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HONESTLY-WHO THINKS CLEAR CHANNEL IS THE DEVIL
- Thread starter BIGSTICK
- Start date
S
SalesWeasel
Guest
BRENT said:
The devil? Hardly. Nothing but a string of lousy management, poor programming, and bad planning - had Randy Michaels been allowed to run the company (a programmer) instead of Col. Hogan (a money guy), things might have played out differently. Funny that Hogan's home market is the one that screwed up the worst.
O
OldiesCat
Guest
CC-Atlanta
There's no doubt CC hasn't always made the best decisions in Atlanta. But, let's be real here- even the best programming on some of those signals wouldn't make that much difference, since half their facilities are rimshots. They're only really great signals are 94.9 and 96.1- the rest are move-ins and rimshots; even their AM properties are sub-par.
There's no doubt CC hasn't always made the best decisions in Atlanta. But, let's be real here- even the best programming on some of those signals wouldn't make that much difference, since half their facilities are rimshots. They're only really great signals are 94.9 and 96.1- the rest are move-ins and rimshots; even their AM properties are sub-par.
Whether or not they are the devil, one thing is certain, they are destroying the radio industry.
Clear Channel is the epitome of the bottom line driving the decisions -- atleast until the true bottom line is reached, then there is a frantic effort to find something else. "Change for change [coins in the pocket] sake" seems to be their motto.
A buddy of mine had a terrific morning show on a station in the midwest when they decided to oust him during his Christmas vacation because he was getting too much money. Then they beat him into bankruptcy as he fought for severance due in his contract. They are heartless and brainless.
My wife and I now listen solely to satellite delivered music; there are some talk shows we enjoy, but we pray earnestly every day that CC will not monkey with those.
A buddy of mine had a terrific morning show on a station in the midwest when they decided to oust him during his Christmas vacation because he was getting too much money. Then they beat him into bankruptcy as he fought for severance due in his contract. They are heartless and brainless.
My wife and I now listen solely to satellite delivered music; there are some talk shows we enjoy, but we pray earnestly every day that CC will not monkey with those.
R
radiohell123
Guest
Cheap Channel has done the same thing in the Cleveand, Akron, and Canton markets. They have ruined radio in NE Ohio. Here is some stuff from the Cleveland board.
I have been reading all the Clear Channel banter around here. Someone pointed this out to me a few months ago and I find it very interesting.
Does Clear Channel try to stop people from speaking out against them and giving opinions?
Do a whois registration search on the following domain names. If you don't know what whois is, type whois into Yahoo. A whois search on a web site address tells you who owns that domain name.
Most of these web sites are not online, but they are owned by someone. Guess who owns all these domains? CLEAR CHANNEL!
http://www.clearchannelsucks.com
http://www.clearchannelsucks.org
http://www.clearchannelsucks.info
http://www.clearchannelsucks.biz
http://www.clearchannelstinks.com
http://www.clearchannelsux.com
http://www.stopclearchannel.com
http://www.stopclearchannel.net
http://www.stopclearchannel.org
http://www.fightclearchannel.com
http://www.hateclearchannel.com
http://www.cheap-channel.com
http://www.boycottclearchannel.com
http://www.boycottclearchannel.org
http://www.clearchannelboycott.com
http://www.clearchannelboycott.net
http://www.f**kclearchannel.com
http://www.f**kclearchannel.net
http://www.f**kclearchannel.info
That's right! Clear Channel has bought all these domain names, to try to stop people from speaking out against them. They do not want people to exercise the right of free speech, if that speech is negative to Clear Channel. If I had to guess, I would say there are many more websites like this that Clear Channel owns.
Clear Channel has unleashed it's lawers on people who try to speak out against them. Let's examine websites that were once negative to Clear Channel, that Clear Channel now owns.
boycottclearchannel.com used to be owned by someone else. Read the archive of it here.
http://web.archive.org/web/20040211072210/www.boycottclearchannel.com/pages/945266/index.htm
f**kclearchannel.com used to be owned by someone else. Read the archive of it here.
http://web.archive.org/web/20020727160334/http://www.****clearchannel.com/
Clear Channel fought hard and spent a lot of money to try to grab www.clearchannelsucks.net from it's owner. They caved in when a guy with no money challenged them. Read these two links for the story.
http://www.clearchannelsucks.net/
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:265001
clearchannelsucks.org used to be owned by someone else. Read the archive of it here.
http://web.archive.org/web/20050206032938/http://www.clearchannelsucks.org/
clearchannelsucks.info used to be owned by someone else. Read the archive of it here.
http://web.archive.org/web/20040730075120/http://clearchannelsucks.info/
cheap-channel.com used to be owned by someone else. Read the archive of it here.
http://web.archive.org/web/20050213015321/http://cheap-channel.com/
Just for fun, here are a few more links to give you a bigger picture of how Clear Channel does business.
A class action suit, filed against Clear Channel in June of 2006
http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=226224
How Clear Channel tried to steal the identity of a Cumulus station in the same market
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cach...189OPN+clear+channel&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
Scroll down on this page and read how a small company stood up against Clear Channel's unfair and illegal acts. Clear Channel settled out of court. Read about the loads of emails, sent by Clear Channel execs.
http://research.lawyers.com/news-he...-verdicts:-Where-are-they...-l:558397716.html
Clear Channel limits and tries to take over live cds
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6066617/clear_channel_limits_live_cds
A good article
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=4808
Do a search or two on your own and read about how they have moved into markets and strong armed local promoters. Read about how they have strong armed up-and-coming bands to play their venues and threatened to pull their music from their stations if they do not accept the blackmail. Look for positive articles about them as opposed to negative. Read the series of articles by Salon Magazine.
Educate yourself.
Do you still believe Clear Channel is good for radio, radio employees, or radio listeners?
To all you Clear Channel defenders:
I dare you to compose an post filled with positive and good things Clear Channel has done for the radio industry, it's employees, and it's listeners. I dare you to prove how Clear Channel has made radio better.
I can add to this, even though there are far more important things about CC than trying to silence their critics.
Just form 2000-2004, there were an estimated 10,000 layoffs in radio, due mainly to consolidation.
When the Pentagon was attacked on 9/11, Clear Channel did not have a local crew of reporters. Not one reporter was available to cover this event for CC stations. They didn't exist. The biggest event in the last half century and CC was nowhere to be found. (More on how empty studios can endanger the public safety later.)
CC has attacked places such as clearchannelsucks.com and similar websites and, as I have read in some cases, strong armed (or thrown money at critics) to grab these websites. Who is confused by the web address clearchannelsucks.com? Someone looking for CC is not going to type in the word sucks by mistake.
If you read clearchannelsucks.net you will see that they fought to keep their website and CC LOST!!!! CC has no legal right to try to strong arm these websites away from their critics. But, they do it anyway.
Still, I think we need to address issues far more important than ccsucks.com
The bottom line on how CC operates? Don't take it from me, or anyone else on this forum. Read what the experts have to say.
AFL-CIO represents, via its associated unions, some 500,000 media and related workers in the United States. Do they think CC has done a great job for radio?
http://www.yourmedia.ca/library_articles/040130_afl-cio_clearchannel.html
How about AFTRA? What do they have to say about how CC has undermined and forced wages into the ground?
http://www.aftra.com/press/pr_20040128_AFLCIO_study_blasts_CC.html
Quote
The report is critical of a host of Clear Channel cost-cutting measures including voice tracking which allows disc jockeys to record and pre-record multiple programs in one location and have them aired in other markets as if the programs were live and/or locally produced. The report says this business practice has had a “detrimental impact…on localism, diversity of programming and possibly public safety.”
Cited as an example of the “lack of live personnel that impeded the activation of the emergency radio response system following a local emergency,” is a train derailment and resulting hazmat emergency that occurred in the spring of 2003, in Minot, North Dakota. The catastrophe caused the release of a cloud of noxious gas but when local officials tried to alert the community to the danger through the town’s eight radio stations, they discovered that six of them -- those owned Clear Channel -- had no personnel on site. Hundreds of people were hospitalized.
Nice. Thanks Clear Channel for working in the public interest. I'm sure those hospitalized, who were listening to one of the six CC stations, were completely fooled by the art of voice tracking. Fooled into thinking they were safe.
Everyone should read this report by Cornell University.
http://www.dpeaflcio.org/pdf/Clear Channel _Final Report 1-28-04.pdf
Other companies may have followed suit and adopted some of CC's practices, but CC wrote the book on how to destroy everything good about radio. It is amazing how so many people in radio are afraid to accept the truth.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=8728
Case Closed. Clear Channel Sucks.
I have been reading all the Clear Channel banter around here. Someone pointed this out to me a few months ago and I find it very interesting.
Does Clear Channel try to stop people from speaking out against them and giving opinions?
Do a whois registration search on the following domain names. If you don't know what whois is, type whois into Yahoo. A whois search on a web site address tells you who owns that domain name.
Most of these web sites are not online, but they are owned by someone. Guess who owns all these domains? CLEAR CHANNEL!
http://www.clearchannelsucks.com
http://www.clearchannelsucks.org
http://www.clearchannelsucks.info
http://www.clearchannelsucks.biz
http://www.clearchannelstinks.com
http://www.clearchannelsux.com
http://www.stopclearchannel.com
http://www.stopclearchannel.net
http://www.stopclearchannel.org
http://www.fightclearchannel.com
http://www.hateclearchannel.com
http://www.cheap-channel.com
http://www.boycottclearchannel.com
http://www.boycottclearchannel.org
http://www.clearchannelboycott.com
http://www.clearchannelboycott.net
http://www.f**kclearchannel.com
http://www.f**kclearchannel.net
http://www.f**kclearchannel.info
That's right! Clear Channel has bought all these domain names, to try to stop people from speaking out against them. They do not want people to exercise the right of free speech, if that speech is negative to Clear Channel. If I had to guess, I would say there are many more websites like this that Clear Channel owns.
Clear Channel has unleashed it's lawers on people who try to speak out against them. Let's examine websites that were once negative to Clear Channel, that Clear Channel now owns.
boycottclearchannel.com used to be owned by someone else. Read the archive of it here.
http://web.archive.org/web/20040211072210/www.boycottclearchannel.com/pages/945266/index.htm
f**kclearchannel.com used to be owned by someone else. Read the archive of it here.
http://web.archive.org/web/20020727160334/http://www.****clearchannel.com/
Clear Channel fought hard and spent a lot of money to try to grab www.clearchannelsucks.net from it's owner. They caved in when a guy with no money challenged them. Read these two links for the story.
http://www.clearchannelsucks.net/
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:265001
clearchannelsucks.org used to be owned by someone else. Read the archive of it here.
http://web.archive.org/web/20050206032938/http://www.clearchannelsucks.org/
clearchannelsucks.info used to be owned by someone else. Read the archive of it here.
http://web.archive.org/web/20040730075120/http://clearchannelsucks.info/
cheap-channel.com used to be owned by someone else. Read the archive of it here.
http://web.archive.org/web/20050213015321/http://cheap-channel.com/
Just for fun, here are a few more links to give you a bigger picture of how Clear Channel does business.
A class action suit, filed against Clear Channel in June of 2006
http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=226224
How Clear Channel tried to steal the identity of a Cumulus station in the same market
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cach...189OPN+clear+channel&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
Scroll down on this page and read how a small company stood up against Clear Channel's unfair and illegal acts. Clear Channel settled out of court. Read about the loads of emails, sent by Clear Channel execs.
http://research.lawyers.com/news-he...-verdicts:-Where-are-they...-l:558397716.html
Clear Channel limits and tries to take over live cds
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6066617/clear_channel_limits_live_cds
A good article
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=4808
Do a search or two on your own and read about how they have moved into markets and strong armed local promoters. Read about how they have strong armed up-and-coming bands to play their venues and threatened to pull their music from their stations if they do not accept the blackmail. Look for positive articles about them as opposed to negative. Read the series of articles by Salon Magazine.
Educate yourself.
Do you still believe Clear Channel is good for radio, radio employees, or radio listeners?
To all you Clear Channel defenders:
I dare you to compose an post filled with positive and good things Clear Channel has done for the radio industry, it's employees, and it's listeners. I dare you to prove how Clear Channel has made radio better.
I can add to this, even though there are far more important things about CC than trying to silence their critics.
Just form 2000-2004, there were an estimated 10,000 layoffs in radio, due mainly to consolidation.
When the Pentagon was attacked on 9/11, Clear Channel did not have a local crew of reporters. Not one reporter was available to cover this event for CC stations. They didn't exist. The biggest event in the last half century and CC was nowhere to be found. (More on how empty studios can endanger the public safety later.)
CC has attacked places such as clearchannelsucks.com and similar websites and, as I have read in some cases, strong armed (or thrown money at critics) to grab these websites. Who is confused by the web address clearchannelsucks.com? Someone looking for CC is not going to type in the word sucks by mistake.
If you read clearchannelsucks.net you will see that they fought to keep their website and CC LOST!!!! CC has no legal right to try to strong arm these websites away from their critics. But, they do it anyway.
Still, I think we need to address issues far more important than ccsucks.com
The bottom line on how CC operates? Don't take it from me, or anyone else on this forum. Read what the experts have to say.
AFL-CIO represents, via its associated unions, some 500,000 media and related workers in the United States. Do they think CC has done a great job for radio?
http://www.yourmedia.ca/library_articles/040130_afl-cio_clearchannel.html
How about AFTRA? What do they have to say about how CC has undermined and forced wages into the ground?
http://www.aftra.com/press/pr_20040128_AFLCIO_study_blasts_CC.html
Quote
The report is critical of a host of Clear Channel cost-cutting measures including voice tracking which allows disc jockeys to record and pre-record multiple programs in one location and have them aired in other markets as if the programs were live and/or locally produced. The report says this business practice has had a “detrimental impact…on localism, diversity of programming and possibly public safety.”
Cited as an example of the “lack of live personnel that impeded the activation of the emergency radio response system following a local emergency,” is a train derailment and resulting hazmat emergency that occurred in the spring of 2003, in Minot, North Dakota. The catastrophe caused the release of a cloud of noxious gas but when local officials tried to alert the community to the danger through the town’s eight radio stations, they discovered that six of them -- those owned Clear Channel -- had no personnel on site. Hundreds of people were hospitalized.
Nice. Thanks Clear Channel for working in the public interest. I'm sure those hospitalized, who were listening to one of the six CC stations, were completely fooled by the art of voice tracking. Fooled into thinking they were safe.
Everyone should read this report by Cornell University.
http://www.dpeaflcio.org/pdf/Clear Channel _Final Report 1-28-04.pdf
Other companies may have followed suit and adopted some of CC's practices, but CC wrote the book on how to destroy everything good about radio. It is amazing how so many people in radio are afraid to accept the truth.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=8728
Case Closed. Clear Channel Sucks.
L
littlebigradio
Guest
Clear channel does radio? I thought they were an internet company now.
W
warm590
Guest
In the immortal words of Lowry mays, head honcho of Cheap channel: " We are not in the business of entertaining people, we are in the business of making money" Friggin' high paid schmuck. Thanks for nothing ***hole... 
warm590
warm590
Honestly, at this point, dont you know going in that if you take a job with them chances are you're gonna get hosed? Yes, yes they are bad and so on but dont you have to grow up a bit and realize what youre agreeing to when you work for them. It looks like Cumulus is on their way to being the same co. too
I
ilovescotch
Guest
someone was bored...
probably has tin foil on his head as well...
probably has tin foil on his head as well...
I found the Tallahassee case interesting, since I was managing a station in Tallahassee at that time (not a competitor to either one in the lawsuit.) I remember the incident well, but had never read the entire legal bit until now.
Neither Cumulus nor CC uses 'The Breeze' with any Tallahassee stations now. That's probably a good thing.
WBZE 98.9 is now Star 98 and WTLY is Magic 107.1.
Back when this was going on, I even got calls from confused listeners..at a non-competing AM station. ???
Neither Cumulus nor CC uses 'The Breeze' with any Tallahassee stations now. That's probably a good thing.
WBZE 98.9 is now Star 98 and WTLY is Magic 107.1.
Back when this was going on, I even got calls from confused listeners..at a non-competing AM station. ???
I remember when the Breeze was launched in Tallahassee. It was a good station. I think Lee Reynolds programmed it back then. Managed by Jon Hill. I wonder whatever happened to those dudes?
radiohell123 said:
Looks like they forgot one: http://www.myspace.com/clearchannel
How lame are they to let someone scoop their myspace address?
I started thinking a lot about what has been said here...and added a digg link
http://digg.com/offbeat_news/Is_Clear_Channel_the_devil_You_decide
http://digg.com/offbeat_news/Is_Clear_Channel_the_devil_You_decide
O
OldiesCat
Guest
WHO THINKS CLEAR CHANNEL IS THE DEVIL
Only disgruntled ex-Clear Channel employees who couldn't make the cut or competitors in markets where Clear Channel outperforms them.
There are also many who think CBS, Cumulus, Cox and Citadel are evil- has more to do with a general attitude about corporate American than specific companies.
And, is it just me, or has anybody else on earth noticed all the biggest radio companies in the U.S. names begin with a "C"? ???
Only disgruntled ex-Clear Channel employees who couldn't make the cut or competitors in markets where Clear Channel outperforms them.
There are also many who think CBS, Cumulus, Cox and Citadel are evil- has more to do with a general attitude about corporate American than specific companies.
And, is it just me, or has anybody else on earth noticed all the biggest radio companies in the U.S. names begin with a "C"? ???
D
Dain
Guest
You know Clear Channel spelled backwards is "Radio is Dead"...
Keep in mind that CCU began when Lowry Mays (a San Antonio banker) bought an AM station in San Antonio that his bank was foreclosing on. He and Red McComb (big Texas car dealer and former owner of the Minnesota Vikings) started CCU with that one station. If you don't understand the dymanics of what a Texas A&M graduate (a/k/a Aggie) can do - just look at how Lowry and his sons, all A&M graduates have done with CCU... but Lowry has his name on the side of one of the big buildings over at A&M in College Station and well, here we are with a massive trainwreck...bankers don't make good broadcasters....
Should CCU be taken private I will bet the house that Mays family will be out the boardroom and on the street along with the headquarters ending up in NYC or somewhere other than San Antonio... the VCs taking over won't put up with what has happened....
Between having Randy Michaels as the CEO to John Hogan those are two extremes that should have never happened.
Not every group operator is this country is like them, thank God, but everyone gets dinged because of them and personally I'm tired of it. Groups are not evil. The concept behind them isn't either, provided you treat your people the way you'd like to be treated. But the folks at CCU never learned that lesson and the karma express headed their way is one train I wouldn't ride on a dare....
Keep in mind that CCU began when Lowry Mays (a San Antonio banker) bought an AM station in San Antonio that his bank was foreclosing on. He and Red McComb (big Texas car dealer and former owner of the Minnesota Vikings) started CCU with that one station. If you don't understand the dymanics of what a Texas A&M graduate (a/k/a Aggie) can do - just look at how Lowry and his sons, all A&M graduates have done with CCU... but Lowry has his name on the side of one of the big buildings over at A&M in College Station and well, here we are with a massive trainwreck...bankers don't make good broadcasters....
Should CCU be taken private I will bet the house that Mays family will be out the boardroom and on the street along with the headquarters ending up in NYC or somewhere other than San Antonio... the VCs taking over won't put up with what has happened....
Between having Randy Michaels as the CEO to John Hogan those are two extremes that should have never happened.
Not every group operator is this country is like them, thank God, but everyone gets dinged because of them and personally I'm tired of it. Groups are not evil. The concept behind them isn't either, provided you treat your people the way you'd like to be treated. But the folks at CCU never learned that lesson and the karma express headed their way is one train I wouldn't ride on a dare....
O
OldiesCat
Guest
CLEAR CHANNEL
Sad. Another sourpus who couldn't cut it. :-\
Dain said:
Sad. Another sourpus who couldn't cut it. :-\
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