From Salon.com: "In the late 1990s, while no one was
looking, a corporate behemoth became the largest owner and biggest
force in America's most venerable mass medium:
commercial radio.
"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."
The article continues with anecdotes of Clear Channel's and
company radio head Randy Michaels' apparent displays of cruelty,
arrogance, and "dirty pool." The piece also describes
the rise of Clear Channel following the Telecom Act, and the extensive
reach of the company throughout the industry. Several other industry
players voice their opinion throughout the article, including
Inside Radio
publisher and Randy Michaels nemesis (their personal feud has
reached the courts) Jerry del Colliano.
Read the entire article
here.
From ZDNet: "A couple of weeks ago 3Com pulled the
plug on its Audrey device," (and Kerbango! -- ed.) "joining
Gateway and Netpliance, which abandoned their Internet appliances,
too. And Compaq's MSN-based effort at fitting you with a handy-dandy
computing 'appliance' for your kitchen hasn't set the world afire,
either...
"Why hasn't this nifty new category of computing lived
up to its promise?
"The problem isn't that they're just sissified PCs with
training wheels. Well, not just that. It's simply that they are
too damned expensive -- especially for what they do.
Why
pay $499 for a limited-purpose device when $699 buys a full-blown
computer?
"But the culprit isn't greedy Internet appliance
manufacturers: It's the cost of display screens. Adding a display
to anything bumps up the price. Making the screen larger, more
readable, and more colorful adds even more. Some Internet appliances
have included
screens that cost $200
just for the parts.
Read this entire piece
here.
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From the press release: "In its Internet Radio
Report for the week of April 23-29,
MeasureCast
noted that the
number of people listening to streaming audio over the Internet
continued to increase despite the decisions made by some traditional
AM and FM stations to pull their programs off the Internet.
"The MeasureCast Internet Radio Index for the week
ending April 29 increased 2.4 percent -- from 132 to
135 -- demonstrating that listeners are not abandoning Internet
radio, even though some of their favorite terrestrial stations
have temporarily pulled their broadcasts off the Internet because
of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)
Recorded Commercials Contract...
"Internet-only stations have been receiving more attention
in recent weeks. In fact, 14 of the top 25 stations in last week's
list were Internet-onlys, compared to five in the MeasureCast
standings for the week ending April 1...Breaking into the latest
Top 25 list were four stations from Internet-only broadcaster
Cablemusic.com,
a music website offering free popular music. It's Top 40, Smooth
Jazz, Country, and Classical stations took 6th, 11th, 12th and
18th positions respectively."
Read this entire article, and see this week's MeasureCast
Top 25
here.
