Clear Channel Communications – SourceWatch

Clear Channel Communications is the total one radio station owner in the U.S. “ clear Channel owns, operates, programs, or sells airtime for about 1,200 radio stations ; it besides has fairness interests in 240 international stations. clear Channel owns a 90 % impale in one of the populace ‘s largest outdoor advertise companies, clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, with more than 910,000 display locations worldwide. In addition, clear Channel owns or manages about 50 television receiver stations and sells spot advertise for more than 3,300 radio and television stations through Katz Media. The company has agreed to be taken individual by an investment group led by Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital. ” [ 1 ] In August 2006, TheDeal.com reported that clear up Channel “ is considering filing a courtly petition to the Federal Communications Commission seeking to raise the caps limiting how many stations one party can own in the largest individual U.S. markets. ” According to the article, the company has 1,189 radio stations, but “ wants the FCC to relax a rule that limits a ship’s company ‘s radio station possession in individual markets. ” A clear Channel spokesperson said, “ Easing the ownership restrictions will help level the play field and let free radio compete with iPods, online music services and satellite radio. surely, seeing that satellite radio has 150 unregulated stations in every market and release radio is limited to barely eight shows the apparent disparity. ” [ 1 ]

history

See the party ‘s network web site here for a chronological list of its acquisitions .

Self-Censorship

Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, authorize Channel program directors issued a list of “ potentially offense songs ” that it suggested stations not play. many reports referred to the list as a “ banish ” on the songs, which included all Rage Against The Machine songs, the Notorious B.I.G. ‘s “ Juicy ” ( which includes the line “ Time to get paid, blow up like the World Trade ” ), John Lennon ‘s “ Imagine, ” Metallica ‘s “ Seek and Destroy, ” AC/DC ‘s “ Safe in New York, ” Bobby Darin ‘s “ Mack the Knife, ” Peter, Paul and Mary ‘s “ Leaving on a Jet Plane, ” and Jerry Lee Lewis ‘ “ Great Balls of Fire, ” and “ The Drifters ‘ On Broadway. ”

clear Channel spokesperson Pam Taylor objected to the list being called a “ banish, ” saying, “ ” This was an effort to help people be medium to the unthinkable environment. It ‘s been somehow turned into some kind of evil undertake to control popular music, and that ‘s absurd. ” [ 2 ] According to the New York Times, “ a smaller list of questionable songs was in the first place generated by the corporate office, but an fanatic regional administrator began contributing suggestions and circulating the list via e-mail, where it continued to grow. ” The plan directors at individual stations were able to decide whether to play the list songs or not. [ 3 ] besides, in 2003, “ after the Dixie Chicks criticized President Bush during a London operation … some net Channel radio stations pulled the group ‘s music from their play lists. ” [ 4 ] According to the New York Times ( March 31, 2003 ), “ More mix were the actions of Cumulus Media, which owns 262 stations, and has at least temporarily stopped all 42 of its country stations from playing the Dixie Chicks. ”

Pro-War Rallies

The Clear Channel ‘s activities go beyond radio receiver. In March 2003, its affiliate stations throughout the United States organized pro-war rallies, under the appoint of Rally for America, to coincide with the Bush administration ‘s launch of war with Iraq. “ experienced Bushologists let out a collective ‘Aha ! ‘ when net Channel was revealed to be behind the pro-war rallies, because the company ‘s top management has a history with George W. Bush, ” reported Paul Krugman in the New York Times. Although clear Channel denied sponsoring the rallies, “ they were promoted repeatedly by the caller ‘s widely syndicated radio personality, Glenn Beck. ” [ 5 ] To counter negative impressions resulting from the post-9/11 playlist and “ Rally for America ” debacles, clear Channel hired the crisis-management firm Brainerd Communicators. According to the New York Times ( March 31, 2003 ), separate of Clear Channel ‘s price control included an op/ed article by Glenn Beck in which “ Mr. Beck described the [ pro-war ] rallies as a grassroots answer to his personal broadcast call to ‘Mr. and Mrs. America ‘ to urge their local radio stations to hold rallies. ”

Breaking the jurisprudence

In their “ Ten Worst Corporations of 2003 ” list, Robert Weissman and Russell Mokhiber report that clearly Channel has “ compiled a record of ‘repeated crime ‘ … violating the law — including prohibitions on deceptive advertise and on circulate conversations without obtaining license of the second party to the conversation — on 36 divide occasions over the previous three years. ” [ 6 ]

Bush Connections

“ The vice president of Clear Channel is Tom Hicks. … When Mr. Bush was governor of Texas, Mr. Hicks was president of the University of Texas Investment Management Company, called Utimco, and Clear Channel ‘s chair, Lowry Mays, was on its board. Under Mr. Hicks, Utimco placed a lot of the university ‘s endowment under the management of companies with potent Republican Party or Bush family ties. In 1998 Mr. Hicks purchased the Texas Rangers in a deal that made Mr. Bush a multimillionaire. ” [ 7 ], “ In addition, Hicks steered a controversial schema to use the University of Texas ‘ $ 13 billion endowment for private investing. Among the beneficiaries were the Carlyle Group, the arms investment firm tied to both George Bush Snr and the bin Laden family, and George W Bush ‘s controversial Harken Oil drill stick out in Bahrain. ” [ 8 ]

political contributions

Data released by the Center for Responsive Politics in early 2004 revealed that clear Channel executives donated $ 42,200 to Bush compared to $ 1,750 to Democrat Presidential candidate John Kerry. Clear Channel ‘s political carry through committee contributed 77 % of their $ 334,501 in federal contributions to Republicans. [ 9 ] In the 2006 election cycle, net Channel gave $ 492,250 to federal candidates through its political action committee – 40 % to Democrats and 60 % to Republicans. [ 2 ]

According to The Hill, in late 2004 clear Channel hired Brownstein Hyatt & Farber personal computer to lobby on “ competition in the broadcast diligence, media ownership and Federal Communications Commission supervision. ” Lobbyists working on the bill included Thomas Hudson, “ who served two years as chief of staff to Sen. John Breaux ( D-La. ). ” [ 10 ] In 2006 clear Channel spent $ 2,520,000 for lobbying. $ 700,000 went to four lobby firms with the remainder being spent using in-house lobbyists. [ 3 ]

Astroturf Pirate Radio

In 2005, to promote the format switch of a clear Channel post in Akron, Ohio from “ sports talk to progressive lecture, ” net Channel launched “ Radio Free Ohio ” in a guerrilla selling campaign. The New York Times wrote, “ To the average hearer, Radio Free Ohio has all the earmarks of commandeer radio. For weeks, it sounded as if amateurs had been bleeding their voices into the broadcasts of stations in Akron, Ohio, owned by well-defined Channel, the corporate radio giant. At the Web site www.radiofreeohio.com, there was a manifesto about “ corporate-controlled music playlists ” that took potshots at several local Clear Channel stations. ” [ 11 ] “ Radio Free Ohio ” was outed by in truth freelancer Ohio radio station WOXY, after a contributor to their on-line message display panel “ learn [ ed ] that the [ Radio Free Ohio ] site is registered to Clear Channel, presumably as a promotion for an approaching format switch at one of their Akron-area stations. ” [ 12 ] The Stay Free magazine web log then picked up the story, running excerpts of the “ Radio Free Ohio ” web site, which was taken down on May 26, 2005. Stay Free editor Carrie McLaren wrote, “ I supposed this is n’t all that surprising coming from the company that pioneered the artwork of making generic, nationally produced newscasts sound as if they ‘re local. … I think of all this as good newsworthiness : clearly Channel is so desperate to defend its turf that it ‘ll even try joining the refrain of critics. ” [ 13 ] acquit Channel subsequently admitted they were behind “ Radio Free Ohio. ” “ Once we determined we were going to change the format, we tried to get into the mentality of people who would listen to this new station, ” said the company ‘s Akron frailty president and market coach, Dan Lankford. “ clear Channel, as I see it, is dedicated to entertaining radio receiver and to getting results for our advertisers, ” he said. [ 14 ]

“ clear Channel Communications Inc. radio receiver stations in Madison, Wis., and Milwaukee ” are naming their newsrooms after corporate sponsors. “ Starting in January, the news on WIBA-AM in Madison will deliver its report from the Amcore Bank News Center. … About two years ago, WISN-AM in Milwaukee introduced listeners to its newscast from the PyraMax Bank News Center. ” The sponsorships are not exclusive and “ will not impose strictures on the broadcasts. ” [ 15 ] But a journalism ethics expert at the Poynter Institute said such arrangements create “ the sensing that the newsroom is for sale to the highest bidder. ” The Social of Professional Journalists ‘ president of the united states asked, “ How can you not wonder if a narrative about Amcore is told vitamin a doggedly as a floor about another trust might be ? ” The banks ‘ news sponsorships come a year after revelations that 280 fiscal institutions used subsidiaries in early states to avoid paying Wisconsin department of state taxes. [ 16 ] [ 17 ]

spin on Wikipedia

On February 5, 2007, a calculator at clear Channel Communications added a section on Senate candidate Al Franken ‘s Wikipedia page to suggest that he plagiarized some of his write. The edit was made anonymously but was picked up by the WikiScanner instrument. [ 4 ]

Executives

With 2006 pay :

[ 8 ]

Executives

Accessed August 2012 : [ 9 ]

Clear Channel
200 Basse Road
San Antonio, TX 78209
earphone : 1-210-822-2828
URL : hypertext transfer protocol : //www.clearchannel.com

Resources and articles

relate Sourcewatch

  • Mark Mays steps down as President and CEO of Clear Channel Communications in 2010
  • Stevie Spring
  • Terry Buckley

References

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