The New York Times is reporting that the Justice Department Anti-trust division has okayed the sale of Clear Channel Communications, one of the big consortiums of radio stations. The sale should fetch $19 Billion. When WXRT, our local little progressive rock station here in Chicago was bought up by CBS/Viacom/Westinghouse, their quality plummetted. A station a local guy had bought for something like $20,000 went for $20 Million. Suddenly they had to have a lot more in ad revenue. There was a 20% increase in ad time. Music became more commercial. They fired Johnny Mars, the best dj they had (he's since been rehired part-time).
More advertising. Less adventurous music. More talk radio. Should be grand.
Remember when you could hear music you liked on AM radio? Oh, yeah. None of you guys under 45.
Have I mentioned how much I love my Sirius Radio?
13 comments:
Let the suckfest begin! College radio, my friend. If you can muscle your way past the faltering DJs, there's some good stuff.
I've been shopping for Sirius for the past week or so. You're a good salesman
It's down to college radio, the CBC, or satellite radio. All other radio is dead.
What do you mean "Get Ready...."? Local radio has been a non entity for the last 20 years, that is unless you are a fan of mind-numbing endless stupid commercials. It's only a matter of time until they get a hold of the satellite as well. Viva my MP3 player......
I miss AM radio — and the early, freeform days of FM radio. Thank God I have a great college station in town.
I stopped listening to the radio in high school when my local station Revolution 105 was bought out. Nothing has ever been the same since.
I remember loving am radio. but that was back when I was 12 and WLS played Bohemian Rhapsody every hour on the hour.
I remember when AM was the only way to hear music, as most radios didn't even have an FM band.
Cool was saying you listened to WPHD on FM, as opposed to their WYSL counterpart.
I'm 46 so I remember AM radio! I had a great little transistor that I'd listen to, really low, after I'd been sent to bed. We could get WLS out of Chicago way over in Iowa, and I thought it was daring and edgy. Commercial radio is horrible - so many ads - I don't even listen in the car anymore.
this is why I listen to audiobooks all th' time.
radio is dead....audiences are plummeting due to the corporate take over of almost all stations --- like around 6 companies own all the stations and they program and playlist like a giant focus group -- in between the commercials
talk radio is the only thing that makes money, and unfortunately most of that is run by the lunatic fringe (most, not all) --- satellite, itunes and internet radio are the future
I used to love XRT. Sad to hear their quality has dropped. I am a big fan of sattelite radio. I have both XM and Sirius. I prefer XM, but Sirius ain't bad.
It's too bad my internet radio station went under, 'cause this would have been a great excuse to plug it.
Maybe I should start it again.
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