"DAB sounds worse than FM" wrote
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David Eduardo wrote:
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"People are flocking from radio in droves," says Michael Bracy, director
of
government relations at the lobby group the Future of Music Coalition. "So
many people have become disenfranchised that they simply don't listen
anymore. Smaller local artists are being freezed out by centralised
programming. It's very damaging to the culture. There is a climate of fear
surrounding Clear Channel. People will say in private, 'They did this or
they did that,' but they won't speak out because they have to do business
with them.

Another quote from the clueless. Radio is listened to by 95% of the US
population over 12. This is the same as historic figures.

Average listening per person is around 21 hours per week, the same as it was
in the 1950-1952 period.

The "Music Coalition" is simply upset because radio figured out that most
people don't want to hear unknown songs by unknown artists. That was the
basis for the Top 40 format, going back to the early 50's. Nothing new,
nothing unusual.

The bad publicity has made Clear Channel a political pariah. While other
parts of the media industry are enjoying the relaxation of ownership laws,
in radio, they were tightened up last week, despite the company hiring
well-connected Washington lobbyists and appointing a former US congressman
to the board."

They were not tightened. All that happened in the recent Philadelphia
decision was that the most recent (2003) deregulation steps were put on
hold; the 1996 deregulation is very much intact.

and

"According to the US ratings service Arbitron, Americans are spending 10%
less time listening to radio per annum. Radio listenership in the US is at
a
27-year low."

Not so. Radio listening today is lower than the late 80's peak, but very
much compatible with levels from the 50's, 60's and 70's. Radio circultation
is not falling at all. Time spent listening is off about 15% since 1988, or
about 0.5% annually. Arbitron has never issued a statement even remotely
similar to the "10% a year" claim because this is not true.

and

"It's creative death, it's standardisation - McDonaldisation. Creativity
requires diversity. If you introduce free markets without regulation, you
are prescribing monopoly. The only upside to all of this is that it gets
so
bad that things start to develop underground on the internet or satellite
radio. That's what happened with the Floyd."

Interestingly, people who have studied playlists nationally don't see any
more standardization than in the 50's.

and from http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/st...943068,00.html

"Mr Dyke [Director General of the BBC] directed much of his ammunition
against the global media giant Clear Channel, which owns 1,225 radio
stations in the US, many of which took a staunchly pro-war line.

Actually, only some talk hosts on the Clear Channel talk stations took such
a line. The company took no position. Talk hosts on other, non Clear Channel
stations, took similar positions.

"We are genuinely shocked when we discover that the largest radio group in
the United States was using its airwaves to organise pro-war rallies,"
said
Mr Dyke, who is also the BBC's editor-in-chief. "We are even more shocked
to
discover that the same group wants to become a big radio player in the
UK."

There is a reason why we broke away form the Brits. They don't always get
it.

Clear Channel held no rallies. One of the talk hosts syndicated on many
Clear Channel talk stations held such rallies... in maybe 10 cities.