Radio's big bully
A complete guide to Salon's reporting on Clear Channel, the most powerful -- and some would say pernicious -- force in the music industry.
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For the past few months, Salon reporter Eric Boehlert has been tracking the story of Clear Channel Communications, the little-noticed media giant that has quietly taken over the country's radio and concert industries.
The company owns nearly 1,200 radio stations and effectively controls the rock radio market. It also owns SFX Entertainment, the nation's dominant concert-venue owner and touring promoter.
In the stories below, Boehlert has detailed the corporation's evolution under the aegis of Randy Michaels, the one-time shock jock who has turned the industry upside down with rampant cost-cutting and a good-ol'-boy approach to management.
And in "Pay for Play" Boehlert details the new payola -- the complex arrangements under which the world's major record companies pay for virtually every rock song broadcast on commercial radio.
Finally, there is a link to the Clear Channel Web site, on which you can easily find the stations the company operates in your town.
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Pay for play
Why does radio suck? Because most stations play only the songs the record companies pay them to. And things are going to get worse
By Eric Boehlert
Fighting pay-for-play
Sources in the music industry call for a federal clampdown on the new payola
By Eric Boehlert
Radio's big bully
Dirty tricks and crappy programming: Welcome to the world of Clear Channel, the biggest station owner in America
By Eric Boehlert
Tough company
Clear Channel is as big as NBC or Gannett. Chances are it owns a half-dozen radio stations in your town. And it's fighting employee suits alleging everything from broken contracts to sexual harassment.
By Eric Boehlert
The "Bootylicious" gambit
Can a hot new single from Destiny's Child help Columbia Records crack
the indie promoters' control of pop radio?
By Eric Boehlert
One big happy channel?
The Telecommunications Reform Act handed overcontrol of the radio airwaves to a chosen few. Will TV be next?
By Eric Boehlert
What's wrong with the music biz?
Napster's out of the picture, but for the first time in a decade, album sales are down -- and ticket sales are sagging too.
By Eric Boehlert
The Clear Channel Web site
Here you can read about the company's radio holdings and search the site to find the stations it owns in your metropolitan area.
Payola City
In the wild world of urban radio, money buys hits -- and nobody asks questions.
By Eric Boehlert
More waves in the radio business
Is corporate behemoth Clear Channel behind the latest shakeup?
By Eric Boehlert
Suit: Clear Channel is an illegal monopoly
A tiny Denver promoter is taking the most powerful force in the music industry to court.
By Eric Boehlert
Rock 'n' radio rumble
A dust-up involving Clear Channel and a Blink-182 concert in Cincinnati doesn't seem to be an isolated event.
By Eric Boehlert