Clear Channel and Others - BUSTED!

cmy330go

FULL ARTICLE

It seems 4 major broadcasters have been found guilty of taking bribes, and in return they must pay X amount of money in fines, but the cool part is.....they are going to run 8,400 half-hour segments of independent artist's music for free.

I think that is a pretty decent attempt at justice.:)

Bill Ayotte

This has been going on forever. How it took this long to figure it out is beyond me.

sucks2beme

Corporate radio has taken over. That's why it all sucks. All the stations
are owned by a couple of big firms, making stuff like this so easy,
You only have to pay off a couple of guys to control a 100 station's programming.
I'm ready for something new. Classic rock stations play about six artists all day long. The alternative station has stagnated, never trying anything new.
Jazz went under. The classical station is very weak.
The big three formats locally are country,urban, and spanish stuff.
And you wonder why I went XM?
I'm sure they'll be next to get caught up in payola.
oh well, back to the cd collection!

Jstas

See, we don't really have these programming problems in Philly and the surrounding area. My pre-sets are always full and I never have enough space to get all the stations I like set. I mean, right now I have 18 stations programmed in and I can think of 6 more that I listen to regularly enough but no room for the pre-set.

krabby5

Before XM, I would only listen to sports talk shows. The classic channel only played 20 artists a day..and only the most popular songs...Rolling Stones..lemme guess.. yer gonna play "Start Me Up:rolleyes: "

I hate country, don't like adult contemporary, and I don't like new hard rock or pop...there was none of the music I really listened to..

For these reasons, XM rules for me..the Boneyard rocks...

Bill Ayotte

Jstas wrote:

See, we don't really have these programming problems in Philly and the surrounding area. My pre-sets are always full and I never have enough space to get all the stations I like set. I mean, right now I have 18 stations programmed in and I can think of 6 more that I listen to regularly enough but no room for the pre-set.

Philly is a HUGE market, Like top 5 in the nation huge. The thing is, I bet at least 12 of those stations are owned by Clear Channel or Infinity Broadcasting, if not all of them. It's awesome you have so many good stations in your area, radio around here sucks major donkey dong.:eek:

ledhed

Bill Ayotte wrote:

Philly is a HUGE market, Like top 5 in the nation huge. The thing is, I bet at least 12 of those stations are owned by Clear Channel or Infinity Broadcasting, if not all of them. It's awesome you have so many good stations in your area, radio around here sucks major donkey dong.:eek:

YES IT DOES!!! You would think that being in Music City U.S.A that radio would at least be decent but nope. The radio in Knoxville/Chattanooga is better.

schwarcw

sucks2beme wrote:

Corporate radio has taken over. That's why it all sucks. All the stations
are owned by a couple of big firms, making stuff like this so easy,
You only have to pay off a couple of guys to control a 100 station's programming.

For many years the FCC regulated how many stations a company and/or network could own in a certain area. The equation was complex but it limited a broadcast "monopoly". Congressional lobbyists worked their magic and new laws were past. "Deregulation" was good for consumers:( I am so cynical!

markmarc

Schwarz:
I'm with you on this one, deregulation screwed listeners. for many parts of the country the only other option is XM, but that has plenty of failings of its own.. Good old WKRP in Cincinnati was dead on with its underlying theme, only 20 years ahead of reality.

I've been lucky to have had 3 great staions to listen to over the years with a pretty heavy independent streak KBCO in Boulder, KTCL in Ft. Collins Colorado, and KINK in Portland. If it wasn't for them, I'd spend all my time listening to sports talk shows.

schwarcw

NPR or other public radio is good option if it's in your area. We have several decent stations here. XM or Sirrus are also good options, but they need a player and a subscription.

Carl