Clear Channel Communications

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Clear Channel Communications is a media company in the United States of America. Clear Channel wields more than considerable influence in radio broadcasting, concert promotion and hosting, and fixed advertising in the United States. The company controls virtual monopolies in some cities, with over 1,200 radio stations in the United States. They also own over 30 television stations in the United States. The present head of the company is Lowry Mays and its headquarters is located in San Antonio, Texas.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s the company became an object of persistent criticism. Critics claim that it is has abused its market position and operates in an unethical manner.

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C, a list of songs apparently recommended to be removed from airplay as inappropriate during a time of national mourning was generated and circulated. A small list was initially generated by the Clear Channel office, though individual program directors added many of their own songs. A list containing about 150 songs was soon circulating on the Internet. The criteria for choosing the songs seemed to be unreasonable to many. A number of songs were apparently placed on the list just because they had specific words such as "plane," "fly," and "falling" in their titles. Many people found it particularly ludicrous that John Lennon's "Imagine" was one of the songs listed. Clear Channel denies that this was a list of "banned" songs, stating that there was no official policy backing it up. Many individual stations played songs on the list.

Neil Young played "Imagine" on the nationally televised concert ten days after the attacks. Bruce Springsteen and Paul Simon also played songs they themselves had written which were on the "banned" list.

Table of contents

1 Program Hosts (through its Premiere Radio Networks subsidary) 2 Former Hosts 3 See Also 4 External links and references

Program Hosts (through its Premiere Radio Networks subsidary)

• Rush Limbaugh
• Dr. Laura
• Phil Hendrie
• Jim Rome

Former Hosts

• Bubba the Love Sponge was fired from a Clear Channel station on 24 February 2004, following a large FCC fine.
• Howard Stern was permanently removed from all Clear Channel stations on 8 April 2004, following a large FCC fine.

See Also

• Howard Stern

External links and references

• The website of Clear Channel Communications
• Clear Channel Sucks
• Eric Boehlert, Radio's big bully, salon.com, April 30, 2001
• Eric Boehlert, Tough company, salon.com, May 30, 2001
• A Google web directory related to Clear Channel Communications
• The list of 150 banned songs
• Bad Transmission A look at the banned song list, and the criteria for choosing them.
• CorpWatch.org article on Clear Channel
• Project Censored article on Clear Channel