Clear Channel killed the Radio Star

What’s on the radio,
propoganda, mind control
And turnin it on is like
puttin on a blindfold
Turn off the radio!
Turn off that bullshit!
Turn off the radio! Turn off that bullshit!
Dead Prez,
Turn Off the Radio

As Tony Blair instigates deregulation of the UK radio market, corporates are preparing to take over. The most notorious, and most likely to succeed in the UK market, is US conglomerate Clear Channel. But the most informative website on the corporation - the long running, obviously anti ‘Clear Channel Sucks’ - has mysteriously disappeared from the net. Corporate Watch takes up the challenge. Just what will you be listening to? By Jonathan Atkinson

Background
Clear Channel Entertainment already have over 1,000,000,000 listeners worldwide - that’s a sixth of the world’s population. In the US, they have an audience of 103,000,000. Clear Channel US (aka SFX, one of their more well-known subsidiaries) owns and operates over 200 venues across the country. They are in 248 of the top 250 radio markets, controlling 60% of all rock programming. They outright own the tours of musicians like Janet Jackson, Aerosmith, Pearl Jam, Madonna and N’Sync. They own the network which airs Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, Casey Kasem, and the Fox Sports Radio Network, and which used to air Howard Stern.

Big mouth strikes again
Few Corporate Watch readers will have shed a tear at the news that infamous conservative radio DJ Howard Stern had been sacked. In the USA Stern was a hero to the right. He used his weekly radio phone in show to air his outspoken views on Clear Channel-owned radio stations across the country. He made it cool to be Republican, expressing politically right-wing, libertarian views on taxes, the economy and foreign policy while being culturally liberal in terms of sexual content and music choice. But on February 26th 2004 the company pulled the plug on Stern and his show.

The official explanation from Clear Channel was that Stern had allowed indecent material to be broadcast on his show. However, Stern’s notoriety stems from his risqué content, so to sack him on such grounds seems peculiar. Stern himself had another explanation. ‘There’s a real good argument to be made that I stopped backing Bush and that’s when I got kicked off Clear Channel,’ he said. Although traditionally conservative, in recent months Stern remarked Bush didn’t know what he was doing in Iraq. He made references to Al Gore winning the 2000 election and Bush’s draft dodging past while generally questioning Bush’s character. Stern dubbed Clear Channel ‘Fear Channel,’ and warned that the ‘fascist right-wing’ is ‘getting so much power.’1

So just what kind of a company is Clear Channel and what is behind its ‘moral crusade’ to eliminate indecency?

Clear Channel
Clear Channel is relatively new to the UK. You may not have heard the name but take a look at the average billboard and there’s a good chance their logo will be neatly displayed below. They currently have around 11,000 advertising sites countrywide. They have an entertainment branch promoting gigs and West End shows around the country.2 And they also own theatres, including the Oxford Apollo.

It is in the United States that the Clear Channel ranks as one of the country’s biggest media outlets. It is the number one radio station owner in the US with 10% of the stations and 25% of the audience, with advertising revenue coming in at a cool $16 billion in 2001. The company owns or manages 39 US TV stations, has over half a million billboards and its concerts, touring shows, and sports events are attended by 66 million people annually.3 For the average middle American the company’s domination of the mental environment is staggering. On the drive home they will pass the company’s billboards while listening to a Clear Channel syndicated (probably right-wing) talk show on the car stereo. They’ll then eat dinner in front of a Clear Channel TV station before taking in a Clear Channel promoted Broadway show.

Clear Channel and Bush
The Stern incident part of a bigger picture that links the agenda of the Bush White House with increasing domination of the mainstream media by corporations. Clear Channel’s close links to Bush and the Republicans reveal a strong company ethos. A quick scan at the OpenSecrets.org political donations website shows Clear Channel were the top contributor of TV and radio stations in the 2004 cycle, donating around a quarter of a million dollars to Republican causes.4 It’s no coincidence that Clear Channel executives Tom Hicks and L. Lowry Mays have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Bush’s presidential campaign coffers.

Hicks, formerly of Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, has had a number of past business dealings with Bush and his 1998 buyout of the Texas Rangers football team helped Bush make his fortune. Hicks had in turn profited financially as a result of Bush’s decisions while governor of Texas.5

Pro-War agenda
Clear Channel is an enthusiastic supporter of military action. In 2002, it gave $420,000 to the United Service Organizations ‘in recognition of the sacrifices made by the men and women in the armed forces’.6Last year, as anti-war feelings ran high, radio talk show host DJ Glenn Beck instigated a series of pro-war marches under the banner of ‘Rally for America’.* Though small in comparison to anti-war demonstrations the rallies drew plenty of press headlines with their chest beating patriotism and fierce support of the troops. Beck, naturally enough, is employed by Clear Channel Communications and the rallies were promoted and in part funded by the company and its nationwide network of radio stations.

Turn off the radio! Turn off that bullshit!
The pro-war agenda even extended to music playlist policy. After September 11th 2001 Clear Channel issued a list of 150 songs to its member stations that it deemed too sensitive to play. The list included an odd mix of songs from the tunes of political rock group Rage Against the Machine to Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water and John Lennon’s Imagine. To many it seemed an excuse to shift towards more jingoistic reactionary content. One month later, the Clear Channel-owned radio station KMEL in San Francisco fired its director, David ‘Davey D’ Cook, shortly after his show aired the anti-war views of Congress member Barbara Lee and rapper Boots Riley of the Coup. The station claimed it did so for financial reasons.

When the Dixie Chicks suggested on a London stage in 2003 that they might be ashamed the president of the United States was from Texas it triggered a backlash in the States. Clear Channel were at the forefront and fired two DJs at country radio station KKCS who dared to break the ban. 7

Clear Channel Clear Up
In February of this year, Clear Channel sought to tighten its grip on output and shift its content to the right when it announced what can only be described as a moral crusade. It vowed to ‘fight the rising tide of indecency on the airwaves’ and adopt what Chief operating officer Mark Mays described as a ‘zero tolerance’ policy for ‘indecent’ content.
DJs now face suspension or dismissal for broadcast of ‘obscene material’ and if that doesn’t scare them enough they now have clauses written into their contracts making them financially liable for any repercussions from such material. Howard Stern was the first official victim of that policy.

MegaMediaConglomeration
The shift in content coincides with a gradual conglomeration of the broadcasting industry. The 1996 Telecommunications Act enabled Clear Channel to go from owning 36 radio stations (four less than the former legal limit) to becoming the largest radio station owner in the United States. Now it owns more than 1,200 radio stations, and there are 30 percent fewer station owners than there were before 1996. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission), the telecommunicationsregulator whose chairman is Michael Powell (son of Colin Powell) have instigated a bill further relaxing media ownership regulations.7 Again the Bush Administration has come good for the corporate media and Clear Channel seem set to profit handsomely.7

What is to come...
So Stern departs while others remain - such as fellow Clear Channel disc jockey Bill Handel who aired a skit in which make-believe Muslims made remarks suggesting Muslims engage in sex with animals and are obsessed with killing Jews.

And over here...
In the UK, Clear Channel stand ready to take over. Already they’ve been linked to takeovers at Classic FM and Capital Radio as well as other names like Century and BRMB.8 Fears are also that Clear Channel are set to acquire hundreds of local independent radio stations across the country, making them anything but.

The crusade has begun and its heading our way. Welcome to a world where the music you listen to, the views you here and even the wars you fight are brought to you courtesy of Clear Channel Communications.

* Beck achieved the remarkable feet of showing that marches can actually be effective in influencing politicians - something a million anti-war marchers in the UK aren’t privileged enough to be able to boast.

1. Buzzflash.com, As the Worm Turns: Stern, Sully and the Bush Backlash, http://www.buzzflash.com/farrell/04/03/far04006.html, March 2, 2004
2. Clear Channel UK website, http://www.clearchannel.co.uk/, viewed 19.3.04
3. Clear Channel website http://www.clearchannel.com, viewed 19.3.04
4. Open Secrets, Top Contributors, Republican Party (2004 election cycle)
http://www.opensecrets.org/parties/contrib.asp?Cmte=RPC
5. One Thing is Crystal Clear: Clear Channel is a Subsidiary of Bush, Inchttp://www.buzzflash.com/analysis/03/04/18_clear.html, April 18, 2003
6. The USO Receives Donation from Clear Channel Worldwide, http://www.uso.org/pubs/prarchives/PF_17_517_1905.cfm
7. Buzzflash.com, April 18, 2003,One Thing is Crystal Clear: Clear Channel is a Subsidiary of Bush, Inc, http://www.buzzflash.com/analysis/03/04/18_clear.html
8. BBC News website, Q&A: US media changes and the UK, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2957534.stm, Monday, 2 June, 2003