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Author Topic: More Radio Media Consolidation Under Bush Coming?  (Read 2676 times)

Johnny B

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More Radio Media Consolidation Under Bush Coming?
« on: November 08, 2004, 11:25:14 AM »

Apparently, it was not enough to destroy what diversity we may have enjoyed in Radio over the last 50 years, the trend has been to seriously limit airplay of new and exciting music all over the USA with only a few companies such as Clear Channel contolling most of the public's airwaves.

When it was better, companies could only own a few Radio stations, then the trend toward more consolidation and central command and control began to set in when Bush appointed the current crop to the Federal Communications Commision.

Right now, the FCC is considering new rules to make it easier for a few favored corporations to control even more. This means that what was already a bad trend will only get worse.

As professionals whose livihood is often dictated by having a robust and diverse Radio media to place product, it may be wise to write your Congreeman and US Senators and oppose further changes.

In fact, you may want to demand a rollback to pre-existing rules.

 
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zmix

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Re: More Radio Media Consolidation Under Bush Coming?
« Reply #1 on: November 08, 2004, 11:56:38 AM »

Recently a journalism school hosted a conference of news media professionals. A question was raised about the tendency for the public to seek out news that supports their existing worldview. The response was fascinating. The point was made that in the early days of broadcast news, there were three major networks. As these were the only sources the FCC required 'fair and balanced' reporting. The proliferation of specialized cable news channels has allowed a narrowing of news, which is a public disservice...

In music, the same thing has happened. As a child, I recall, the major "rock" station had jazz after midnight, blues in the morning, rock in the afternoon, gospel on Sunday. Now it is a clearchannel affiliate....

At the moment, musical taste is being sold like it is a political party afilliation. You will never "accidentally" be exposed to any new ideas or schools of thought.

This is bad. Michael Powell must go!

-CZ

PRobb

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Re: More Radio Media Consolidation Under Bush Coming?
« Reply #2 on: November 08, 2004, 11:26:34 PM »

Bush will give his corporate sponsors whatever they want. Thats been his policy from day one.
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David Schober

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Re: More Radio Media Consolidation Under Bush Coming?
« Reply #3 on: November 15, 2004, 11:58:48 AM »

zmix wrote on Mon, 08 November 2004 10:56

 As a child, I recall, the major "rock" station had jazz after midnight, blues in the morning, rock in the afternoon, gospel on Sunday. Now it is a clearchannel affiliate....

-CZ




I'm old enough to remember those days and miss them.  But what doesn't make sense in this dialog is; If the name of the game, regardless of ownership, is ratings, and those days of diversified programming are really what the public wants, what's stopping Clear Channel or anyone from doing that?  I don't think Clear Channel has any other agenda but to make money.  If Croation Polka Music is what the public wants, then they'll play that.  I'm afraid for a myriad of reasons, the radio-listening public, like network TV, is getting what they want.  I don't like it, but there you have it.

A great article appeard this fall regarding NPR and their demise of music on their radio stations.  Years ago you could get plenty of interesting classical, folk, and other cultural music on NPR for most of the day.  Nowadays music limited to a few hours, and usually limited to light classical. (something boutique stores can play, never anything seriously challenging to listen to)  The rest of the day is NPR's version of talk radio.  It's not Limbaugh or ever Franken, but packaged discussion oriented programming.  Some of it's good, but that's not the point.  NPR learned that they could get better sponsorship by playing less music, so they did.

The real evil in the record business that I never hear anyone talk about is MTV.  There you have a total monopoly of videos and if you can't get on, large scale success is near to, or totally impossible.  It seems to me most of this attack on radio is politcal in nature, when the real demon is MTV.  But because there's no political gain, MTV gets a pass.  IMHO doing this tends to undermine the sincerety of your argument.
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David Schober
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