Media consolidation

NEW YORK, NY

WHAT: NO MORE CLEAR CHANNELS! STOP THE FCC MEDIA GIVEAWAY

WHEN: Thursday, May 29th 2003 Noon - 1:30 PM - (the Thursday before the FCC votes to dramatically deregulate the media)

WHERE: 1120 Sixth Avenue @ 43rd Street New York City, New York

Protest Clear Channel Radio and the Media Monopoly on Thursday, May 29

A National Day of Protest to Stop the Media Monopoly

Clear Channel Communications is the poster child of everything that's wrong with media deregulation. After the media deregulation of 1996, Clear Channel gobbled up hundreds of radio stations throughout the country and now owns more than 1200 stations nationwide, dominating the audience share in 100 of 112 major markets. Not only is the company the world's largest radio broadcaster, it,s also the world largest concert promoter and billboard advertising firm.

Clear Channel's monopolistic practices have accelerated the homogenization of our airwaves. The company promotes cookie-cutter style radio that has urban stations throughout the country seemingly playing the same seven songs. It shuts out independent artists who can't afford to go through high-priced middlemen and is responsible for taking the practice of voice tracking to new heights. Voice tracking creates brief, computer-assisted voice segments that attempt to fool the listener into thinking that a
program is locally produced, when in fact the same content is being broadcast to upwards of 75 stations nationwide from a central site.

Clear Channel also uses its stations to promote its right-wing political agenda. After September 11, the company came to the public's attention when executives circulated a list of blacklisted songs including John Lennon's Imagine and Cat Stevens' Peace Train. This year Clear Channel became one of the first media companies in recent times to sponsor a political rally--they sponsored pro-war rallies in cities around the country before and during the war on Iraq. Another "Rally for America" is being organized in Huntington, West Virginia for Memorial Day weekend.

If the FCC passes Michael Powell's proposed new media rules, companies like Clear Channel and Fox will be given even more control over the public airwaves than they already have. And we are likely to see in television the same type of feeding frenzy we saw in the radio industry after the 1996 media deregulation.

No more Clear Channels! Stop the FCC media deregulation!

Location:
Clear Channel Radio, 1120 Sixth Avenue @ 43rd Street
New York City New York

Sponsored By:
Sponsored by Citizen Works, CodePink, Democracy Rising, Free Press, Global Exchange, Media Alliance, Prometheus Radio Project, United for Peace and Justice NY, Youth Media Council, and many others.

For directions, please enter the address into Yahoo Maps:
http://maps.yahoo.com

posted by Prometheus 6 at 5/28/2003 07:30:43 AM |