• Re: Clear Channel will protect your tender sensibilities by Ben on Wednesday September 19, @10:28AM

  Well well - Clear Channel now say it's all BS. Their press release (Word format); urban myths reference page. Here's the Clear Channel press release in full: San Antonio, TX, September 18, 2001...Clear Channel Communications, Inc. (NYSE: CCU) today issued the following statement as a result of numerous stories, emails and calls concerning an alleged 'list of banned songs' on its U.S. radio stations following last week's tragedy in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania: Clear Channel Radio has not banned any songs from any of its radio stations. Clear Channel believes that radio is a local medium. It is up to every radio station program director and general manager to understand their market, listen to their listeners and guide their station's music selections according to local sensitivities. Each program director and general manager must take the pulse of his or her market to determine if play lists should be altered, and if so, for how long. 'In the wake of this terrible tragedy, the nation's business community is responding with a degree of hypersensitivity,' explained Mark P. Mays, President and Chief Operating Officer of Clear Channel. 'Even some movie companies have altered some of their release schedules in light of the mood in America today. Clear Channel strongly believes in the First Amendment and freedom of speech. We value and support the artist community. And we support our radio station programming staff and management team in their responsibility to respond to their local markets.' But the list did indeed come from within the station, as this SFGate story shows: Company spokeswoman Pam Taylor said the list was "really a grassroots effort" by one ClearChannel program director from outside the Bay Area, whom she declined to name. "This was not a corporate mandate."

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• Re: Clear Channel will protect your tender sensibi by David Gerard on Wednesday September 19, @11:18AM

  I'm appalled that Snopes is acting like a newswire for press releases. That 'False' should be changed to 'Backpedaling'. I suggest the list is songs that might catch people's attention. Because for commercial radio, catching people's attention is bad; if they notice the radio, they might think of changing the channel. "What A Wonderful World" is banned? What the fuck is the song actually about? Good coverage: Radio Sings Self-Censorship Tune (Wired News). I would also be most interested in hearing more about Clear Channel's attempts on Australian radio, and what they're likely to do for our own good here.

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From Salon, what we can look forward to in Australia:

"Radio stations that once were proudly local are now being programmed from hundreds of miles away. Increasingly, the very DJs are in a different city as well.

"Want your record played on one of those stations? Be prepared to pay -- dearly -- for the privilege. Want your band's concert to be sponsored by a radio station? Be careful: If you pick a competitor, the behemoth might pull your songs off its playlists overnight -- from two, 10, 100 stations.

"Looking for classy radio programming? Don't look here. The company is known for allowing animals to be killed live on the air, severing long-standing ties with community and charity events, laying off thousands of workers, homogenizing playlists and a corporate culture in which dirty tricks are a way of life.

"Welcome to the world of Clear Channel -- radio's big bully."

From the New York Times (thanks for this one to Ron Hardin on aus.music):

"The new list is clearly different. Instead of promoting national safety, its intended aim is to ensure national mental health, though First Amendment supporters may point to it as the first shadowy blacklist in what President Bush says will be a war against terrorism. Radio programmers and producers outside of Clear Channel said that they found the list bewildering. 'There are obviously songs on there that people could take the wrong way,' said Michael Stark, a freelance producer who works on 'The Tom Joyner Morning Show' on the ABC Radio Network. 'But there are just as many that could be used to heal and bring context to the tragedy. It seems from the list that they don't want anything that comes close to making waves.'"

[...]

Nina Crowley, the executive director of the Massachusetts Music Industry Coalition, a free-speech organization, worried that this was just the beginning of suppression of artistic expression and that politicians and corporations that have been trying to restrict access to popular music may expand and perpetuate this list. 'President Bush said to be prepared for a long engagement,' she said, 'so this could potentially continue and grow, and these songs could be removed from the public ear for a long time. This list has eliminated songs about flying and falling, but when something else happens, do we remove all the songs about trains and whatever else?'"

From: Paul Dwerryhouse <paul+usenet@dwerryhouse.com.au>
Newsgroups: aus.music
Subject: Re: Clear Channel will protect your tender sensibilities
Date: 19 Sep 2001 15:28:01 +0200
Message-ID: <9oa6h1$7vg$1@merrick.home>

fun@thingy.apana.org.au (David Gerard) writes:

>I am still very interested in hearing more about Clear Channel's moves into
>Australia.

They own something like 50% (not entirely sure there) of the Australian
Radio Network (ARN) - who in turn own the following stations:

MIX Melbourne (formerly TTFM)
MIX Adelaide (formerly 5AD)
MIX Sydney
GOLD 104.3 Melb
WSFM Sydney
4BH Brisbane
4KQ Brisbane
5DN Adelaide

...ARN also has a joint arrangement for the new FM license in Brisbane, with
DMG, and a joint arrangement in Canberra with Austereo for FM104.7 and MIX.

The only songs on that list that would ever have been played on any of those
stations would be a few oldies (typically Pat Benetar, Led Zeppelin and
Queen), and they'd be played on Gold, WSFM and 4KQ.

Cheers,

Paul


--
Paul Dwerryhouse (paul@dwerryhouse.com.au)
Amsterdam, The Netherlands.    <---- current location
Melbourne, Australia.

... probably. From the Sydney Morning Herald 'Spike' column:

"If music be the food of discord ...

"Don't expect to hear Walk Like an Egyptian played on most local radio stations soon. Or Leavin' on a Jet Plane for that matter.

"Spike has already reported on how recent events have affected television programming and film releases, but the impact on radio is no less drastic. The Clear Channel, one of the world's biggest radio networks (with dozens of stations in Australia, including MIX-FM and 2WS), has published a list of more than 150 songs 'with questionable lyrics' which are not to be played at the moment. Some are obvious, some are intriguing.

"Alan Furst, director of programming at the Australian Radio Network (which includes the Clear Channel's Australian stations), told Spike that some additional Australian songs had been added to the US list but did not specify what they all were."

Speaking of which, Fred Durst and whoever that gang of unplugged homies he was playing with should be gutted for that amateur butchering of everyone's favourite song to amateurly butcher, "Wish You Were Here". Even if it's nothing new to skip half the notes of the riff, you're not supposed to fuck with the words of big Rog. "Glad You Are Here". Yeah, you're right, I'm sure that's what he really meant.

Yes, I am a Pink Floyd apologist. Sorry.