Salon.com Arts & Entertainment (original) (raw)

Radio's big bully
A complete guide to Salon's reporting on Clear Channel, the most powerful -- and some would say pernicious -- force in the music industry.

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For the past few months, Salon reporter Eric Boehlert has been tracking the story of Clear Channel Communications, the little-noticed media giant that has quietly taken over the country's radio and concert industries.

The company owns nearly 1,200 radio stations and effectively controls the rock radio market. It also owns SFX Entertainment, the nation's dominant concert-venue owner and touring promoter.

In the stories below, Boehlert has detailed the corporation's evolution under the aegis of Randy Michaels, the one-time shock jock who has turned the industry upside down with rampant cost-cutting and a good-ol'-boy approach to management.

And in "Pay for Play" Boehlert details the new payola -- the complex arrangements under which the world's major record companies pay for virtually every rock song broadcast on commercial radio.

Finally, there is a link to the Clear Channel Web site, on which you can easily find the stations the company operates in your town.

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Pay for play
Why does radio suck? Because most stations play only the songs the record companies pay them to. And things are going to get worse
By Eric Boehlert

Fighting pay-for-play
Sources in the music industry call for a federal clampdown on the new payola
By Eric Boehlert

Radio's big bully
Dirty tricks and crappy programming: Welcome to the world of Clear Channel, the biggest station owner in America
By Eric Boehlert

Tough company
Clear Channel is as big as NBC or Gannett. Chances are it owns a half-dozen radio stations in your town. And it's fighting employee suits alleging everything from broken contracts to sexual harassment.
By Eric Boehlert

The "Bootylicious" gambit
Can a hot new single from Destiny's Child help Columbia Records crack the indie promoters' control of pop radio?
By Eric Boehlert

The Clear Channel Web site
Here you can read about the company's radio holdings and search the site to find the stations it owns in your metropolitan area.