[Argon]

Alright more Propaganda, but this one I happen to agree with, "Clear Channel" is Bad and I bet you guys didn't even know how much they impact your life (If you have ever watched TV, Listened to the Radio, or went to a Show, then you were affected by them). I know a lot of people around here like the entertainment business (Radio and TV) and some people might know about these "Clear Channel", but some people don't. Read these webpages when you get a chance.

http://www.clearchannelbites.freeservers.com/
http://www.clearchannelsucks.org/
http://www.fuckedmusicbiz.com/

[Pfc.Green]

Never even heard of "clear channel"

i have, they made by cbs channel blurry so i always get a headache when i watch it cry:

[Bazooka_Joe]

http://www.clearchannel.com/

Senator John McCain is at their top of the news, thats enough for me. cry: eek:

But seriously, what is this? A service for television station broadcasting or something?

[Argon]

Clear Channel Entertainement = Monopoly (Not the board game). The reason I am bitching about these guys, is that they have ruined radio and TV. With time they will infect and dismantle your favorite radio/TV station and choke off any competition.

Here's the facts:

they are the world's leading producer and marketer of live entertainment events, owning 135 concert venues (41 of them are amphitheaters) in the U.S.

they accounted for about 70 percent of concert ticket sales in the U.S. in 2001

they present Broadway shows in 60 North American markets and own or operate 14 theatrical stages in the U.S. and 23 in the UK

they stage over 660 motor sports events

they are the largest operator of radio stations in the U.S., covering all 50 states with 1,225 radio stations in nearly 300 different markets, about 10 percent of the nation's total
(controlling airplay and black-listing musical acts that don't use their concert promotions firm or coercing acts into playing shows for little or no fee by refusing to air their latest songs unless they appear)

they own and operate, with their international partners, more than 250 radio stations in Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and Europe

they are cutting programming staff. In many markets, sister clusters are taking on more work providing digital voice tracking for smaller sister stations. At these smaller clusters, there may be only 1 live person in the complex for 5 to 6 different stations. That means there is a staff ratio of 1:6 where prior to 1996, the ratio was 1:1 for staffing stations.

their radio stations sometimes participate in harrassment, hoaxes (one causing a death), animal torture/mutilation/death, and the destruction of wetland habitats for the sake of comedy

their radio stations are responsibile for such hate-infested programming as Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura Schlessinger, two exceedingly right wing syndicated talk show hosts

their radio stations use digital voice tracking and in-market feeds to mislead listeners into thinking that national contests are local because they dub local DJs' voices into interviews with winners

the local radio stations that bring in advertising money from your local businesses funnels the money to Texas and Wall Street

they have been known to control all commercially licensed radio stations in a town and are able to drive up advertising rates

they own 19 television stations

their pending acquisition of the Ackerley Group will add 18 television stations to the division, doubling their number of television stations in 2002

they produce the TV shows "Smallville" and "Arli$$", the TV special "Glory in Black and White: The Story of the 1966 NCAA Champions" (which CBS aired during the NCAA tournament in 2002), and the movie "Hardball"

they produce over 250 hours of network and cable motor sports programming per year

they own 770,000 billboards in the United States and have a presence in 46 U.S. markets, reaching more than half the adults in the U.S.
(ever seen the movie "Brazil"?)

their outdoor products include the Times Square Spectacolor (Clear Channel Spectacolor is the premiere operator of more than 50 outdoor advertising displays in the world famous Times Square area of New York City), shopping malls (more than 350 U.S. shopping malls, delivering a point-of-purchase opportunity where 80% of shoppers make purchase decisions), taxi tops (including the major U.S. taxi markets of New York, Las Vegas, Boston, San Francisco, Washington, Atlanta, and Miami), mobile truck panels, bus and train stations, and airport advertising (reaching 6 of every 10 travelers each day with advertisements seen in 21 U.S. airport facilities)

they operate advertising businesses in 65 countries across Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, Mexico and South America

their street furniture division has contracts in Northern Ireland and China

they introduced Delta V, a revenue-generating, high-speed Internet accelerator service utilizing broadband digital TV signals in Cincinnati

they own a leading talent management and marketing agency that represents several hundred of the world's elite professional athletes in basketball, baseball, football, hockey, tennis, golf, soccer, figure skating, and the Olympics, delivering management, marketing, and financial consulting services to professional athletes, including Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Jason Giambi, Roger Clemens, John Daly, Greg Norman, Tom Lehman, Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, Jerry Rice, Donovan McNabb, Timothy Gaebel, and Dan Jansen

they secured ten first round draft picks in the NBA (including Kwame Brown) and three first round picks in the baseball draft in 2001

they also represent top sports and news broadcasters

FAMILY COMPANIES
SFX Entertainment
SFX Sports Group
Premier Radio Networks
Eller Media
SFX Media
Katz Media
Adshel

[Bazooka_Joe]

So since they own so much in the Radio/TV industry, they can price it as they please? I'm not trying to offend you, but I'm just not quite understanding why you think they are so bad. What exactly by all of their actions is reflecting on everyone hating them?

[Pfc.Green]

Its like system overload here....i'm confused oOo:

[anti_hero]

i know what hes trying to say

[Bazooka_Joe]

[quote="anti_hero":a1c37]i know what hes trying to say[/quote:a1c37]

Care to elaborate? Cuz I sure as hell don't. I mean, I'm reading it, and I understand the facts, but WHAT about it is bad?

[Argon]

[quote:29c82]Pay for play

Why does radio suck? Because most stations play only the songs the record companies pay them to. And things are going to get worse.

By Eric Boehlert
- - - - - - - - - -


March 14, 2001 | Does radio seem bad these days? Do all the hits sound the same, all the stars seem like cookie cutouts of one another?

It's because they do, and they are.


Why? Listeners may not realize it, but radio today is largely bought by the record companies. Most rock and Top 40 stations get paid to play the songs they spin by the companies that manufacture the records.

But it's not payola -- exactly. Here's how it works.

Standing between the record companies and the radio stations is a legendary team of industry players called independent record promoters, or "indies."

The indies are the shadowy middlemen record companies will pay hundreds of millions of dollars to this year to get songs played on the radio. Indies align themselves with certain radio stations by promising the stations "promotional payments" in the six figures. Then, every time the radio station adds a Shaggy or Madonna or Janet Jackson song to its playlist, the indie gets paid by the record label.

Indies are not the guys U2 or Destiny's Child thanked on Grammys night, but everyone in the business, artists included, understands that the indies make or break careers.

"It's a big fucking mudball," complains one radio veteran.

At first glance, the indies are just the people who grease the gears in a typical mechanism connecting wholesaler with retailer. After all, Pepsi distributors, for example, pay for placement in grocery stores, right?

Except that radio isn't really retail -- that's what the record stores are. Radio is an entity unique to the music industry. It's an independent force that, much to the industry's chagrin, represents the one tried-and-true way record companies know to sell their product.

Small wonder that the industry for decades has used money in various ways to influence what radio stations play. The days are long gone when a DJ made an impulse decision about what song to spin. The music industry is a $12 billion-a-year business; today, nearly every commercial music station in the country has an indie guarding its playlist. And for that right, the indie shells out hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to individual stations -- and collects a lot more from the major record labels.

Indeed, say many industry observers, very little of what we hear on today's radio stations isn't bought, one way or another.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

The indie promoter was once a tireless hustler, the lobbyist who worked the phones on behalf of record companies, cajoling station jocks and program directors, or P.D.s, to add a new song to their playlists. Sure, once in a while the indies showed their appreciation by sending some cocaine or hookers to station employees, but the colorful crew of fix-it men were basically providing a service: forging relationships with the gatekeepers in the complex world of radio, and turning that service into a deceptively simple and lucrative business. If record companies wanted access to radio, they had to pay.

In the 1990s, however, Washington moved steadily to deregulate the radio industry. Among other things, it removed most of America's decades-old restrictions on ownership. Today, the top three broadcasters control at least 60 percent of the stations in the top 100 markets in the U.S.

As that happened, indie promoters became big business.

Drugs and hookers are out; detailed invoices are in. Where indies were once scattered across the country, claiming a few dozen stations within a geographic territory, today's big firms stretch coast to coast, with hundreds of exclusive stations in every major format.

In effect, they've become an extraordinarily expensive phalanx of toll collectors who bill the record company every time a new song is added to a station's playlist.

And the indies do not come cheap.

There are 10,000 commercial radio stations in the United States; record companies rely on approximately 1,000 of the largest to create hits and sell records. Each of those 1,000 stations adds roughly three new songs to its playlist each week. The indies get paid for every one: $1,000 on average for an "add" at a Top 40 or rock station, but as high as $6,000 or $8,000 under certain circumstances.

That's a minimum $3 million worth of indie invoices sent out each week[/quote:29c82]
[quote:29c82]The question has become more pressing with the announcement that industry heavyweight Clear Channel Communications, which owns 1,200 radio stations, is on the verge of finalizing an exclusive agreement with the independent promotion firm Tri State Promotions and Marketing.

As a recent report (above)detailed, record companies pay the independent promoters, or "indies," hundreds of millions of dollars each year to ensure that the records the companies release get played on the radio; the indies, in turn, slip the radio stations a large chunk of this income in the form of on-the-books "promotional expenses." With a partnership formed, the rivers of money start flowing between labels, indies and stations.

Sources say that the money goes to the stations below-board as well: They say that broadcasters get money in different forms -- in vacations at hotels and on cruise lines, and in American Express gift certificates, all of which leave no paper trails. In the end, it's doubtful that even the extraordinary sums the record companies admit they're paying equals the actual amount of money changing hands.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

The pending Clear Channel-Tri State alliance, the industry worries, will give Tri State extraordinary leverage and the clout to charge record labels even more money for station airplay. And it will solidify a system that awards the airwaves to the highest bidders.

"It's outright bribery and extortion, and it's nothing more than payola," complains Bernie Cyrus, executive director of the Louisiana Music Commission, part of the state's Department of Economic Development charged with promoting the state's $2.5 billion music industry.[/quote:29c82]

In the end the consumer (you and me) gets screwed on whats played on the radio, what concerts and shows come to your town and of course how much this is gonna cost us. When you have a monopoly and there's no one to compete with, the consumer payes. And believe me the Radio stations in Houston Suck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bazooka_Joe]

Ahh. . gotcha now. So can someone like the FCC do somrthing bout this?

[{1CAB}ThiRTeeN]

Well it is getting pretty close to monopoly status....

[Captain_McCusker]

I used to work for them, before they merged with AMFM. It was awesome working in a radio station, especially considering I created a department that was non-existent. But the corporation itself was incredibly hard to work for and in the end, my job lacked any real support it should have been given. And they screwed me on my 401K by dumping it all into stocks a month before I was layed off. If anyone knows the company well, this went from 60 points to 30+ on the market by the time I could retrieve it.

In any case, what Argon's saying is true. They're in the business of selling advertising and not selling music. That's why they don't care about the listener. What they do is increase listeners per avg. hour over time spent listening which boosts their overall ratings in the market. With the higher ratings, they can then sell to the national advertisers for more money. Eventually, they wanted to take markets below 100 and automate them using voice-overs from the larger markets like New York and LA. I can almost guaruntee that the radio station you're listening too the most is 90% of the time with no one at the switches, but actually producing commercials and promotions (to keep the ratings up).

Oh, and the guy who layed me off was fired shortly after because he didn't know how to cope with running four radio stations. evil:

[pest]

Monopolies are bad, m'kay. Especially with a group that can control a large segment of the media.