A01438
Articles : MediaSpin of the Week
“For weeks, it sounded as if amateurs had been bleeding their voices into the broadcasts of stations in Akron, Ohio, owned by Clear Channel, the corporate radio giant.” The pirate broadcasters’ website contained “a manifesto about ‘corporate-controlled music playlists’ that took potshots at several local Clear Channel stations.” But it was all a Clear Channel marketing campaign, to promote an Akron station’s switch to a “progressive talk” format. “We tried to get into the mindset of people who would listen to this new station,” said the company’s local marketing manager – a mindset that “may involve a suspicion of Clear Channel itself.” “It’s the heart of the problem with Clear Channel,” said Carrie McLaren, the editor of Stay Free magazine. “‘We’re this huge corporation and we do everything to fake being local.’” Stay Free reported on the outing of “Radio Free Ohio” by a (truly) independent Ohio radio station.
Source: The New York Times, May 30, 2005
GNN’s Spin of the Week come courtesy of our friends at PR Watch, a project of the Madison, Wisconsin-based Center for Media and Democracy.
Posted by anthony
Anthony Lappé is GNN's Executive Editor. He's written for The New York Times, Details, New York, Paper, The Fader and Vice, among many others. He has worked as a producer for MTV and Fuse. He is the co-author of GNN's True Lies and the producer of their Iraq doc,...
I loathe Clear Channel. I live in NY and they “saved” SPAC (Saratoga Performing Arts Center)..CC’s concept of “saving” something is “here let us bail you out and then mandate how you will run for the rest of our natural lives”. Add that into their cookie cutter formatting across the country and what do you get? you get crap on every channel you turn too.
Add that into their cookie cutter formatting across the country and what do you get?
The guarantee of hearing Fiddy Cent at 15 after hour on at least 1 station 24 hours a day.
I really hope that Clear Channel is forced to break up like Bell Communications. No one company should be allowed to own more than 20% of the radio or anything Period.
“I really hope that Clear Channel is forced to break up like Bell Communications. No one company should be allowed to own more than 20% of the radio or anything Period.”-EndersWorld
100% agree.
I am a huge fan of being able to switch channels and hear the same song on 3 out of 5 of them…...
laughs hysterically
Yawn, dull subject.
Articles must be wholly original content written by GNN users and NOT republished from other sources.