I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
fuckbush!!
and fuck Clear Channel...cocksuckers
I deduce from this post that Atrios is killing time by reading the business section of today's NYT?
Wow, radio ad revenue is down? You don't suppose people are getting tired of hearing the same 20 songs played repeatedly...
May the cocksucking owners be forced to work for minimum wage with no benefits, maybe waiting tables? At Red Lobster?
Sorry, but back to the Harper's article - Red Lobster figures in as an employer of one of the church leaders and so does Pastor Ted, a total whack job.
republicans have self destructed- we just haven't had an election to prove it yet. middle america did not go out last fall to vote to have terri schiavo's life extended and they did not go out to vote for a bankruptcy bill.
Wasn't one of the LGFers who trolls here a Red Lobster line cook?
Their stock dropped 25 percent?
Karma.
They should't have dissed the
Dixie Chicks or aired that Swift
Boat liars doc.
Buzz Bomb - There was a LGFer a few months ago who was bragging about being a chef at Red Lobster. People jumped all over him for elevating the art of using a microwave to chefdom.
If they maintain majority control, they're just creating captive entities without changing the underlying nature of the vertical trust. Anyone really think anticompetative collusion between those entities would ever be investigated, unless Spitzer gets around to it?
Wasn't one of the LGFers who trolls here a Red Lobster line cook?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ayup. that's why it stuck out. And the other reference is self-explanatory.
steve,
hear hear. that boomerang smarts right good when it nails ya right btwn the eyes.
What's this "Clear Channel" that you speak of?
Except for NPR, I stopped listening to the radio back in the 80's. (I should have quit in the 70's.)
Check out Gary Greenberg's piece on Clear Channel in Rolling Stone.
Greenberg does CC
Well, it's really about Ticketmaster but Clear Channel is part of the conspiracy. . .
promoting stuff on your radio station is only effective if people listen to your radio station.
Why listen to radio, when you can get a MP3 player or buy an IPOD? When you can program your own soundtrack, who wants to listen to endless booming ads about car stereo systems and zeropercentfinancingforqualifiedbuyers?
Clear Channel's vertical-integration model for concert and artist promos via their stations sure seemed like a sound business move. I'm sure that the guys at that meeting used the word "synergy" until it wore out.
As for their advertising slump, welcome to the rest of the real world. Advertising dollars are now spread thin everywhere, and you MUST be able to hyper-target super selective micro-slices of specific audiences. Worse (for them) was last year's study that found people pushing the station select button on their car radios after a single 30-second spot. People will sit through one, but not two 30-second commercials. Mighty tough to make money selling single 30-second spots.
They should't have dissed the
Dixie Chicks...
Let's not forget that, right after that, the Chicks shot to the top of the charts.
And the shows on the following tour were packed.
The brownshirt "boycott" didn't affect their popularity one fucking bit.
Meanwhile: Toby Keith. Were is he now?
Maybe Atrios should be stuck at the airport more often. He certainly is giving a lot of thread. More above.
At first it was the Cafe
Then the mom and pops all moved away
Now the billboards stand
Where they could not survive
The local DJ lost his show
After 20 years on the radio
Now we're stuck with what
The monopoly provides
I just want something new
To shake my soul and body too
Set up the tent I need to be revived
Make the consultant history
Keep the playlist a mystery
Don't make up my mind for me
Cause I'm still alive
Hey Hey FCC Don't you turn your back on me
Terri Hendrix
Monopoly
Why listen to radio, when you can get a MP3 player or buy an IPOD?
I can't remember the last time I listened to radio with any regularity. I think it might date back to when I was a supervisor on the night shift... about 10 years ago.
And I hated it even then.
Worse (for them) was last year's study that found people pushing the station select button on their car radios after a single 30-second spot.
I usually push the button immediately. I know it's not a single 30 second spot, nor two 30 second spots. It's four or five at least, and I don't give a shit.
Sorry, but back to the Harper's article - Red Lobster figures in as an employer of one of the church leaders and so does Pastor Ted, a total whack job.
QL in NY
Mmm...A shitty seafood dinner that couldn't even pass as fish bait prepared by crackpot fundies. My stomach's a'growlin' already.
Meanwhile: Toby Keith. Were is he now?
Giving back alley hand jobs for crack money, if there's any justice in the world.
watertiger:
Didn't a couple of
big companies pull their ads
from Clear Channel TV over the
Swift Boat thing?
a radio-advertising slump caused the stock to drop 25% in the past year.
One hopes its a selectively targeted advertising slump.
Meanwhile: Toby Keith. Were is he now?
Doing car commercials?
So Right Wing Extremism is no longer a cash cow for Clear Channel -
Bwwwaaaahahahahahahahahahaha!!!
Why listen to radio, when you can get a MP3 player or buy an IPOD?
Only time I listen to the radio is in the car. And then its tuned to AAR.
I listen to AAR in the car, and I know when they take their commercial breaks and how long they are. As soon as one comes on, I flip it to another radio station. I don't want to listen to endless replays of Freestand Financial's Two Minute Mortgage Update featuring 3 percent mortgages. Not for me.
Sorry, should be "Toby Keith: where is he now?"
My hands are still shaky from using the Weedeater!
BTW, around the house, I listen to the music stations on my cable. No commercials (good), no DJs (neutral to bad), but I've actually heard new music on the Adult Alternative that I probably wouldn't have heard on a Clear Channel station.
Plus they've got all-blues and all-reggae stations!
Only time I listen to the radio is in the car. And then its tuned to AAR.
flory
We have some good indie stations that make radio a lot more palatable. There's also a decent classical station here, as well as some jazz, but other than that, I don't do commercial radio because if I hear "Hotel California" one more time I'll need to drive off a cliff.
Recently I found out that the Carlyle Group purchased Verizon in my state. Damn, now I get to feed the beast by both cell and home phone charges. Competition? Yes, but they're just another corporation...
It's useless, corporations selling assets to less benign corporations, even evil ones. Clear Channel is just another Bushite power grabber. Let them rot.
Right now on the cable "oldies" channel: "Fire" by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
You've been living like a little girl
In the middle of your little world...
I have listened to the radio for
music since the late 70s.
Query for any New Yorkers here:
Is there a decent rock station
of any stripe in NYC?
dave - Yeah - we got a whole bunch of music stations with comcast cable and they are good. The variety is astonishing and no commercials.
There was a LGFer a few months ago who was bragging about being a chef at Red Lobster.
IIRC that was Iron Fistula. Low quality, even by troll standards.
Ok, still flipping channels. Just found a strange movie on AMC called "Duel." It stars Dennis Weaver as a salesman who is being followed by a semi-truck (marked "flammable") that is trying to force him and his oil burning car off the road. Made in 1971 and received 3 stars.
I'm trying to understand why it received 3 stars.
Weaver's car is now coasting down a steep grade in neutral, with the semi in hot pursuit. Is this an allegory of some kind? The oil companies coming to get us?
Got to be careful of the oldies. If you're not careful you suddenly find your head inflicting Freddy and the Dreamers on you.
I'm still waiting for the benefits of all this new media to mean that I'll be able to hear what I want while I do the house work.
Hasn't happened yet.
Nevermind! Duel was directed by Spielberg.
Good grief.
It's just a freakin' shark on wheels.
san antone rose - made for TV movie from the 70's - but really pretty good, IIRC.
I'm wondering how much pressure Clear Channel applied on Air America to get that exclusivity contract for XM Radio. You can bet that AA's continued airing on major market Clear Channel stations was part of the discussions.
I don't want to switch from Sirius. Overall, their programming is better. XM's only draw for me is Bob Edwards and baseball. I really don't want to lose Micealangelo Signorile--he has the best political show in broadcasting.
I chose Sirius because I did not want to put any money into Clear Channel's pockets. I'm pissed off about this.
There was this shitty band called Alien Ant Farm that had a big Clear Channel hit a few years back. It was a crap cover of "Smooth Criminal." Anyway, they were in heavy rotation everywhere. On their tour, they had booked a show-- I believe it was in San Diego-- at a non-Clear Channel venue. The brass at CC flipped out, threatening to pull all the band's spins if they did the show at the competitor's venue. The band of course caved.
If you think Clear Channel stations sucked before, just wait. Both Clear Channel and Infinity have severed ties with the money-laundering "independent promoters" when they heard Eliot Spitzer was about to investigate. You'd think that'd be a good thing, but the end result will be tighter playlists, fewer new artists and a lot more "Hotel California" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Flawed as the payola-esque "indie promoter" system was, it was the only way for the labels to get on the airwaves.
Here in LA we have two outstanding radio stations-- Indie 103 and KCRW. Indie 103 was affiliated with Clear Channel for a while, but the behemoth already owned too many LA stations and was forced to sell. Fortunately Indie's ratings were through the roof and it's here to stay. Hopefully more stations will imitate Indie's "Rock That Does Not Suck" format.
Fuck Bush and Fuck Clear Channel!
I have been boycotting Clear Channel for years (there are a power in SW Michigan) -- I listen to the station from Notre Dame (a professional football team in Indiana with a school attached)
Mind you, I never buy anything anyway (seeing as how I am a monk) but it is the principal of the thing
EPTropy, your comment just flashed me back to The Thirteenth Floor Elevators...
Wasn't one of the LGFers who trolls here a Red Lobster line cook?
He calls himself "Iron Fist." He designed the LGF gang patch. I posted a picture of him wearing his snazzy leather LGF vest a few weeks ago. You might have seen it--Atrios linked to it.
"Fees" on 22.00 ticket for an upcoming show at a Clean Channel-controlled venue: almost 11.00!! It would make me really happy to see ANYONE break the stranglehold these guys have on the local market..
Ok, still flipping channels. Just found a strange movie on AMC called "Duel." It stars Dennis Weaver as a salesman who is being followed by a semi-truck (marked "flammable") that is trying to force him and his oil burning car off the road. Made in 1971 and received 3 stars. - san antone rose
I LOVE Dennis Weaver. I don't have cable, damnit. Oh, well, maybe I'll get to see it some other time.
Hey, looky there, on NBC is something about UFOs? or is it an advertisement?
Oh, it's "Unexplained Mysteries", coming up....
As many of us have been warning for years, commercial radio was killing the goose that laid the golden egg.
But don't write off all radio. College and other non-commercial radio can often be interesting and entertaining. Wherever I go I check out the dial below 92 FM.
That was Speilberg's directorial debut, "Duel". Unless you count the toy train wreck he filmed as a kid of about nine.
As someone above mentioned, the real question becomes who buys it and what control, if any, will CC maintain?
The only solace is that CC is worth less today than it was a year ago.
Now that's nice.
As for JK47's comment about payola I'll say this. Sure. It will "disappear" for a short while only to reappear in a different costume. There are few businesses more crooked than music.
Actually, not good news.
Clear channel has realized their vanilla/one size fits all programing for every mark has led to a much smaller sample of marketable concert acts.
So, they are spinning off the concert business, which allows them to get even more vanilla and homogonized, without seeing the effects on the live action side of the equation.
Ice Weasel is certainly right about the corrupt nature of the music industry. That is why it is so much fun to watch their profits erode. Every time I read about some mass major-label layoff or a slump in CC stock, I cackle with great glee. I've still got my fingers crossed that the RIAA loses the Grokster suit. God, that would be sweet.
Ok, still flipping channels. Just found a strange movie on AMC called "Duel." It stars Dennis Weaver as a salesman who is being followed by a semi-truck (marked "flammable") that is trying to force him and his oil burning car off the road. Made in 1971 and received 3 stars.
I'm trying to understand why it received 3 stars.
Weaver's car is now coasting down a steep grade in neutral, with the semi in hot pursuit. Is this an allegory of some kind? The oil companies coming to get us?
Weaver spent most of that movie acting incredibly dumb. Of course, if he did not then the plot would have made not sense. Very much in the style of people who stand and watch the volcano exploding rather than just getting the hell out of there. Only sense he showed was right at the end of the movie.
I have listened to the radio for
music since the late 70s.
Jesus, that would be
HAVEN'T listened.
Man, I wish Haloscan had a preview
function.
plot would have made not sense
plot would not have made sense. Guess that is the appropriate line to screw up.
How much of the stock will the parent company hold? Could still impact who gets to play in their venues.
anyone know if cc is still running it's ban the dixie chicks.
Is there a decent rock station
of any stripe in NYC?
Not a one. I watched the 'heritage' rock station, WNEW, go tits-up after deciding to tinker with a format that worked well for years. I haven't listened in years, either, but last I heard they were doing some 'hot talk' format. That prolly failed, too.
K-Rock finally figured out that there aren't enough quality artists to support a 'modern rock' format, and have switched back to Classic Rock. (Not to mention the kids they were aiming that format at were listening to their iPods anyway.)
NYC is back to 20 spins of Billy Joel a day. Even the news stations are more entertaining than the rock stations. Radio blows.
"Duel" is pretty cool... saw it as a kid when it was an "ABC Movie of the Week" or whatever. I like when the truck smashes through the reptile farm.
Now, "Killdozer" was a sucky movie.
IMHO:
Duel is almost a masterpiece.
Here's the way to see it on DVD.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obido...?v=glance&
s=dvd
Res:
Did the Ramones song come through?
steve - I agree with you about Duel. I watched it when it came out in the 70's and I thought it was really good. That last scene was pretty damned cool - the sound effects especially.
Blogwhore: Fred Phelps says SpongeDobStickyPants is going to hell!
steve --
How is it possible for NYC not to have a decent radio station? Chicago has the bear (or it did the last time I was able to listen to Chicago radio & I thought it was great -- might have declined since then)
But NYC a musical wasteland is hard to imagine (of course, so is preznit Fredo)
Advertising is a discretionary item in most businesses.
When the economy begins to tank, it one of the first expenses to go.
Since much of Clear Channels revenue comes from the local community, this indicates a growing slump in out in the heartlands.
Defense contractors and most energy companies do not advertise on radio.
Imagine crusing in your car with an Exxon commercil after you just paid $2.50/gallon t a company can can't burn profits fast enough.
Our economy is fucked and getting worse,the heartlands are way too fucked, gas prices will stay up to satisfy energy company greed and Cler Channel is the canary for both the economy and the radio industry
(subscriptin ?)
And Walmart has the cheapest prices so why bother competing?
Prior:
NYC radio has sucked since the
late 70s-early 80s.
Ask anybody my age and they'll wax
nostalgic about WPIX -- played the
latest new wave and punk shit, AND
roots rock and doo-wop. It was
heaven, but it only lasted about two
years.
What is wrong with Florida???
Why has a judge in Florida been allowed to stop a minor from having an abortion????
Apparently the judge thinks he is above the law - which in Florida allows minors to have an abortion without the consent of their parents.
This is a ridiculous abuse of judicial power and the judge should be removed from the bench. Period.
steven --
I would never question your knowledge of music or NYC, but you've got to admit that it certainly sounds counter-intuitive!
Last time I stayed in NYC was early 80s (visiting the curent Bishop of Milwaukee when he was at seminary at General in Chelsea) -- Patti Smith's "Because the Night" was all over the place
Times have changed...
Ask anybody my age and they'll wax
nostalgic about WPIX -- played the
latest new wave and punk shit, AND
roots rock and doo-wop. It was
heaven, but it only lasted about two
years.
Great station - possibly the last great commercial rock station in NYC.
Remember when it turned into WAPP, with their 'commercial-free summer?' Randi Rhodes was on the 'APP staff at the time - and got banned from Jones Beach for saying 'fuck' at an Eagles show.
"The oil companies coming to get us?
san antone rose | 04.30.05 - 3:23 pm"
In my opinion, the ending of the movie pretty wells spells out how the oil companies should come to an end...And what I really want to know is why does Ann Coulter have an adam's apple???
a friend of mine used to work at the Fillmore, and she says it's terrible to work there now that CC owns it.
In NYC there's my favorite station WFMU, but it may be a little too esoteric for some people...
My favorite radio station: www.kgnu.org
Boulder, CO
wxpn
Remember when it turned into WAPP, with their 'commercial-free summer?' Randi Rhodes was on the 'APP staff at the time - and got banned from Jones Beach for saying 'fuck' at an Eagles show.
Stranger
Stranger, you should be ashamed of yourself!
PIX became CD 101.9, the Feng Shui of sound. WAPP had been WTFM, for years one of the beautiful music stations in the City (on Horace Harding Expressway, Island Boy!).
I'm told that in the era just prior to its demise, WTFM had morphed into something akin to the future CD 101.9, except with more real jazz and less plastic. This might account for the confusion.
But, as always, "Good Radio Must Die" [c].
Keep this in mind:
Over the last number of years, the music industry, once $44billion dollars a year, has eroded to $27 billion a year. Part of that is because of the soft ticket sales, caused by high ticket prices(Caused by the concert deals that CC crams down the throats of artists), but the other part of that is the fact that record companies no longer invest meaningfully in the development of new artists.
A new record contract, in LA, will garner the artist(s) either $10,000, 20,000 or 30,000 up front. That's it. No tour support. Little promotion, other than a release to stations, where it gets played or it doesn't.
A few years ago, Warner Artist Development(RIP) did a study on effective deployment of promotional dollars. Nothing matched a band on tour. Wherever they had a band play, whatever market, they saw returns on sales that sustained.
Keep in mind that Duran Duran played their first US concert at "The Chance" in Poughkeepsie NY, way back when, to 11 people. They went on to tour all over the US, and by the end, the shows were moved to larger venues and sold out, every night. The record company stood behind the tour.
I know: I was there. On tour with them. The token septic.
You could not develop such an act in today's musical climate.
Don't think for a second this isn't a major grassroots political victory.
Suck it, CC.
Anyone remember Alison Steele, the Nighbird? I was riveted by her voice, back in the day...
@On_the_Clock
It can be a major grassroots victory, depending on who runs the new company and how. Know this: directly un-linking the concert part of the business from the radio part has the potential to be a very good thing and revitalize the touring part of the industry. It also opens up the potentials for competing concert promoters all over the country.
Of course, it could play out quite differently. It should be interesting to see who gets the nod as head of this concern.
Long before the political element entered in, I hated Clear Channel. Between them and Infinity, they effectively killed radio--and more than anything else brought the music bidness to the place it is today.
With their tiny monopolistic playlist and the enormous payola you have to shell out to get on it, it meant the bug music companies could promote relatively few discs. This in turn pushed the music companies to abandon diversity.
And as a result of this homogenization, people stopped listening to the radio as a source for new music. Ten years ago, you'd go into an office and there'd be radios playing in cubicles. It soon turned into audio CD's in the CD-ROM drive, and now to iTunes.
Which is Clear Channel killing that old gold-an d-platinum laying goose.
But it also put the big music companies in a pickle, because radio was the perfect promotional medium. The odd thing about music is that the only way to sell people music is to actually play it for them. With people not listening to the radio, how are they going to sell new music to people?
There were three bad answers:
1) Rely on already established acts. This one's so obviously slow death that nothing need be said.
2) Rely on pretty faces. They've obviously gone for this one like crazy: Britney, Alicia Keys, Norah Jones, Ricky Martin, Matchbox 20, Shania Twain, Lyle Lovett*--you can promote pretty faces by giving then a 10-second appearance on Entertainment Tonight rather than play the song. This generates sales--but tends to further degrade the market for people whose critical vocabulary doesn't consist of the words 'dreamy' and/or 'babe-a-licious.'
3)The Internets. This is the most like their old friend radio--people actually searching out new acts and new music and hearing whatthey were like--but the problem was that it was the actual stuff. This got the legal departments in a tizzy and they moved in with the virtual bulldozers. (Added to the fact that the interesting new music wasn't coming out from the big guys because they were busy with Beyoncé and Shakira.
It was Steve Jobs who finally showed them the way out: 99˘ a song, and a ten-second preview of every song at the store--but the big guys have already damaged themselves, maybe beyond repair.
And the day that iTMS or its equivalent starts making deals with individual artists and bands is the day Sony, BMG, EMI and the others officiallly become obsolete.
*Hah! Gotcha!
Reminds me of The Last DJ (Tom Petty) -
Well you can?t turn him into a company man
You can?t turn him into a whore
And the boys upstairs just don?t understand anymore
Well the top brass don?t like him talking so much,
And he won?t play what they say to play
And he don?t want to change what don?t need to change
There goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say, hey hey hey?
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
There goes the last DJ
Well some folks say they?re gonna hang him so high
?Cause you just can?t do what he did
There?re some things you just can?t put in the minds of those kids
As we celebrate mediocrity all the boys upstairs want to see
How much you?ll pay for what you used to get for free
There goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say, hey hey hey?
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
And there goes the last DJ
Well he got him a station down in Mexico
And sometimes it?ll kind of come in
And I?ll bust a move and remember how it was back then
And there goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say, hey hey hey?
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice.
And there goes the last DJ
As for me, CBC Radio all the way! Also, if we need some rawk, we can get our fill of Trooper, AC/DC, & David Wilcox on the Wolf 101.5 :P
pbg nails it. That was right on point.
I wonder if the success of Indie 103 in LA will pave the way for more "good" radio stations. People love Indie because it doesn't play the typical Staind, P.O.D., Nickelback shit. You might hear the Modern Lovers segue into the White Stripes into Autolux into Beastie Boys on Indie. That's good radio, and people love it. You'd think this format would be imitated elsewhere. They're severely cutting into KROQ's slice of the pie here.
I have to admit... Clear Channel may be a shady company, but I have to say as a person working in media, it is hard to avoid working along side of them in several different projects. You have to pick your battles, folks!
Clear Channel Communications?
Don't you mean Christian Channel Communications?
In Austin, CCC (and Infinity) changed their radio format 6 months ago. They dumped Classic Rock for "best of the old...and we play contemporary now."
Then I noticed something strange. I started hearing "contemporary" Christian religious fundamentalist rock where I had never heard it before...on the public radio airwaves.
My guess. Some orthodox Christian fanatic at CCC decided that he wanted everyone to hear his Christian religious fundamentalist crap, so he dumped the old Oldie/Goldie format.
Of course, being a Christian who doesn't want to have anything at all to do with his type of fanatical, orthodox Christian, I immediately turn the radio knob when I hear any rock melody I can't immediately identify.
I will not be brainwashed by some religious nut crooning about "original sin."
So, I'm going to Satellite Radio, even though, apparently, these more liberal, True Rock venues are in the evil cross-hairs of these religious fundamentalist (Al Qaeda-lookalike) nuts.
Clear Channel picked up Air America Radio and is running with it because their previous lineup of all-lying-neocons, all-the-time was resulting in dwindling audiences over the age of 50.
And all the press is touting progressive talk as the hope of radio overall -- AAR takes a station from 26th in the lineup to 3rd, with that coveted 21-54 audience, at that, while Rush's numbers fall off as his audience dies or goes into senile dementia.
So maybe, just maybe, Clear Channel will catch on to progressive and independent music as well?
Ah, who gives a crap, I only listen to AAR, too. Gave up on radio in the early 80s, too.
I love Indie 103 and I live on the other side of the country. Yay, Internet!
When the Clear Channel thugs took over concerts at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, outside Albany, NY, and prices went up by about 30 percent.
They could get it for Dave Matthews, but not for most of their offerings.
The Texas assholes also bought WGY, 810 AM, one of the first radio stations in the country and a 50,000-watt presence throughout the Northeast. Their current weekday lineup includes Rush, Hannity, Savage and a Hannity-wannabe Andrew Wilkow. They ruined a great local/regional radio station by programming ultra-red in a blue state.
Despite his lyrics above, Petty deals with the Clear Channel thugs for his concerts at SPAC. I'll probably go ot see him, at $25 on the lawn, but I won't like having part of that go to the thugs from Texas.
And for those of you who are interested in anti-trust law, and other anti-competitive situations in US commerce, consider how 'uncompetitive' it is to:
1) have a 'performance venue' owned by Clear Channel itself or by a wholly-owned subsidiary, and
2) have that performance venue have a completely exclusiive no-bid or 'sham-bid' contract issued to a ticketing company (name withheld) also wholly-owned by Clear Channel -- so no competition possible
3) have Channel also expand into the 'Artist Management' business, so that if you are a performer, you have a ready-made promotional avenue for you, since Clear Channel already owns you, the venues, the ticketing system, and the radio and other media to promote you.
Oh, by the way, they're also making inroads into influencing local communities into providing zoning variances and other concessions for their performance venues.
Oh, did I mention their control of the concession contracts for their venues? Ever wonder why, when at a concert venue you are prevented by force from bringing in outside food or beverages, but you're free to buy a hot dog for $4.50 or a beer for about the same? Guess who holds or controls the concession contracts?
I really don't think anything else need be said.
When the Clear Channel thugs took over concerts at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, outside Albany, NY, and prices went up by about 30 percent.
I saw two Phish shows there last year and was knocked out by what a great venue it was. Well, except when it came time to leave, but still. Beautiful area, great sound, ushers that gave up on bothering people puffing on joints after the first song etc.
My tickets were $40 face but ended up being $55 after all the charges. The 6/19/04 show was worth every penny though.
Well, if Clear Channel goes under I don't know if I'll shit or go blind first.
Hatred for a corporation is one thing, but lets not forget who's administration changed the rules to make CCU's aquisition orgy possible. Until antitrust rules are ENFORCED (by both Republicans AND Democrats) they are meaningless and this shit is going to happen in every damn industry you can think of. Don't work for a monopoly yet? Just wait a couple months.
CCU isn't afraid of Spitzer. The reason they spun off CCE and CCO is that neither of them was making money as part of CCU, and it was driving down CCU's bottom line, hence the stock prices. This way the Entertainment and Outdoor divisions can sink or swim on their own without affecting the stock prices of the broadcast divisions.
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