This is great…
As you may know, wifey likes to enter radio contests. In return, she gets on their email lists. She forwarded this one to me this week, and it seems that poor Clear Channel wants your help.
From: BIGRIG@98rock.com
Subject: Wifey, help save local radio
Tired of the negative press they’ve received from suing college kids and grandmothers, the major record companies have now turned their sights on your local radio stations. The foreign owned record companies are spending millions of dollars lobbying Congress to pass a bill that would establish a “performance tax” – forcing local radio to pay for the music that is currently provided to you, the listener, free of charge.
Like all businesses, radio stations across the country are struggling to stay afloat – over 250 stations have been forced off the air in the last year alone. If passed, this bill would guarantee many more stations would fail, and those that survive would not be the stations you recognize today. It is you, the listener that will feel true impact of this tax most as it would ensure a decline in the diversity and quality of programming you expect and deserve from free radio.
You gotta be kidding me.
Clear Channel complains about “major record companies,” spending millions on lobbyists, and forcing stations off the air.
Meanwhile, Clear Channel owns some 800 radio stations, and reaches “more than 154 million people, or 75% of the 18+ U.S. population…” and spent over $4 Million in lobbying in 2008.
What a joke.
Is Clear Channel really worried about your “local radio station?” They certainly are not worried about hiring local talent. You might remember they are notorious for letting go local talent in favor of cheaper national DJs. Here are the Clear Channel music stations in Tampa Bay:
(for completeness sake, here are Clear Channel’s local talk radio properties:
And you gotta love the last part of their plea. Read it again:
… [this tax] would ensure a decline in the diversity and quality of programming you expect…
As if most Clear Channel don’t play the same songs over and over again already.
Hey, HR 848 may kill a bunch of locally-owned stations, so I don’t think this Performance Royalties Act is the right way to go about it.
But Clear Channel’s attempt to make me feel sorry for them makes me want to puke.
Tim
1 year ago
I agree Clear Channel may do some scummy things to music radio just to save a buck. But this Bill really is bad news. Clear Channel really will close some local music stations to make up for the cost of this tax, and if they can’t afford it, chances are any local people who try to fire up a independant station in their place probably won’t be able to aford the tax either. We’ll just end up with less music, and that sucks.
PatriciaW
1 year ago
Agreed that Clear Channel doesn’t need our help. But if we want radio to reflect any diversity of opinion and taste, this bill need to die a quick death. Minority radio stations, many of which are struggling to stay afloat as it it, can’t afford these fees. They’ll get consumed by big guys like Clear Channel or go off the air all together. No more radio that speaks directly to the issues and preferences of Black, Hispanic, and other minority communities.
This is a bad bill. It’s about the greedy record companies looking for yet another way to gouge consumers. Before you know it, just as has happened largely with television, we’ll all be paying for radio. Because you’d better believe the radio stations that survive will find a way to pass these costs on.
Tino
1 year ago
“you’d better believe the radio stations that survive will find a way to pass these costs on”
How? A receiver tax? There are many, many substitutes for radio. I don’t think I’ve listened to a radio broadcast in 20 years, and that was the local college station where I was a DJ.
The Democrats in Congress will be getting yet another lesson in the Laffer curve real soon — raise taxes high enough and you get LESS revenue, not more.
Mike
1 year ago
It’s about time the radio stations paid the royalties that every other provider of music is forced to pay. They have been the first ones to push for royalties when it comes to satellite radio, internet broadcasts, and anything else they perceive as competition, and now that the playing field threatens to be leveled, they scream bloody murder.
While I do feel there should definitely be a place for the smaller and local stations, I also think the artists and providers of music should get their due (let’s forget for now about the record company vs. the artist and who gets screwed there…that’s a whole other topic). Maybe a graduated scale, so the smaller niche stations can still afford to offer interesting music. Obviously the talk stations aren’t affected, so news, weather and sports are okay.
I suppose I have a bit of a screw-you attitude towards Clear Channel and the other corporate radio stations, but it’s been a long, long time since I’ve heard any of them provide anything original or provocative, either here in Tampa or anywhere else in the country. For now, I listen to USF to get my NPR on in the morning, and the rest of the time I’m tuned in to Sirius. I’d rather donate to NPR and pay a satellite subscription (which, incidentally, is going up to accommodate these same royalties for music as well) than spend one minute listening to the back-to-back commercials and repetitive music provided by over-the-air services. Yeah, the satellite channels get repetitive sometimes too, but there are no commercials, and when I get tired of one channel I have 70 other music channels to try out. The big corporate broadcast channels will just carry more ads to cover the royalty costs and they will continue to refuse to address the real problem, which is the dreck they continue to pass off as interesting content. They will continue to dig their own grave, and I for one will be happy to push them into it unless they can come to their senses and provide something people actually want. Much like the big 3 automakers, their self-image is much more grandiose than the reality, and they will soon follow the same path as those other once-great companies.
junebee
1 year ago
The only time I listen to radio is in the car and that’s only because both of our cars are so old that they have cassette players that no longer work. The next car will have a CD player and/or i-pod port and I will have no further need for radio. It can die for all I care. Clear Channel ruined it years ago.
Dr_Zoidberg
1 year ago
You can get a cheap FM transmitter for an ipod for $10 or so. I have a cheap one and an expensive one, and the only thing better about the $80 model is it also charges the ipod if you’re going to be in the car for a really long time.
Clyde
1 year ago
Say it again, Mike!!! Dreck is right. NPR is the way to go.
texasdude
1 year ago
Here it is 2009! Most, if not, all of Clear Channel’s stations are voicetracked, meaning the DJs are NOT live! They are satellite fed, or taped at an earlier time and aired later. All of the Clear Channel DFW stations are NOT live! And here’s what to summarize what I am hearing these days:
KZPS 92.5 – a classic rock station that seems too soft that considers Phil Collins as classic rock?
KEGL 97.1 – an active rocker that keeps forgetting that their sister station is a classic rocker and plays a bunch of hair bands, ACDC, any grunge rock band from the 90s, and waaaayyyyyy too much Metallica and playing way less of any other band out there.
KDGE 102.1 – a supposedly alternative rock wannabe that just plays whatever rock song from the 90s like Nirvana, Bush, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, and anything left over from pop-hot AC-JackFM stations like Fall Out Boy, All American Rejects, Good Charlotte, and once I heard Katy Perry? Katy Perry on alternative? Sadly, you’d be lucky enough to hear very little or worse, no true alternative artists like Death Cab For Cutie, The Killers, Coldplay, U2, Kings of Leon, Silversun Pickups, etc.
KDMX 102.9 – This Hot AC station was all about the 90s and Now playing pop/rock music from those two decades and wasn’t afraid to play one or two songs from the 80s from bands like U2 or The Cure. Now these days, they are way too heavy on the 80s that it nearly sounds like Jack FM or AC station KVIL 103.7. Not to mention rarely ANY new music.
KHKS 106.1 – The official all pop and hip hop station. They claim they play all the hits but sadly, listen to an out of town pop station and compare them to this station. You’ll find out who does play all the hits. You’ll rarely hear a pop/rock song unless you’re The Fray or All American Rejects.
When I heard Clear Channel was laying off people, they didn’t mention anything about cutting back on music. Go figure. I boycotted ALL Clear Channel DFW stations and listen to stations NOT owned by Clear Channel. It’s sad to see that most markets are NOT as worse as DFW. DFW has the worst stations in the nation except for maybe 5 stations.
clark_brooks
1 year ago
When it comes to feeling bad for Clear Channel, I can’t even summon the level of compassion I have for GM.