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Underground > Radio & Music >

Clear Channel speaks out (or: I want to be an imaging director when I grow up)

  
 
Matthew Fluxington
14:34 / 10.07.02
from I Love Music:

This letter was sent to Entertainment Weekly in response to a piece on satellite radio:

Satellite radio is not the answer to good radio, much like cable TV is not the answer to good TV. Both just give you more choices of crap.

Radio is categorized, and it ought to be. Only a slim number of people would like to hear Ja Rule, Rusted Root, Barry Manilow, and Dwight Yoakam on the same radio station. If you are actually looking for a station that will play Norah Jones, B-Tribe, Ned Otter, etc., then look for your closest college ratio station. Give them a good listen. I guarantee you that after 30 seconds of pure hell, you will switch back to a Clear Channel Radio station because we play the hits.

Steve Smith
Production Director/Imaging Director, Clear Channel
Steven.Smith@ClearChannel.com
Lebanon, N.H.

The fucking gall of this man!

What say you, Barbefolk?
 
 
videodrome
14:51 / 10.07.02
My reply to Steven Smith at Clear Channel:

Thanks for the letter to Entertainment Weekly, Mr. Smith. It points out the main fallacy of Satellite Radio eloquently, while ignoring the similarities to your own Clear Channel enterprises. I'm fortunate to have several Clear Channel stations in the Boston area from which to choose, each of which points me to the same place - 90.3's WZBC, where I can hear hours and hours of what you quite ignorantly call "pure hell". Hopefully your letter will make a few people realize that there is an alternative to the insipid programming offered by every Clear Channel station.
 
 
illmatic
17:43 / 10.07.02
Not really familar with Clear Channel being a brit. There's been plenty of good diverse radio over on this side of the pond, a lot of it starting off illegaly probably as a reaction to the godafwul tripe playing on mainstream radio at the time1 at the time.
I remember London pirate radio from the late 80's - early 90's
with Kiss FM in paticular being absolutely shit hot (unlike now) turning me on to loadsa cool funk, jazz, hip hop and reggae. A lot of the DJ's have now made the jump into legal radio - Tim Westwood and Gilles Peterson being two that spring to mind - don't know if that means anything to you over there.
A lot of pirate radio in London now seems a bit too jungalsitic fantastic for my taste - but maybe i'm just an old git.
 
 
The Natural Way
08:56 / 11.07.02
I know: it's so fucking sad what's happened to Kiss.
 
 
tSuibhne
13:15 / 11.07.02
Sounds like a really bad PR move to counter act the recent anti-trust cases brought against Clear Channel. My guess is that someone got a call from Marketing the day after this went live.

Off hand, can we verify that this did in fact run in Entertainment Weekly? And isn't just some prank? Hard to beleave someone is really this fucking dumb in a communications company.
 
 
grant
13:16 / 11.07.02
From www.ew.com

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Q: How do I contact the editors? Return To Top
A: You can reach our editors via email at letters@ew.com or via mail at Entertainment Weekly, 1675 Broadway, New York, NY 10019. Correspondence should include the writer's full name, address, and home telephone, and may be edited for purposes of clarity or space.

And yes, a Lexis search turns up the letter in question *verbatim* and *in toto*. Odd that he would include his own email address....
 
 
grant
13:27 / 11.07.02
cc'ed to ew.com and stevensmith@clearchannel:

Dear editors,

Upon reading the letter from Imaging Director Steven Smith to Entertainment Weekly, dated 12 July 2002, I noticed a slight error.

To Mr. Smith's assertion, "you will switch back to a Clear Channel Radio station because we play the hits," I would like to point out that he misplaced the "s" in the final word.


Yours sincerely,
Grant A. Balfour, former radio listener
.....
.......
.....
 
 
Margin Walker
21:20 / 11.07.02
The "A." in question does most assuredly stand for "Ass Whupper", for lo, whuppin' ass is grant's middle name. Verily, I salute yew, Mistah Grant.

(flashes "la Mano Cornuda")
 
 
grant
15:38 / 14.07.02
Laugh it off, Imaging Director.


From: "Smith, Steven F"
To: "'grant b, sun reporter '"

Subject: RE: Satellite radio, ClearChannel, and America's musical appetite s

Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 19:40:48 -0500





hahaha, thanks yo. Kinda mis typed that. Sorry
dude.



I'm wondering if he genuinely doesn't get it, or if he just doesn't get it from a larger perspective.
 
 
Our Lady of The Two Towers
15:52 / 14.07.02
What IS Clear Channel? Is it just a particular broadcasting company a la the BBC? What kind of stuff do they play? Audio MTV?
 
 
Yagg
00:50 / 15.07.02
Crap. I wrote a long, very nice post, and then managed to be clumsy and make it go away. So I'll try to rephrase it all:

Deregulation in radio in the U.S. has allowed about 20 or so large companies to buy up nearly every radio station in the country. Clear Channel is the largest, and the one who gets blamed for everything. Don't get my wrong, I'm not an apologist for them, but I've been in radio for ten years now and I'm trying to find my way out, because they're pretty much all bastards. Doesn't matter which company you work for. With stockholders involved, the bottom line is everything. EVERYTHING. They're getting tighter-assed and more boring all the time. I work at a rock station and I have to wear a UNIFORM when I do a live broadcast or appearance somewhere. Rock and roll should NOT wear a uniform. But the uniform is to impress the clients. and the clients pay the money to keep the books in the black and make the stockholders happy. I can see the logic, but I hate it. There are a small minority in radio who have nice houses. The rest of us are barely able to pay the rent on our crappy apartments. But enough about my life...

This bozo imaging director is a real winner. First of all, "imaging director" isn't a fancy title. It's merely the name given to the person at a radio station or group of stations who is in charge of the on-air promos and such, everything you hear that isn't music or jocks or commercials. That's called "imaging." Basically, a specialized audio engineer. For this knob to speak for the company is like the guy dropping fries into grease claiming to speak for McDonalds. Wow. That analogy is so accurate it depresses me.

As for diversity in radio: It'll be interesting to see what satellite radio does. Maybe it's vast range of music will open doors and people will demand that "conventional" radio also branch out. I doubt it, though. The reason radio formats are as they are today is because the WORK. They make money. Barbelithers are the exception, but most people out there tuning in on a day to day basis want something familiar, be it Howard Stern or Britney Spears or Garth fucking Brooks. Sad, but true. Except in certain cities, wide variety will get you low ratings, translating to low revenue, and finally a pink slip. In the 90s we had the giant explosion of "alternative" stations. They could play anything from Sarah McLachlan to the Smashing Pumpkins to Korn. It was great while it lasted. But now most of them have gone "adult alternative," and play Dave Matthews and Ryan Adams and Norah Jones, or they're "active rock" and they play Limp Bizkit, Tool, and Mudvayne. Why? Because they're more successful now that they're more specialized.

I hope the satellite radio companies bring about some change. Hell, I'm thinking of going to work for them. Maybe they actually give raises to their employees.

Also, you may note that Clear Channel is either trying to buy (satellite) XM or already has. They're playing both sides. One horse has to win, after all, so why not bet on both?
 
 
tSuibhne
12:59 / 15.07.02
The situation with Clear Channel, as far as I understand, is a bit more then that. At least since they bought... shit, I can't remember the name of the old company now.

Basically, a few years ago, some people decided to go on a buying spree. In the end they bought up a large percentage of the midrange concert promoters in the country. I know Cellar Door and Bill Graham Presents were two of the companies. Their market share is now such that a few years ago, I know, they made more money then the next four promotors combined. In the end, this company was bought by Clear Channel, one of the biggest radio companies in the country.

The main complaints against them are that they're using this unique position of thiers to bully artists. Obviously no one has gone public, so take this as you will. The most damning complaint I've heard is that they tell artists, 'if you don't play our venues, then our stations won't play your songs' Again, since no one has come forward, this probably should be taken with some amount of salt. But, when you get down to it. How many other radio companies or concert promoters are being investigated for anti-trust violations?

Oh, and people didn't really start bitching about Clear Channel, untill they bought the promoter, who's name I can't remember. On the other hand, people have been bitching about the promoter since they started buying up smaller promoters.
 
 
tSuibhne
15:27 / 15.07.02
Interview with Clear Channel's company head here.

from the article

The Texas family that runs Clear Channel Communications Inc. has taken the music industry by storm, transforming itself into the dominant force in radio and live entertainment through a series of multibillion-dollar deals that pulled together 1,200 radio stations and more than 100 concert venues.
But just two years after the station-buying frenzy pushed Clear Channel's stock price to nearly $100 a share, the Mays family is taking fire from the record industry and Congress for engineering an unprecedented consolidation and allegedly abusing its power to extract money from music labels. Amid the controversy and a weak stock market, company shares have plummeted about 30% since the beginning of the year, closing Friday at $33.65 on the New York Stock Exchange.
 
 
Yagg
01:39 / 16.07.02
Well, again, I don't want to sound like an apologist, but since they bought us, I get to see this from the inside. I think it's really kinda funny how CC is the Big Bad Wolf of broadcasting. So far we keep getting screwed by local promoters, instead of the reverse.

I'm sure they WISH they could create some huge monopoly but it isn't working. The fact is that CC Promotions and CC Radio don't seem to get along. We've had to BUY tickets from them for shows that they promote. Think about that: We're supposed to be parts of the same company, but we still have to buy tickets from them? They can't just give us some? And they promote shows with our competition all the time. Their job is still to make money by getting people to buy tickets, and they have a lot of autonomy. CC Radio is sometimes left out in the cold by the other arm of their own company. Ah, the irony.

The whole idea of "we'll stop playing your songs if you don't play ball" again sounds good in theory, but it doesn't work so well in practice. The artist's management or the record label can very simply go to your competition if you do that. They can go to another promoter. Or they can just say "fuck you, we're not playing your town, we'll add a tour date elsewhere." Then you lose the "juice" from being part of the show and having tickets to give away, etc. Not to mention looking like the baddie. Meanwhile, the artist still plays, still makes the money, and doesn't bother calling you the next time they're on the road.

As for "extracting money from record companies..." Cripes, the record labels' hypocrisy knows no bounds. Payola killed Allan Freed, but it never died. The labels can't pay a person to play a record, but they can give a station "promotional considerations." In other words, if you want, say, 100 T-shirts to give away, and they cost $700 to make, you add a few bad records that nobody wants to play, and the record company buys your T-shirts for you. It's been this way forever, and everyone does it. It's legal. Suddenly, now that the record biz is taking a dive, they want to blame big bad radio for taking the money they've been freely giving all this time.

See why I need a career change?

There are those in radio who have been predicting ever since the consolidation began that it would sooner or later have to swing the other way. Here's hoping it's sooner.
 
 
Margin Walker
07:26 / 24.07.02
From The 101 Dumbest Moments In Business History:

"22. Sept. 11 Inc., Clueless as to the Content of Our Content Division: In the wake of the terrorist attacks, employees of radio conglomerate Clear Channel (CCU) begin circulating a list of songs inappropriate for airplay. Among the songs is "Imagine," John Lennon's stirring plea for world peace, which is later performed by Neil Young during the "America: A Tribute to Heroes" fund-raiser for victims of the attacks. Clear Channel's management denies issuing or endorsing the list."
 
 
Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo
04:01 / 25.01.06
I have had Satellite radio for the last year or so, and I would never consider going back for any reason. I swore off music based radio a long time ago when it became flooded with commercials and lost any connection at all to the music being played.

It's not just the diversity of music that keeps me on my Sirius radio: It's the fact that the music has no commercials at all, the DJs have personalities and talk about the MUSIC and try to stretch what the listener hears while still keeping with the genre of the station.

With this and podcasts, I have gotten excited about radio in a way I haven't been for years. I am not just liking what I listen to, but it is entertaining me to the point where I WANT to listen instead of just listening because I didn't bring a decend CD with me in my car to listen to. I honestly believe that broadcast radio in the US is about to undergo a HUGE change, much like AM radio did in the 70's and 80's as the audience abandons it, and they have to fill their time with cheap talk shows and infomercials.
 
  
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