Here's how it starts:
"Take a tour around downtown Minneapolis,and at various points you're going to come across something related to Clear Channel Communications. Flip on your car radio, and you'll probably tune in one of seven radio stations it owns. That billboard on Third Street and Park Avenue by the Metrodome? That's owned by Clear Channel, along with most of the other billboards scattered around the metro. The Metrodome itself is home to the Minnesota Vikings, whose radio broadcasts are heard on two of the company's stations in town. And the team is owned by Red McCombs, a Clear Channel co-founder."
more at the link
What do I think of CC? Hey they are big. They own lots of stuff. Probably way more than you think. They run some things better than others. They are not full of evil people. They are not part of a vast conspiracy.
A few years ago CC was the popular whipping boy of lots of folks. They are no where as bad as many said and in the last few years I think they have been a better corporate citizen, maybe because of the criticism.
To me they are a big company with some honest hard working employees in the mix.
This article repeats the often told story of the CC list of songs sent out to stations after 9-11. This was not a do not play list, but a list of songs that somebody at a CC station thought should be looked at and thought about before they were put on the air. That's a good idea. I would guess (and hope) that on that day and for a time after it was important to think about what to say and what to play. remember that is exactly what that list of songs was. Something to think about.
"Another One Bites The Dust" probably not a good song to play. You get the idea.
Do they syndicate right wing talk hosts? Yep. Why? They're popular. If they weren't they wouldn't. If Spanish language stations were popular they'd do that. And they do. KSJO locally and more around the country.
Friends of Bush? Sure. And before that they were friends of Clinton.
Stern's complaints? Part of the act for Howard. CC stations decided not to carry his show. Because they are buddies of Bush and are out to destroy him? Now Howard that IS funny! As Monty Python once said "Help Help I'm Being Repressed!" At the time Howard was dropped he was being fined for language used on his show. Some stations dropped him. Big deal. CC has also had their problems with FCC fines and taken employees off the air.
Do they cut staff at radio stations to save money? Yep. everyone does. Why? Because with technology you can. A radio station on air staff meeting used to take up a whole conference room. Now it can be done at a table for 4. There are definitely alot fewer people working at radio stations now than when I started.
I must mention that it is kinda cool that some stations have live board operators to baby sit the station all night long. However when they let the "board op" talk in the middle of the night but don't bump up their pay to an on air dj salary, that is jacked up.
Am I defending CC? Sure on some things but not all. They own a shitload of stuff. Even motorcycle parts distributor Parts Unlimited are owned by them. Here's just the radio stations. But they have been really hit with some unfair and inaccurate criticism. I do think they have improved their response to local issues around the country. Adding Air America and even flipping KSJO to spanish is an example of that. I also know that there are some really good people at CC stations around the country who work very hard to do good radio.
They are a big target (really) and deserve to take their hits, but sometimes what people say about them is just silly.
Oh and they don't own KFOG. We're owned by a company that makes dishes and owns radio stations.
You see it all started in the early years of the 19th century when young Johann George Pfaltzgraff left his native Germany to settle in the rolling hills of York, Pennsylvania. Trained in the pottery trade, Johann George not only produced utilitarian earthenware vessels for neighboring farmers and shopkeepers, he also produced a family of potters that has become an American legend.
As the years passed, successive generations of Pfaltzgraffs helped to make the company grow, and each generation left its mark on the family business and on the ceramics industry in America. With nearly 200 hundred years of experience in manufacturing ceramic products, The Pfaltzgraff Co. has truly become "America's Potter."
My employee perk? The quarterly catalog where I get killer deals on gravy boats.
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