|
This article is about the company. Radio stations owned by Clear Channel should not be confused with clear channel radio stations, which are AM radio stations with certain technical parameters. Clear Channel Communications () is a media company based in the United States of America. Clear Channel, founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, wields considerable influence in radio broadcasting, concert promotion and hosting, and fixed advertising in the United States through its subsidiaries. The company owns over 1,200 full-power AM, FM, and shortwave radio stations, 9 satellite radio channels on XM Satellite Radio, and more than 30 television stations in the United States, among other media outlets in other countries. The present head of the company is Mark Mays and its headquarters is located in San Antonio, Texas. The term "clear channel" comes from AM broadcasting, referring to a channel (frequency) on which only one station transmits. In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting history, "clear channel" (or class I-A) stations had exclusive rights to their frequencies throughout most of the continent at night, when AM stations travel very far due to skywave. WOAI in San Antonio was such a station. (The term is now becoming obsolete, not because of the company's choice of name, but because the exclusive rights of such stations have been trimmed back significantly.) History Clear Channel Communications purchased its first FM station in San Antonio in 1972. They purchased the second "clear channel" AM station WOAI in 1975. In 1986, the company purchased its first stations outside of San Antonio. In 1992, the U.S. Congress relaxed radio ownership rules slightly, allowing the company to acquire more than 2 stations per market. By 1995, they owned 43 radio stations and 16 television stations. In 1996, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 became law. This act deregulated media ownership, allowing a company to own more stations than previously. Clear Channel went on a buying spree, purchasing more than 70 other media companies, plus individual stations. In a few cases, following purchase of a competitor, Clear Channel was forced to divest some of their stations, as they were above the legal thresholds in some cities. In 2005 the courts ruled that Clear Channel must also divest themselves of some "border blaster" radio stations in international border cities. One such instance was that of the nation's first alternative rock radio station, 91X in Tijuana, Baja California/San Diego. Businesses Clear Channel has purchased interest in, or outright acquired companies in a number of media or advertising related industries. This is not an exhaustive list. Radio With 989 stations, Clear Channel is the largest radio station group owner in the United States, both by number of stations and by revenue. According to BIA Financial Network, Clear Channel Radio recorded more than $3.5 billion in revenues in 2005, more than $1 billion more than the number-two group owner, CBS Radio.• Clear Channel has purchased stations from or acquired the following radio companies: Outdoor advertising Television The first television station Clear Channel purchased was WPMI in Mobile, Alabama in 1988. They now own more than 40 additional stations, a few of these are independent (no-network affiliates). Live events On December 21, 2005, Clear Channel completed the spin-off of Live Nation, formerly known as Clear Channel Entertainment. Live Nation is an independent company (NYSE: LYV) and is no longer owned by Clear Channel. Live Nation UK was also included in the spin off. Note that post-spinoff there is overlap in directors between Clear Channel and Live Nation, specifically: L. Lowry Mays (Director of Live Nation), Mark P. Mays (Vice Chairman of Live Nation), Randall T. Mays (Chairman of Live Nation) * News and information Worldwide Vertical Real Estate In 2003, Clear Channel created the Vertical Real Estate division and hired Scott Quitadamo to promote its tower portfolio. Clear Channel owns and operates approximately 1,500 broadcast transmission towers across the US; many of which are available for co-location by third parties such as cellular and PCS companies, wireless internet, fixed wireless, and other broadcasters. Market share In the late 1990s and early 2000s the company became an object of persistent criticism. Critics claim that it has abused its market position and has operated in an unethical manner. FCC regulations were relaxed following the Telecommunications Act of 1996, allowing companies to own far more radio signals than before. After spending about $30 billion, Clear Channel owned over 1200 stations nationwide, including as many as 7 stations in certain markets. Competitors and listeners complained, but so far the company has been able to hold on to all of its stations after divesting a few following the acquisition of AMFM. Other controversies have included changing many syndicated shows, most notably Rush Limbaugh, from syndication to "network" status, by flipping from well-known stronger news-talk stations to much weaker stations which are owned by Clear Channel, thereby making the show a "network" show instead of being syndicated. Repeat Songs and Commercials The company, especially in the past decade, has become known for over playing hit songs on its music stations, especially country music and top 40 stations. Actual detected airplay at Mediabase247.com, an industry detection website, show no clear proof that Clear Channel stations play songs more than any other broadcast group. Clear Channel also has been criticized for airing more commercials and extra commercial breaks on its stations. In November 2004 the company began their "Less Is More" campaign and now their total commercial minutes per hour is among the lowest in the business. Clear Channel recently won an arbitration ruling against XM Satellite Radio allowing the company to begin including commercials on XM music channels that the company programs for XM. The company has also been criticized by listeners of particular radio stations for changing the format of the radio station without notice. This practice is not exclusive to Clear Channel, however, and radio stations consider it strategic to surprise rival stations with such moves thus preventing them from counter-programming. September 11, 2001 Following the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., a list of songs apparently recommended to be removed from airplay as inappropriate during a time of national mourning was generated and circulated. A small list was initially generated by the Clear Channel office, though individual program directors added many of their own songs. A list containing about 150 songs was soon circulating on the Internet. The criteria for choosing the songs seemed to be unreasonable to many. A number of songs were apparently placed on the list because they had specific words such as "plane", "fly", and "falling" in their titles. Many people found it particularly ludicrous that John Lennon's "Imagine" was one of the songs listed. Clear Channel denies that this was a list of "banned" songs, claiming it was a list of titles that should be played only after great thought. Many individual stations did play songs from the list. Not only did many individual stations play songs from the alleged lists, Clear Channel's Classic Rock station WOFX "The Fox", near its Radio headquarters in Cincinnati, played many of those "banned" songs shortly after 9/11 and after the salon.com story about the list. Songs that were played included Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'" and Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World". Organized rallies to support the war in Iraq In the build up to the second Iraq War Clear Channel organized and paid for a counterpoint to anti-war demonstrations, supporters of war in Iraq descended on cities from Fort Wayne to Cleveland, and Atlanta to Philadelphia. Waving flags, messages of support for the troops — and also banners attacking liberals, excoriating the UN and in one case, advising: "Bomb France Now." Clear Channel paid for the advertising costs and for the hire of musicians for the rallies. Clear Channel said the rallies were "patriotic", not "pro-war". * Banning music and political ramifications In March of 2003, Natalie Maines, the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks said to an English concert audience, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas," upsetting many music fans and politicians in the United States. Thinking the Dixie Chicks were now a pariah and thus unmarketable, all of the country music stations owned by 2 Atlanta-based companies, Cumulus Media and Cox Radio were told to stop playing their music. There is speculation that Clear Channel also may have directed their stations to do so, but the company states this was solely the work of local station managers, DJ’s, and angry fans. Some critics of Clear Channel, including the editors of Rock and Rap Confidential, claim otherwise. They claim that Clear Channel executives, in a bid to gain support for various policies they were pushing in Washington, instigated the boycott among its country music stations themselves to send a message to other musicians that criticizing President George Bush's administration could hurt your career (through reduced airplay, etc.) Madonna had also faced similar problems when she released her anti-Iraq war album, American Life, and faced reduced radio airplay throughout the release of her album in 2003. There is no proof of these accusations and Clear Channel denies them. See Dixie Chicks. Live music recordings In 2004, Clear Channel acquired a key patent (number 6917566 *) in the process of producing "instant live recordings", in which a live performance is recorded directly from the sound engineer's console during the show, and then rapidly burned on CD so that audience members can buy copies of the show as they are leaving the venue. This is intended to provide additional revenue to the artist, venue, and promoter, as well as stifle the demand for unauthorized bootleg concert recordings made by audience members for profit. However, some media critics, as well as smaller business rivals, believe that Clear Channel is using the patent (on the process of adding cues to the beginning and ending of tracks during recording, so that the concert is not burned as a single enormous track) to drive competitors out of business or force them to pay licensing fees, even if they do not use precisely the same process. * Clear Channel no longer owns live music venues following its December 2005 spin-off of Live Nation, formerly known as Clear Channel Entertainment. Live Nation is an independent company (NYSE: LYV) and is no longer owned by Clear Channel. Indecency zero tolerance During the nationwide crackdown on indecent material following the 2004 Super Bowl, Clear Channel launched a "self-policing" effort, and declared that there would be no "indecent" material allowed on the air. This led to the company's dismissal of several of their own employees, including popular and high-profile hosts in a number of cities. Free-speech advocates cried foul. During this same period, Howard Stern was dropped from six Clear Channel owned stations in Florida, California, Pennsylvania, New York and Kentucky. By mid-year, rival Viacom (through radio division Infinity Broadcasting) brought Stern's show back to those six markets. In June, 2004, Viacom/Infinity Broadcasting Inc./One Twelve Inc. filed a $10 million lawsuit against Clear Channel for breaking of contracts and non-payment of licensing fees due to the dropping of Stern's show. Viacom was Howard Stern's employer at the time (He has since moved to Sirius Satellite Radio). In the following July, Clear Channel filed a countersuit of $3 million. Meanwhile, Clear Channel has continued to battle salacious content on the airwaves. Every Programming employee is required to take online training and testing to assure they understand the difference between indecency and obscenity. Concerts and promotions Clear Channel has settled a lawsuit with a Denver, Colorado concert promoter, Nobody In Particular Presents (NIPP). In the lawsuit, NIPP alleged that Clear Channel halted airplay on its local stations for NIPP clients, and that Clear Channel would not allow NIPP to publicize its concerts on the air. The lawsuit was settled in 2004 with no monetary consideration, but Clear Channel has new rules regarding local concert promotion in Denver. In 2002, Clear Channel was sued by the US Justice Department for not allowing people with diabetes to bring medically necessary supplies, including syringes used for insulin, into concert venues. Clear Channel changed their policy shortly afterward. In 2004, Clear Channel was sued by a San Francisco, California man for charging a mandatory parking fee on every ticket sold for a venue, whether the person purchasing the ticket was driving alone, car-pooling, or using public transportation. This is still unresolved. A contest ("Breast Christmas Ever") that went to air in Tampa, Jacksonville, St. Louis and Detroit during late 2004 via Clear Channel in America has been heavily criticised by women’s health advocates. Prizes included breast enlargement surgery, however, no legal recourse was made available in the event of malpractice.* Clear Channel distanced themselves from the contest, with spokesperson Jennifer Gery stating that: "It's not a Clear Channel-sponsored contest; we empower our local manager to make programming decisions." This statement was met with some skepticism. Editor of 'The Radio Wave', Ian MacRae's response: "Sure, but the concept was obviously floated to stations by the network Clear Channel in the first place. Either that or it’s a hell of a coincidence that four Clear Channels thought of it at the same time." Stations on "auto-pilot" Clear Channel, like other broadcasters both large and small, utilizes technology (known as Prophet) that allows a DJ from anywhere in the country to sound as if he or she is broadcasting from anywhere else in the country, on any other station. A technological outgrowth of earlier, tape-based automation systems dating back to the 1960s, this is called voice-tracking, and some smaller market stations are partially or completely staffed by these "cyber-jocks", who may have never visited the town they are broadcasting in. In some instances this allows the corporation to eliminate or reduce on-air staff positions. Clear Channel also uses Viero which automates the scheduling of programming and spots. It's been stated that Clear Channel maintains a majority of its staff in hourly-paid, part-time positions. This may be the case in some smaller markets. However, in medium to larger markets, full-time announcers staff each station. They may also voice track several other cities. Not all radio stations use Prophet; there are other systems available for broadcasters, especially when satellite based programming is used. A side-effect of this trend to automate radio stations, as opposed to signing off overnight, is that no one is there to warn people when disaster strikes. Clear Channel was criticized for an incident that occurred in Minot, North Dakota, when a Canadian Pacific Railway train filled with toxic anhydrous ammonia derailed early on the morning of January 18, 2002. At that time, Clear Channel owned six of the nine radio stations in the Minot area. City officials attempted to reach the local Clear Channel office by telephone to spread the warning, but there was no one on duty at the office; it was several critical hours before the station manager was finally reached at his home. Clear Channel claims no responsibility, and maintains that the city should have used the Emergency Alert System to trigger the automatic equipment at the station. Rejection of anti-war billboard In 2004, Project Billboard, a non-profit Democratic political advocacy group, filed a breach of contract suit against Clear Channel for the rejection by its outdoor advertising division of a billboard ad against the war in Iraq. The ad, intended for a 40-foot billboard Clear Channel manages in Times Square, was to have the slogan, "Democracy is best taught by example, not by war," along with a red, white and blue cartoon image of a bomb. Clear Channel's contract with Project Billboard only allowed the company to reject ads that were illegal or contrary to public morals; Clear Channel claimed that the image of the bomb was insensitive in New York City, the site of the most devastating of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Project Billboard claimed that Clear Channel's rejection was instead for purely political reasons. Clear Channel settled the suit by agreeing to an alternative featuring an image of a peace dove instead of a bomb. Censorship Clear Channel has been criticized for censoring opinions critical of George W. Bush and other Republicans. Clear-Channel-owned KTVX was the only local television station which refused to air the paid political message of Cindy Sheehan against the war in Iraq *. Some Utahans consider this to be another act of censorship of grass-roots free speech. Though this also goes against the fact that Clear Channel changed many of its AM talk/music stations to the progressive talk format (featuring the Air America Radio network) which is highly critical of President Bush. ClearChannelSucks.net and musician boycotts As well as the website ClearChannelSucks spawned from RadioAid's battle for the ownership of the ClearChannelSucks domain *, there are a notable amount of bands, and radio hosts, including Howard Stern that actively boycott Clear Channel. Dick and Skibba have also boycotted them after the station automated many DJs of their jobs. The most widely known of these are The Locust, as well as Conor Oberst, the leading figure behind Bright Eyes, who openly and continuously advocate the boycotting of all Clear Channel events, venues, advertising area and radio stations. The Locust were so attached to this boycotting that it affected their April 2005 tour with the Mike Patton side project Fantômas. The skacore squat band Leftöver Crack featured a song on their 2004 album Fuck World Trade entitled "Clear Channel (Fuck Off)" as a demonstration of extreme opposition to the organisation. Dave Matthews has also repeatedly spoken out against Clear Channel.* Another outspoken detractor of Clear Channel is veteran rocker Neil Young, who has criticized the company in numerous interviews. After having refused to perform in Clear Channel-owned venues for several years, Young was finally forced to do so on his 2000 "CSNY2K" tour with Crosby, Stills and Nash. In 2003, on an even more extensive tour showcasing his Greendale song-story, Young turned his shows into theatrical productions in which images lampooning Clear Channel were prominently displayed. In 2004, rapper Sage Francis mounted a "Fuck Clear Channel" tour. Official response to controversy Clear Channel officially denies most of these allegations. An article titled Know the Facts on its corporate website addresses many of these concerns. It also mentions a radio company owned by Viacom, a company known to own interests in weapons as well. Corporate governance Current members of the board of directors of Clear Channel Communications are: Alan Feld, Perry Lewis, Lowry Mays, B.J.(Red) McCombs, Phyllis Riggins, Theodore Strauss, J.C. Watts, and John H. Williams. Former members of the board of directors of the corporation are: Tom Hicks and Vernon Jordan. Top executives Program hosts (through its Premiere Radio Networks subsidiary) Famous people managed by Clear Channel or subsidiaries Music promoted by Clear Channel or subsidiaries: U2, System of a Down, Antony and the Johnsons, Mötley Crüe, David Gray, LCD Soundsystem, The Prodigy, Rod Stewart, Duran Duran, Feeder, Depeche Mode, Bullet For My Valentine Foreign Subsidiaries Australia: The Australian Radio Network, a joint-venture with APN News & Media includes the following radio stations: Sydney - Mix 106.5, 96.1 and WSFM 101.7; Melbourne – Mix 101.1, Gold FM; Brisbane – 4KQ 693 AM, 97.3 FM; Adelaide – Mix 102.3 FM, Cruise 1323 AM; and Canberra - FM 104.7, Mix 106.3, joint ventures with Austereo; Perth, Nova 93.7 FM, joint venture with DMG Radio Australia. Former hosts See also | |||||||
|
| ||||||||
 |
|
| |