When the GOP-fronting establishment radio network dominating the U.S. airwaves censors it:
A couple weeks ago the new album was #1 on the Billboard album chart. Kid Rock's new album knocked it down a peg and this week, Springsteen disposed on Kid Rock and is back at #1. The album is already gold and headed right towards platinum and he's got a great shot to win a Grammy for Best Album of the Year. Magic's reviews virtually everywhere are over the top and the intro to his latest interview in Rolling Stone refers to the album's subject matter as "weighty stuff like the direction of our democracy and party stuff that recalls the days when sparks first flew on E Street more than three decades ago."Republican radio network Clear Channel, a monopoly in many cities and a dominant player in most of the rest, isn't interested. Is it because Springsteen has been an outspoken campaigner for Democrats and progressives? Clear Channel has taken a political stand with its programming in the past. Just think back to their boycott of the Dixie Chicks. Oh, no... not way back, just back to when they released their most recent album. Despite being one of the top 10 best-selling American albums of the year-- across all genres and demographics-- radio studiously ignored it. There were maybe half a dozen country stations that even played it at all. What Clear Channel did to the Dixie Chicks is a watertight case for the need to break the media companies up into a thousand pieces.
Not much Magic on Clear Channel. Despite the hard-driving, hook-a-rama single, "Radio Nowhere". The official "leak" is that it's because the Boss is over 50. But there's evidence to the contrary -- delivered to Congress:
Another friend of mine distinctly recalls the Senate hearings on radio consolidation in light of the Dixie Chicks boycott where Barbara Boxer and John McCain heard testimony including an internal Clear Channel memo threatening "Just wait and see what happens if Springsteen tries this." I guess we're seeing that right now.
Clear Channel, jump a little lighter. Springsteen's back in town.
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If you care about media ownership rules please look into the FCC's latest move to make it easier for Clear Channel to scoop up more radio stations. This Metafilter post has all the links you'll need. Public comment on the new rules closes soon, so I highly suggest going to the FFC site and making a comment today.
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