SUCKS
There is no denying that CLEAR CHANNEL is a MONOPOLY in the US. In places such as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, CC has amazed 80% of the share of live events, billboard advertising and commercial radio. Given all of this power, not only are politians in this city willing to allow CC to get away with unlawful business practices but the police protect them. It is Chicago's Al Capone and South Philly Mafia revisited again but this time using white collar costumes.
Let's consider some cases over the years and you can make you own judgement.
1) From an interview with the Philadelphia Weekly, Sean Agnew (Do-it-yourself production companies have gotten creative with gigs and have brought top indie bands to play in some unusual spaces. Sean Agnew's R5 Productions, for example, operates mostly out of the basement of the First Unitarian Church at 22nd and Chestnut Streets. It might look bleak and smell funky, but when legends like the Arcade Fire or Ted Leo and the Pharmacists play 10 feet away at all-age shows, the hipsters tend not to complain. The Church, which has hosted bands since 1996, offers cheap shows almost every night, catering to all musical interests. Noise, hip-hop, pop and avant-garde bands have all shared the venue and have kept the music scene alive and thriving) was asked if there had been any problems/conflicts between his shows and the First Unitarian Church and the City of Philadelphia:
"The city shut down the church in 2002, it's a real long story, but the short version is as follows: The city raided a show, found nothing illegal or against building codes or regulations. They cited the church for a very shaky and questionable 'zoning' law that basically said that the church was not allowed to host events for the general public (obviously that goes against everything a church is supposed to be). After two months the city overturned the ruling and allowed us to go back to doing shows there. Since than we have yet to have any problems from the city. "
(check out the rest of the interview here.
2) From a Harper's magazine article: "On July 17, 2002, as a band called The Boils was preparing to play, seven men with badges, police officers and agents of Philadelphia's Department of Licenses and Inspections, walked into the basement of the First Unitarian Church at Chestnut and Van Pelt. Nobody knows who tipped them off, but it was clear that someone wanted the Church, as the club in the basement was called, shut down. The show's promoter, Sean Agnew, had been booking acts there for six years, but before the night when the inspectors appeared his shows had not warranted a single official complaint....The Department of Licenses and Inspections does not keep records of complaints. All the deputy commissioner could tell Agnew was that someone had gone down to City Hall, pulled the Church's permit, and discovered that the Church was not zoned to hold gatherings for entertainment purposes. No bingo, no swing dancing, and definitely no Boils. The inspectors gave Agnew a red-and-white-striped "Cease Work/ Operations" sticker to "affix to the Church's door and declared the concert over."
Read the whole article here
Now, I have been doing promotion in the city of Philadelphia for 10 years and my acts are mostly little bands that want to come over and play for Students at Penn or Drexel or Temple or whomever. Over and over, the person whom I've turned to for help has been Sean Agnew who, selfelessly, has pointed me in the right direction of whereto try to put shows etc.
Now, there's a big problem in Philadelphia because of Clear Channel. Read another excerpt from the Harper's piece:
"Clear Channel controls almost every concert venue in and around Philadelphia--from the Theater of the Living Arts on South Street to the Tweeter Center in Camden--as well as six radio stations and nearly 700 billboards. The company's local viceroy, a man named Larry Magid, once ran the city's live-music scene as a private fiefdom. Now, since Clear Channel bought him out in 2000, he manages it as a corporate franchise. Clear Channel maintains a similar chokehold on live music in almost every major city in America, as well as in most of the small ones. Agnew, who had managed to book bands that could have made far more money playing Clear Channel theaters, suspected that he was grit in the machine."
and...
"Some people complain about Clear Channel because they miss their old, independent stations, some because Clear Channel stations shrink playlists and recycle an ever smaller number of songs. Musicians say touring has become a cross-country hopscotch from one Clear Channel venue to another, each more sterile than the last; their agents and managers say that if artists don't play when and where Clear Channel says, they will suffer less airplay or none. As journalists point out, Clear Channel has made commercial radio nearly reporting-free, believing that its syndication of Rush Limbaugh to as many stations as possible fulfills its mandate to provide news and political diversity. Clear Channel has put hundreds of radio veterans out of work, replacing them with canned broadcasts tailored to sound local and live. Consumer advocates argue that such robot radio is the only efficiency Clear Channel has passed along to the public. In the last several years, they point out, the cost of "free" radio--in terms of time spent enduring ads--has spiked. Concert tickets have jumped from an average of $25 to more than $40, and radio advertising rates have risen by two thirds, pricing small businesses off the airwaves."
So, this brings me to my point:
In Philadelphia, Clear Channel owns and operates the following 5 FM radio stations: WDAS 105.3FM/HD, Q102.1 FM/HD, WJJZ 106.1FM/HD, Power 99: 98.9FM/HD and Radio 104.5FM/HD.
In comparison, Radio One entreprises has 3 stations in philadelphia: WPHI 100.3FM, WPZZ 103.0FM and WRNB 107.9FM (which only play gospel, rnb and soul music)
and
Infinity Broadcasting has 2 FM stations (WOGL 98.1FM and WYSP 94.1FM) and 3 AM stations (KYW 1060AM, WIP 610AM and WPHT-1210AM).
So, in a nutshell, Clear Channel has 50% of the commercial radio listening market in Philadelphia. Public stations like WXPN 88.5FM, WHYY 90.9FM, WTRI 90.1FM and college stations like WKDU 91.7FM and WPRD 103.3FM are the only 5 quality stations available in the dial for anyone living within the city limits of this "city of brotherly love" who don't want to listen to commercials on their radio.
Apparently this is being cloned in every metropolitan area in the country. CC Radio comes in, buys up stations, change the formats and manage the station remotely and pours as much money in ads and concerts as it's possible. Hey, no biggie, that's capitalism for you right?
WRONG? Because what CC has been doing is known to many as monopoly and this is the proof:
March 22nd, 2010: An announcement was made today that Passion Pit is playing the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia on June 25th. Sadly the band has decided to ditch all other radio outlets in this town who have supported them from Day 1, and instead chose Radio 104.5 only to present the show (who never played them with any regularity). You know what this means: no access to the venue for any other radio stations. (from an anonymous source).
Radio 104.5FM IS a Clear Channel Communications radio station.
Also there's this little other morsel came through the email waves:
April 20th, 2010: Silversun Pickups & Against Me! are touring together this summer, and the Philly date is doubling as Radio 104.5's summer festival...with Metric added to the bill for good measure.
For those of you who don't know or are not familiar with what these notices mean, simply is this: a well-known band comes to a city and plays for a huge audience. Well-known band decides that, in order to get the most exposre and (and the most money) they need to sign a contract with the biggest player in that city and make their show a "radio so and so presents-only" show. This means in turn that all other radio outlets that play the music of this band (and have been for a long time alledgedly) are shut out of the concert venue. This has happened in the past with the likes of WMMR 93.3FM and WYSP 94.1FM but not to the extend that Radio 104.5FM is doing it now.
For example, WMMR has a WMMRBQ on May 23rd with Stone Temple Pilots and others and the Vans Warped Tour is usually open to any radio station that wants to come in and sell their wares.
What this informes us, the radio listening public, is that radio stations continue to practice the fossilized tactic of monopolizing bands for their own gain (sort of like PAYOLA in the 70's, remember?). Just like CC monopolizes the airwaves, uses dated tactics and false allegations and arrogantly shows us that they have the most money and they can buy whomever they want,. These radio stations don't care about the bands they play and don't care about their audiences: all they care about is how much money and how many shares of audience in Philadelphia they can get and they will do anything (legal or not) to obtain that.
My personal struggle with Clear Channel started with the second Iraq War. Stations like Q102 locally started having a "Support Your Troops" rallies all across the region: a masked event created just to generate support for then unelected President Bush's illegal and insane war in Iraq. Whether you are Republican or Democrat, nowadays you know how wrong it was to get into that country and try to start it anew. It was a mistake that cost the US it's economy, it's moral compass and it's standing around the world (plus countless young American lives who didn't have to die - thanks for "standing up for the troops" Clear Channel). I would hear Q102's Liza's Noon Workout show and throw up at the imbecilities she would say about "how we have to support our troops and support our president, etc, etc" This was before we even went in to invade that country. Long story short, I hated Q102 and continue to do so.
Then Comcast. In Philadelphia you can't get FIOS or any other cable provider for you cable channel needs. Unless you put a satellite dish in your window, you have to go to Comcast. Another monopoly. Monopolydelphia is what this city should be called. It's so stupid and so anti-Capitalism is not even funny.
Anyway, if you want to read more about the crap that goes on in Philadelphia music scene, just ask. Read the Harper's magazine article about R5 productions. And if you find that what I am telling you is true, then do something to make life in Philadelphia less monopoly based. Clear Channel, like the old MaBells and like Microsoft before it, is going to die. I hope is sooner than later, cause time is running out on this motherfuckers.
More shit you can read:
Clear Channel's Monster.
I love this one: from actual Clear Channel dj's who got fired (at least these guys were honest):
and finally this video in mute. You don't have to hear what they are saying.
I have personally boycotted Clear Channel venues, events, radio stations, products advertised on their billboards, and everything related to it. The more we do as a people, the better radio and the music industry will become for the artists and the listeners.
It is my belief that if you play the corporate game, you will get screwed, one way or another, today or tomorrow; eventually you will get screwed and I feel bad for bands like SSPU, Muse, Passion Pit, and all the other bands that sign on with this corporation aberration. Be also aware that QPrime Management and Clear Channel have a very strong relationship and QPRIME is the one making these antitrust contracts with CC. Oh, yeah, and the FCC chairman under Bush was Michael Powell who lifted the limits on media ownership that has created this monster and Ari Emmanuel (yes the brother of Ron, sitting at the White House) is chairma of LiveNation, a falange of the CCC conglomerate (even though they deny it). It's a fucking mafia.
More video comments:
There's a couple of solutions as I see it:
ONE: Start your own pirate radio show. It's easy, it's cheap and it is possible to do. Just cut into all the Clear Channel Radio signals in your neighborhood/city (in Philly I gae you the signal numbers above) and just transmit whatever the fuck you want to transmit. It's a motherfucking free country so do what you want.
and SECOND, boycott the Clear Channel radio stations, boycott their venues: don't go to the TLA, The Wachovia, The Electric Factory, etc. Before you buy your ticket, ask the attendant if this is a Clear Channel event, if it is, don't buy your ticket. if they don't know ask them to see their supervisor and informed them of how little trained their staff is. If you drive 95 or Schullkyll Sxpressway or Route 1 and you see the big ass billboards, read the very bottom of the sign. There in big white letters you'll see who opns that sign: either COLUMBIA, or CBS, or CLEAR CHANNEL. If it's CLEAR CHANNEL, look up, look at the product being advertised and boycott that motherfucker. Simple as that.
Sooner or later Clear Channel has to fold. Because what they are doing is ILLEGAL, ANTI-CAPITALIST, ANTI-BUSINESS and UN-AMERICAN. Thanks for reading this and thinking about it.
'Leave comments if you have any.
