Even though I detest the current structure, I think a good anti-Bush song would still find an outlet. However, I have witnessed firsthand the problems of corporate-owned radio stations dealing with local emergencies. This was bad law on many levels. __________________ The Trouble With Corporate Radio: The Day the Protest Music Died By BRENT STAPLES Pop music played a crucial role in the national debate over the Vietnam War. By the late 1960's, radio stations across the country were crackling with blatantly political songs that became mainstream hits. After the National Guard killed four antiwar demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio in the spring of 1970, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young recorded a song, simply titled "Ohio," about the horror of the event, criticizing President Richard Nixon by name. The song was rushed onto the air while sentiment was still high, and became both an antiwar anthem and a huge moneymaker. A comparable song about George W. Bush's rush to war in Iraq would have no chance at all today. There are plenty of angry people, many with prime music-buying demographics. But independent radio stations that once would have played edgy, political music have been gobbled up by corporations that control hundreds of stations and have no wish to rock the boat. Corporate ownership has changed what gets played — and who plays it. With a few exceptions, the disc jockeys who once existed to discover provocative new music have long since been put out to pasture. The new generation operates from play lists dictated by Corporate Central — lists that some D.J.'s describe as "wallpaper music." Recording artists were seen as hysterics when they complained during the 1990's that radio was killing popular music by playing too little of it. But musicians have turned out to be the canaries in the coal mine — the first group to be affected by a 1996 federal law that allowed corporations to gobble up hundreds of stations, limiting expression over airwaves that are merely licensed to broadcasters but owned by the American public. When a media giant swallows a station, it typically fires the staff and pipes in music along with something that resembles news via satellite. To make the local public think that things have remained the same, the voice track system sometimes includes references to local matters sprinkled into the broadcast. What my rock 'n' roll colleague William Safire describes as the "ruination of independent radio" started with corporatizing in the 1980's but took off dramatically when the Telecommunications Act of 1996 increased the number of stations that one entity could own in a single market and permitted companies to buy up as many stations nationally as their deep pockets would allow. The new rules were billed as an effort to increase radio diversity, but they appear to have had the opposite effect. Under the old rules, the top two owners had 115 stations between them. Today, the top two own more than 1,400 stations. In many major markets, a few corporations control 80 percent of the listenership or more. Liberal Democrats are horrified by the legion of conservative talk show hosts who dominate the airwaves. But the problem stretches across party lines. National Journal reported last month that Representative Mark Foley, Republican of Florida, was finding it difficult to reach his constituents over the air since national radio companies moved into his district, reducing the number of local stations from five to one. Senator Byron Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, had a potential disaster in his district when a freight train carrying anhydrous ammonia derailed, releasing a deadly cloud over the city of Minot. When the emergency alert system failed, the police called the town radio stations, six of which are owned by the corporate giant Clear Channel. According to news accounts, no one answered the phone at the stations for more than an hour and a half. Three hundred people were hospitalized, some partially blinded by the ammonia. Pets and livestock were killed. The perils of consolidation can be seen clearly in the music world. Different stations play formats labeled "adult contemporary," "active rock," "contemporary hit radio" and so on. But studies show that the formats are often different in name only — and that as many as 50 percent of the songs played in one format can be found in other formats as well. The point of these sterile play lists is to continually repeat songs that challenge nothing and no one, blending in large blocks of commercials. Senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin has introduced a bill that would require close scrutiny of mergers that could potentially put the majority of the country's radio stations in a single corporation's hands. Lawmakers who missed last month's Senate hearings on this issue should get hold of the testimony offered by the singer and songwriter Don Henley, best known as a member of the Eagles, the rock band. Mr. Henley's Senate testimony recalled the Congressional payola hearings of 1959-60, which showed the public how disc jockeys were accepting bribes to spin records on the air. Now, Mr. Henley said, record companies must pay large sums to "independent promoters," who intercede with radio conglomerates to get songs on the air. Those fees, Mr. Henley said in a recent telephone interview, sometimes reach $400,000. Which brings us back to the hypothetical pop song attacking George Bush. The odds against such a song reaching the air are steep from the outset, given a conservative corporate structure that controls thousands of stations. Record executives who know the lay of land take the path of least resistance when deciding where to spend their promotional money. This flight to sameness and superficiality is narrowing the range of what Americans hear on the radio — and killing popular music.
Well, you can't turn him into a company man, you can't turn him into a w****. And the boys upstairs just don't understand anymore. Well, the top brass don't like him talking so much, and he won't play what they say to play. And he don't wanna change what don't need to change. There goes the last DJ who plays what he wants to play and says what he wants to say, hey hey hey. And there goes your freedom of choice, there goes the last human voice. There goes the last DJ. Well, some folks said they're gonna hang him so high cos you just can't do what he did. There's some things you just can't put in the minds of those kids. As we celebrate mediocrity all the boys upstairs wanna see how much you'll pay for what you used to get for free. Well, he got a new station down in Mexico and sometimes it would kinda come in. And I'll bust a move and remember how it was back then. Tom Petty -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The only hope of hearing good new music that isn't being fed to you by the people with money is college radio stations.
Radio, Radio (Elvis Costello) ============ I was tuned into the shine of the late night dial Doing anything my radio advised With everyone of those late night stations playing songs bringing tears to my eyes I was seriously thinking about hiding the reciever When the switch broke cause it's old They're saying things I can hardly believe They really think we're getttin' out of control Radio is the sound salvation Radio is cleaning up the nation They say you better listen to the Voice of Reason But they don't give you any choice 'Cause they think that it's treason So you had better do as you were told You better listen to the radio I wanna bite the hand that feeds me I wanna bite that hand so badly I wanna make them wish they'd never seen me Some of my freinds sit around every evening And they worry about the times ahead But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference And the promise of an early bed You either shut up or get cut out They don't wanna hear about it It's only inches on the reel to reel And the radio is in the hands Of such a lot of fools Tryin' to anesthetize they way that you feel Radio is the sound salvation Radio is cleaning up the nation They say you better listen to the Voice Of Reason But they don't give any choice 'Cause they think that its treason So you had better do as you were told You better listen to the radio Wonderful Radio Nothing Less than Radio Radio, Radio
Video Killed The Radio Star I heard you on the wireless back in Fifty Two Lying awake intent at tuning in on you. If I was young it didn't stop you coming through. Oh-a oh They took the credit for your second symphony. Rewritten by machine and new technology, and now I understand the problems you can see. Oh-a oh I met your children Oh-a oh What did you tell them? Video killed the radio star. Video killed the radio star. Pictures came and broke your heart. Oh-a-a-a oh And now we meet in an abandoned studio. We hear the playback and it seems so long ago. And you remember the jingles used to go. Oh-a oh You were the first one. Oh-a oh You were the last one. Video killed the radio star. Video killed the radio star. In my mind and in my car, we can't rewind we've gone to far Oh-a-aho oh, Oh-a-aho oh Video killed the radio star. Video killed the radio star. In my mind and in my car, we can't rewind we've gone to far. Pictures came and broke your heart, put the blame on VTR. You are a radio star. You are a radio star. Video killed the radio star. Video killed the radio star. Video killed the radio star. Video killed the radio star. Video killed the radio star. (You are a radio star.)
Clear Channel made a list of songs which could be upsetting to Americans after 911. Thanks, Corporate Radio, for telling me what may or may not bother me.
http://www.ktvu.com/sh/entertainment/stories/entertainment-96409320010918-100959.html#list "Walk Like An Egyptian" really upsets me still. Gives me nightmares about buildings collapsing.
and dont forget.... "This is Radio Clash" interrupting all programmes this is radio clash from pirate satellite orbiting your living room, cashing in the bill of rights cuban army surplus or refusing all third lights this is radio clash on pirate satellite this sound does not subscribe to the international plan in the psycho shadow of the white right hand them that see ghettology as an urban viet nam giving deadly exhibitions of murder by napalm this is radio clash tearing up the seven veils this is radio clash please save us, not the whales this is radio clash underneath a mushroom cloud this is radio clash you don't need that funeral shroud forces have been looting my humanity curfews have been curbing the end of liberty hands of law have sorted through my identity but now this sound is brave and wants to be free - anyway to be free this is radio clash on pirate satellite this is not free europe nor an armed force network this is radio clash using audio ammunition this is radio clash can we get that world to listen? this is radio clash using aural ammunition this is radio clash can we get that world to listen? this is radio clash on pirate satellite orbiting your living room, cashing in the bill of rights this is radio clash on pirate satellite this is radio clash everybody hold on tight a-riggy diggy dig dang dang go back to urban 'nam
