the beat (doesn't) go on: Clear Channel bans Springsteen

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

(snip) Republican radio network Clear Channel, a monopoly in many cities and a dominant player in most of the rest, isn't interested. Is it because Springsteen has been an outspoken campaigner for Democrats and progressives? Clear Channel has taken a political stand with its programming in the past. Just think back to their boycott of the Dixie Chicks. Oh, no... not way back, just back to when they released their most recent album. Despite being one of the top 10 best-selling American albums of the year-- across all genres and demographics-- radio studiously ignored it. There were maybe half a dozen country stations that even played it at all. What Clear Channel did to the Dixie Chicks is a watertight case for the need to break the media companies up into a thousand pieces. (John Sununu disagrees; he's pro-censorship.) I spoke with an old friend who heads a record company and preferred to speak off the record.

"When you have artists like the Dixie Chicks and Bruce Springsteen who have overtly spoken out against this Administration, they are taken to task in spite the clear and undeniable indications from the marketplace that people want to hear their music. What seems to be happening-- if sales are any kind of a barometer of what the marketplace is-- is that these politically-connected radio networks like Clear Channel are not looking to succeed as radio stations as much as pushing forward some political agenda.

Another friend of mine distinctly recalls the Senate hearings on radio consolidation in light of the Dixie Chicks boycott where Barbara Boxer and John McCain heard testimony including an internal Clear Channel memo threatening "Just wait and see what happens if Springsteen tries this." I guess we're seeing that right now.

Of course, Clear Channel hasn't publicly said they are boycotting Springsteen's music. But they are. Fox News, hardly a hotbed of liberal alarmists, reports that "Clear Channel has sent an edict to its classic rock stations not to play tracks from Magic... no new songs by Springsteen, even though it’s likely many radio listeners already own the album and would like to hear it mixed in with the junk offered on radio." (snip)

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2007/10/clear-channel-republican-propaganda.html

[aquart]

1. Dismantle Clear Channel.

Now that's what I want to see on buttons, t-shirts, and bumper stickers.

[WCGreen]

7. there stock tanked a while back...

They are running in the red...

I wonder why the shareholders haven't said anything...

I know they are trying to divest themselves from Radio thinking that the outdoor advertising is the most profitable...

[cascadiance]

15. Actually they are becoming "private" through a leveraged buyout...

The stockholders sold out at the end of September. It will just give them more free reign to start doing their more right wing agenda so that it isn't "stealth" any more. That is why you are seeing moves like this and throwing out Air America radio stations like KLSD down here in San Diego. It's part of the master plan, and they don't want to have to be accountable to anyone (the FCC or stockholders!).

[Deep13]

2. There can be only one "Boss" ...

...and that is our Imperial Caesar.

[Cha]

3. Dixie Chicks, Springsteen, and

all future musicians who will be banned on clear as mud need to buy their own radio stations and broadcast what we wanna hear..not what the fucking fascistassholes have on their agenda.

[Atman]

4. I loves my Sirius.

I have Sirius in my car...my wife has XM in her car. I never have to listen to any of Clear Channel's inane bullshit, which is exactly what drove me to Sirius in the first place. My market is saturated with Clear Channel fm stations. But I'm not one of the tools that listen to them!

.

[eridani]

13. How much does it cost? n/t

[Atman]

19. Depends upon how you pay.

I pay by the quarter, which works out to $12.95 a month. I you pre-pay the entire year it's cheaper. Adding a second radio is $6 a month.

We got XM free for three months with my wife's new car, but it's the same price structure. I'm not sure we'll end up subscribing, though. I think Sirius has better programming.

Sirius is worth every penny. No ads, just music...any kind of music you could possibly want. And you can tune into one station and drive from Maine to Florida without having to keep flipping around the dial to avoid the crazy crap you get while driving through the Carolinas.

.

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. XM has Air America

For those of us in red state hell, that's the only way we can listen to AAR in our cars.

[Ian David]

5. I bought the Magix album, and it's awesome!

Bruce Springsteen - Magic

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Product Description:

After 5 years, the GRAMMY Award-winning Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are back with a new studio album, Magic. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Magic, gives their most high-powered vocal performace to date.

http://www.overstock.com/Books-Movies-Music-Games/Bruce-Springsteen-Magic/2620149/product.html?searchtype=HP_Header&keywords=springstein%20magic

[Botany]

6. Got to control the message

Look @ Pink's "Dear Mr. President"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FF0cS9s6Aw

In days gone by this song would have been all over ... but I doubt it has ever gotten
real radio play

[zulchzulu]

8. I listen to net radio these days... Clear Channel can stick it...

Get yourself iTunes and listen to the hundreds of choices there. Connect your computer to speakers in your home. Then say....ahhh.....

www.apple.com/itunes

Go to Radio/Alternative/
Zeilsteen Radio 128 kbps Nederland, Holland, Dutch Internet Radio

Bruce's new stuff is getting lots of airplay in Europe.

[MGKrebs]

9. I like Pandora too. You can program your own stations!

http://www.pandora.com/

[Greyskye]

22. I LOVE Pandora!

Here is my Pandora station, The Eclectic Greyness. From my station's intro:

The Eclectic Greyness is just that - Eclectic. Blues, World, Trance, Swing, Rogue Folk and more. Complex music for complex people - no top 40 here!

I tend to enjoy upbeat rhythms with complicated/polyphonic melody lines. Since "The Eclectic Greyness" tends to wander all over the map, Pandora occassionally give me inexplicable songs that I really can't stand. I give those thumbs down - you can skip past them.

Please remember that Pandora works in blocks of 5 songs per 'algorithmic return', if that makes any sense at all. In essence, if you aren't liking what you hear, skip forward 3 or 5 songs, and you will most likely get something completely different.

My favorite line of the OP: "Clear Channel has sent an edict to its classic rock stations not to play tracks from Magic... no new songs by Springsteen, even though it’s likely many radio listeners already own the album and would like to hear it mixed in with the junk offered on radio."

I certainly can't argue with that sentiment! 90% of what gets played on the radio is total crap! (IMHO, of course)

[Bitwit1234]

10. Our democratic congress won't do it. Wonder why

[onenote]

11. an "edict" to classic rock stations not to play new music?

Wow. What a shock.
The "classic rock" station in my town for years played old springsteen, old Who, old Rolling Stones, old Paul McCartney, old Neil Young, old John Mellencamp, etc etc etc. But you never, ever heard their new material. And that station wasn't owned by Clear Channel.

There is a Clear Channel oldies station (hits of the 60s, 70s, and 80s) plays plenty of Springsteen. It just doesn't play newer Springsteen. Or newer anyone. But it has promoted Springsteen concert dates.

The problem isn't politics. Its radio formats.


PS -- It actually was Cumulus, not Clear, that ordered the company wide ban on the Dixie CHicks. http://tennessean.com/business/archives/03/07/35670999.shtml?Element_ID=35670999

[Gregorian]

12. My friend is a dj. This morning he was on air and cursed Clear Channel.

He then played Springsteen while singing along. It was pretty damn cool.

KXLU. A pretty decent station.

[alittlelark]

14. If that is true, we will know w/in a few weeks or so

I have a strong suspicion that it is true due to the degree of avarice he is showing towards the WH parasites.

But I will temper my temper and make sure.

Clear Channel is a mega nasty mega-conglomerate corporatist enterprise.... but I'll wait a few days.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

16. SPRINGSTEEN, HERE I COME

64 YEARS OLD, DROPPED POP JUST AFTER THE BEATLES.

BOUGHT DIXIE CHICKS ALBUM TO SPITE REPUBS

WILL BUY SPRINGSTEEN TOO!!!!!!!!!!!


:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

[MattSh]

17. iheard.com. 1000+ stations from around the world, via the internet.

Find your joy here.

http://www.iheard.com/

[oasis]

18. Screw Clear Channel...the nazi bastards.

_|_

[leftynyc]

20. Bruce is crying all the way to the bank

The album is #1 and he will never have a problem selling out a stadium for a concert. They are only hurting themselves.

[Joey Liberal]

23. Clear Channel can go to hell n/t

[nickgutierrez]

24. Mainstream radio (old media) has jumped the shark, anyway.

Long live new media!