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