This is sort good news for the little guy, although it only adds up to about 6 months worth of real music.

 

 

Four major radio broadcast companies have tentatively agreed to pay the government $12.5 million and provide 8,400 half-hour segments of free airtime for independent record labels and local artists in separate settlements aimed at curbing the persistent practice known as "payola," according to an AP report. Two FCC officials said the monetary settlement is part of a consent decree between the FCC and Clear Channel, CBS Radio, Entercom and Citadel.

 

Stay tuned to RadioandRecords.com as this developing story unfolds.

They say true talent will allways emerge in time,

When lightning hits small wonder -

Its fast rough factory trade,

No expense accounts, or lunch discounts

Or hypeing up the charts,

The band went in, and knocked 'em dead, in two minutes, fifty nine

I know the boy was all alone, til the Hitsville hit U.K.

 

http://www.lyricsdepot.com/the-clash/hitsville-u-k.html

 

That's great news for the music world and for a lot of muscians who have found themselves with fewer and fewer outlets.

 

But local radio "news" is still in a sorry state: almost disappearing in a wave of corporate broadcasting mergers that has also all but ruined local TV news.  Wonder why broadcast news sucks?  It's largely because the corporate owners no longer look upon actual broadcast journalism as a public service but, instead, as a "profit center".  There was a day when the phrase "broadcast journalism" were not mutually exclusive terms.  No more.

 

Instead, we get local radio and TV news that's nothing more than a localized version of Entertainment Tonight and Inside Edition.

 

Thank god for public radio & TV.

It's always been about the Benjamins, it just becomes more blatent/extreme with each passing generation.

 

Clear Channel Sells 52 Stations In 11 Markets

 

By Brida Connolly

 

Clear Channel today agreed to sell stations in 11 markets in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana to Gap Broadcasting, headed by George Laughlin. The terms of the deal, brokered by Kalil & Co., were not disclosed.

 

There are 52 stations involved in the deal: KEAN-FM, KEYJ-FM, KFGL-FM, KLSI-AM, KULL-FM & KYYW-AM/Abilene, Texas; KATP-FM, KIXZ-AM, KMML-FM, KMXJ-FM & KPRF-FM/Amarillo, Texas; KFMX-FM, KFYO-AM, KKAM-AM, KKCL-FM, KQBR-FM & KZII-FM/Lubbock, Texas; KAFX-FM, KSFA-AM, KTBQ-FM & KYKS-FM/Lufkin, Texas; KCHX-FM, KCRS-AM & FM, KFZX-FM & KMRK-FM/Midland, Texas; KKYR-FM, KMJI-FM, KOSY-AM, KPWW-FM & KYGL-FM/Texarkana, Texas; KBGE-AM, KISX-FM, KKTX-FM, KNUE-FM & KTYL-FM/Tyler, Texas; KIXS-FM, KLUB-FM & KQVT-FM/Victoria, Texas; KBZS-FM, KNIN-FM & KWFX-AM & FM/Wichita Falls, Texas; KLAW-FM, KVRW-FM & KZCD-FM/Lawton, Okla.; and KEEL-AM, KRUF-FM, KTUX-FM, KVKI-FM, KWKH-AM, KXKS-FM/Shreveport, La.

 

From NPR:

 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9521092

 

FCC Announces Details of Payola Settlement

All Things Considered, April 11, 2007 ·

 

The Federal Communications Commission announces the details of a settlement with four of the nation's largest radio broadcasters — Clear Channel, CBS Radio, Citadel and Entercom — over the practice of payola, the practice of accepting payment from record labels to air their artists without disclosing that arrangement to listeners.

 

The settlement includes voluntary payments by the broadcasters; agreements to establish staff positions charged with overseeing compliance with the settlement; and the establishment of a database that tracks all money and other contributions from labels.

 

...

Cleveland radio listeners chose talk over music in winter ratings

Posted by Julie E. Washington May 25, 2007 09:02AM

Categories: Radio

Julie E. Washington

Plain Dealer Reporter

 

WGAR FM/99.5 tumbled from first place to fifth, overtaken by news-talk station WTAM AM/1100, in the recently released winter Arbitron Inc. ratings.

 

Winter Arbitron results are often soft for WGAR, said program director Brian Jennings. "I don't read too much into it," he said.

 

...

 

cleveland.com:

 

Bye bye Buzzard: WMMS 100.7 clips the wings of its famous, big-beaked, rockin' mascot

Posted by Michael Heaton September 14, 2007 12:04PM

Categories: Radio

By Michael Heaton

Plain Dealer Reporter

 

The Buzzard no longer flaps its wings over Cleveland. WMMS FM/100.7, which has used a cartoon buzzard as its logo since 1974, has "de-emphasized" the icon, said Kevin Metheny, vice president for programming at Clear Channel Radio, which owns the station.

 

The WMMS call letters also have been downplayed. Once plastered on bumper stickers and T-shirts, WMMS is nowhere to be found on the station's Web site and billboards. The station IDs that air between music and commercials only shout out the "100.7" dial frequency. Is it the end for Cleveland rock radio's longtime bad-boy bird?

 

...

 

This looks like a publicity gimmick.  Like the chain restaurant giving Big Boy the hook.