Be The Media

Clear Channel's Practices Show What's Wrong with Media Monopolies

According to a Cornell University study, "the practices of Clear Channel, the nation’s largest radio station owner, illustrate what is wrong with federal media ownership policies that make it easier for companies to establish media monopolies."

Among other findings, the report cited:

"In six years, Clear Channel has grown from owning 44 stations to 1,239 stations today, and the corporation now generates 20 percent of all radio industry revenues. Clear Channel also owns 44 amphitheaters, 51 theaters and various clubs and arenas. According to the report, The Clear Picture on Clear Channel, Clear Channel uses several cost-cutting measures that lead to homogenized news and entertainment—and in some cases, even endanger public safety.

Clear Channel Monopoly Locks Out Artists
Clear Channel’s dominance in the radio market also makes it harder for local musicians and artists to get their music played on local stations. The conglomerate controls radio stations and owns concert promotion companies (as well as concert venues) and serves as a virtual gatekeeper controlling the two gates artists must pass through “to have a career in this industry,” says Ray Hair, president of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada local in Dallas.

Solution? Boycott Clear Channel radio, TV and concerts at these venues.

BBC Director resigns as fallout over Iraq report builds

Sarah Lyall of the NY Times reports that the BBC was guilty of careless reporting and poor editorial oversight:

"The director general of the British Broadcasting Corporation resigned Thursday in the wake of a devastating report attacking the BBC's journalistic practices, saying he hoped his departure would help save it from further damage.

On Wednesday, Lord Hutton, a senior judge, said in a 740-page report that the BBC had been guilty of careless reporting and poor editorial oversight in a radio broadcast last May 29. He said the BBC then compounded those errors by rushing to defend itself without checking its facts.

In the broadcast, Andrew Gilligan, a BBC military affairs reporter, said that the government used an intelligence dossier it "probably knew" was wrong in September 2002 to bolster its case for war with Iraq.

At the same time, Lord Hutton's report exonerated Mr. Blair's government of wrongdoing, both in the preparation of the intelligence report and in the death of David Kelly, a government weapons expert who killed himself after being exposed as the source of Mr. Gilligan's report.

The Hutton report was a political triumph for the prime minister, who this week has managed to escape from two potentially damaging episodes — the findings of the report and a close vote in Parliament on his proposal to authorize universities to increase their tuition fees — with Houdini-like nimbleness. But a backlash was developing later Thursday, particularly from supporters of the BBC enraged at what they regarded as Lord Hutton's blanket bias in favor of the government.

Even right-leaning newspapers that traditionally attack the BBC as much as they attack the government came to the broadcaster's defense."

Congress Rebukes Powell

From CBSMarketwatch.com:

"One of two Democratic commissioners, Copps was in the minority when the Republican-led commission voted to roll back long-standing media ownership rules in June, and again when it gave a green light to News Corp.'s (NWS: news, chart, profile) acquisition of a controlling stake in No. 1 satellite broadcaster DirecTV.

It's really telling that Congress has had to come in now, on a number of occasions since June 2, and act on what the Commission did," Copps said this week. "It really is a rebuke to the position that the majority assumed in loosening the ownership restrictions."
"Copps wants to see violators like the Clear Channel stations brought before the commission for a hearing that could lead to possible revocation of their broadcast licenses.

"That would do more than anything else I can think of to wake this industry up and get it to practice some self-discipline and self-policing like it used to do," he said. "

Too Much power' for Murdoch

"Meanwhile, Rupert Murdoch tightened his grip on the world's satellite market with his $6.8 billion buy of a controlling interest in DirecTV, which received FCC and Justice Department approval last month days before it closed.

News Corp.'s satellite holdings include a 40 percent interest in British Sky Broadcasting (BSY: news, chart, profile) and systems in Australia, Japan and Latin America. It also owns the Twentieth Century Fox movie and television enterprises, the Fox Broadcasting Network, numerous regional sports networks and dozens of newspapers.

Copps and fellow Democrat Jonathan Adelstein cast the losing votes in the 3-2 decision to approve the DirecTV deal.

"I just think it's too much power," Copps said. "It's really a marriage of distribution and production. And for years, the whole idea was to have protections against excessive vertical integration and protections against horizontal. "

FCC's Powell gets an earful at San Antonio localism hearing

FCC Chairman Michael Powell got an earful from a rowdy crowd in San Antonio at a hearing on localism and diversity in the media. Powell hoped he would get a respite from the criticism by nature of some home field advantage - San Antonio is home to both Clear Channel and SBC. But the overwhelming majority of comments were critical of Powell's 2003 push to deregulate, and they complained about the negative impact of consolidation among TV, radio and newspaper outlets. People lined up outside the building at 4am, and the Commissioners stayed until the last speaker spoke at 11pm!

Musicians blamed federal deregulation of broadcast media for pushing local talent off the nation's airwaves. Asleep At The Wheel's Ray Benson, a 35-year industry veteran, said "Just as strip malls with national brand-name retailers have homogenized the look and feel of large and small towns across America, so in certain instances has radio done much the same thing to music. If you take 18 or 20 records and play them over and over again, people will learn to eat that kind of crap," he said. "A lot of great music is not being heard. Things were different in the early 70's. Then, regional musicians with hits in local markets had a chance to make it big. Now, access has been limited to small handfuls of players with a lot of money."

Texas musician TC Smythe said "it's been nearly impossible to break into commercial radio station playlists. I've learned that if I don't write a song that can make people want to drink beer or buy insurance, commercial radio won't play it," she said.

In 'Emotional Testimony at FCC radio and TV hearing,' Jim Forsyth wrote:

Several of the protesters called for creation of 'low power FM' stations to broadcast to specific neighborhoods, and the return of the Fairness Doctrine, which was repealed in 1986 and required radio and television stations to 'afford reasonable opportunities for discussion of contrasting points of view on controversial issues of public importance.' The repeal of the Fairness Doctrine is generally considered to have opened the gateway for the rise of conservative talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh, who's popular program is syndicated by a Clear Channel subsidiary."

In "Corporate Owners of US radio, TV blasted at hearing," Jim Forsyth wrote:

Speakers complained that U.S. airwaves were controlled by giant companies that cared only about making money and promoting their own political agendas. "We definitely think there should be more regulation that is responsible, that actually has the public interest in mind, rather than simple deregulation that usually just has the corporation, the advertisers, and the stockholders in mind," said Hanna Sassanen of the Philadelphia-based Prometheus Radio Project. "We're interested in reinstating any regulation which actually protects the public interest," she said. Her group promotes the creation of low power FM stations and opposes corporate ownership of radio stations.

New survey shows FCC based ownership rules on faulty information

From Free Press:

"A new national survey of where people turn for local news reveals newspapers are more than twice as important a source than the Federal Communications Commission determined when it relaxed its media ownership rules, dramatically illustrating the FCC’s irrational basis for allowing more media mergers in local markets. "

"· In developing its ownership rules, the FCC gave newspapers a weight of 29 percent in its diversity index. But the survey results show newspapers are actually the most important and frequent source of local news for approximately 61 percent of the survey respondents.

· The FCC dramatically overweighted the importance of the Internet and radio, giving them a combined weight of 37 percent, but the survey results show that the Internet and radio are the most frequent and important source of local information for only 10 percent of the respondents. "

"Adds Cooper: “The FCC based its new rules on information that is just plain wrong, and as a result, we can expect to see a wave of mergers and acquisitions that will spell an end to independence and localism in our media. The FCC must go back and rewrite these rules based on reality, not myth, and protect diversity in our media.”

To view the full report on the media usage survey, go to www.consumersunion.org. "

You have to get up early if you hope to be heard by the FCC

Carlos Guerra reported for San Antonio Express-News:

"News of a big fine for obscenity on radio and a TV network's refusal to air a paid anti-Bush ad during the Super Bowl were some of the other reasons people came to the Federal Communications Commission's San Antonio hearing on broadcasting and localism."

"The doors at the City Council Chambers, where the FCC's second hearing was slated to begin at 5:30 p.m., were to open one hour before. But by 3:45 a.m., dozens of prospective witnesses — who weren't on the FCC's pre-selected "balanced and informative panels (of) representatives of consumer and advocacy groups, the creative community and broadcasters" — had lined up for a chance to speak up.

"We're here to make sure that local voices are heard," said Russ Newman of Free Press, a national media-policy group that favors more restrictive FCC ownership rules to promote greater local ownership of radio and TV licenses.

"In Charlotte, citizens got the shaft," he said. "When we got there, three-fifths of the (crowd) was industry folks, so we made sure that didn't happen again."

But like others who were waiting to get into the hearing to say their piece, Newman wasn't hopeful of big policy changes.

"What's truly enraging is that Chairman (Michael) Powell is willing to only look at half of the localism and diversity issue," he said. "He is not willing to revisit ownership issues but only wants to look at public-interest obligations that can be suggested for television and radio stations, say, carrying six hours of educational broadcasting each week.

"If Powell really cared about localism and diversity, he would have had these meetings before he loosened the regulations last summer," Newman added. "They are doing this because after he loosened the ownership regulations, 2 million Americans wrote Congress (or) the FCC saying that loosening them was horrible for democracy and horrible for the information needs of a democracy.

"The best we can hope for here is to educate the public that it is democracy that is at stake," he emphasized. "And that is why people have been lined up here since quarter to 4 this morning."

Saving KPFA? Important experiment in media democracy

Camille Talara of the San Francisco Bay Guardian reports on KPFA's important experiment in media democracy:

"On July 13, 1999, the Pacifica network's then self-selected national board had veteran KPFA-FM Flashpoints programmer Dennis Bernstein dragged off the air by newly hired security thugs, ordered the arrest of more than 50 others at the station, and locked the doors in a bitter fight over the direction of the network.

Protests ensued for weeks on end, at times involving thousands. Dozens camped out in front of the station office. As a result, local activists were able to wrest control of KPFA from the national office - and stop Pacifica from acting on possible plans to sell off one of its statioons.

Almost 5 years and four lawsuits after the infamous battle of 1999, activists struggle to ensure the network remains true to its grass roots is finally coming to fruition: Pacifica stations - which have provided one of the most important voices of dissent against the wars on terrorism and Iraq - are in the midst of elections that will grant listeners a majority voice in station operations. It represents the first time an audience has a part in the governance of a radio network in the United States.

Peter Franck, National Lawyers Guild's Center for Democratic Communications legal director and Pacifica's president from 1980 through 1984 (well before the board became self-selecting), said KPFA has always resisted change. "One thing is quality, another is mainstreaming," he said. "There are never going to be those equitable processes without listeners having a direct voice and exerting continuous pressure."

In the end the result of Pacifica's experiment in media democracy could either be a train wreck or an important model. What's important now, most agree, is that listener members do their part: at least 10% must vote by Feb 5 for the elections to be valid.

Voice-tracking deceives listeners, sacrifices local nature of radio

Tom Carpenter article in MySanAntonio.com showing how "voice-tracking" kills localism in radio, and how Clear Channel uses this technology to deceive local audiences into thinking they are listening to live, local radio.

Clear Channel has pioneered a business plan that relies on a technology known as "voice-tracking" — the remote pre-recording of entire airshifts from remote locations. Essentially, Clear Channel pays its announcers to pre-record liners and announcements in a few hours in remote locations, rather than having them broadcast live from a local studio.

Afterward, Clear Channel splices in music and airs the program several days or even weeks later in a town far from where the broadcast was recorded. ... And forget about local updates related to news, weather and safety alerts.

There is obviously a value to national programming. Radio is all the richer for syndicated national radio shows. However, the misrepresentations and falsifications of voice-tracking are quite a different matter. In the Clear Channel behemoth, entire radio stations are operated without a single local announcer. This is what critics refer to when they charge Clear Channel is destroying local radio.

Those critics are bringing more pressure to bear on Clear Channel. As part of the FCC's review of its regulations related to ownership of television and radio stations, a number of unions and public interest groups point to Clear Channel as a cautionary tale of media consolidation.

Critics, including the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, note that some of the most problematic byproducts of "media gigantism" are business practices such as voice-tracking, where localism in radio broadcasting is eroded in favor of cookie-cutter formats and canned announcements.

Independents vow to fight music merger

Tim Burt in the Financial Times writes about the dangers to independent record companies if the proposed merger between Sony and BMG is approved:

Europe's independent record companies on Monday warned of several thousand job losses across the industry if the European Commission approves the proposed merger of Sony Music and BMG, the music arm of Germany's Bertelsmann media group.

"Concentration is the main reason for the majors' difficulties and further concentration will make it even worse. The small players will be further marginalised and access to radio playlists, television programmes and retail outlets will become impossible."

Independent record executives said the industry had already been harmed by the majors cutting back on new artists and investing only in proven international acts.

Martin Mills, chairman of the UK's Beggars Group label, warned that a combination of Sony and BMG would leave more than 50 per cent of the European market - accounting for almost a third of global music sales - in the hands of just two groups.

He argued that Sony BMG and Universal Music, a subsidiary of France's Vivendi, would be able to fix prices and reduce market access. "Product banality and low value are issues that will be exacerbated by more concentration," he added.

Powell's Agenda for '04

From FCC Chairman Michael Powell's interview with Broadcasting and Cable magazine:

"President Clinton appointed Powell to the commission in 1997. When George W. Bush moved into the White House in 2001, Powell moved up to the chairmanship. There was much talk last summer that he would give up the post, but, in December, he quieted such speculation by saying he would stay on through the end of Bush's first term. In an interview with Assistant Editor Bill McConnell, Powell reveals his latest thinking on broadcasting content, localism mandates and indecency. An edited transcript follows:

You originally promised to launch your localism inquiry by the end of 2003. What has caused the delay, and will we see it soon?

There's nothing nefarious holding it up. The commission got pretty busy with the News Corp./DirecTV merger. Within a month, you'll probably see it.

Why do the localism review now?

We became convinced it would be useful and effective in the context of the current round of license renewals. In 1996, Congress extended license terms to eight years. That means this is the first time we've had a chance to go through the license-renewal process since passage of the 1996 Telecom Act.

Your critics charge it's too little, too late, especially if courts uphold last summer's ownership deregulation.

Then the government should never review anything, right? We have just as much responsibility to make things better as any commission that's gone before. Some of the criticism is just the scrum of debate over ownership rules, but that doesn't diminish the need for the commission's focus on localism. Implicit in the criticism is that we didn't consider localism in the rules. I reject that. We considered that enormously.