Sep
20
Right of the Dial: The Rise of Clear Channel and the Fall of Commercial Radio
By
From Publishers Weekly
Journalist Foege (Confusion Is Next) brings objectivity and insight to this exploration of Clear Channel, one of the most reviled media conglomerates in the U.S. The author aims for an unbiased understanding of the corporation and its practices, how it came to be and what it says about our culture. The reader follows the Clear Channel operation from its inception as a family business in the 1990s through commercial expansion, megamergers, vertical integration,…
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3 Comments
September 20th, 2009 at 3:17 am
Alec Foege has written a well put together monograph on the closely related demise of commercial radio and the increasing influence of the giant Clear Channel organization. Though certainly not the only culprit in the destruction of our most intimate medium, the arrogant buffoons from San Antonio were not only at the wheel of the bus that ran over radio; they also backed it over most of the people who toil (or, toiled) in the audio trenches. What used to be a fun and romantic industry is now going the way of the Pony Express and Alec Foege points an accusing finger in the right direction. You can always tell when a business is taking the slide to oblivion. The bean counters are running the show.
September 20th, 2009 at 5:13 am
I found the author most interested in how Clear Channel, according to him, made life more difficult for musicians, and musical acts. I was more interested in their radio efforts and results. We learned what has been surmised……….just because you can glean huge dollars from Wall Street doesn’t make you an instant success in radio. And many of the Clear Channel ideas just didn’t work in Burlington, IA….Mankato, MN and Minot, ND. The author seemed quite thorough in gathering his historical facts, and interviews with early players in the Clear Channel company. If you enjoy books about businesses, and particuarly the media, this is a good read.
September 20th, 2009 at 6:16 am
This book is full of bad grammar, redundant adjectives, sentences that contradict one another, trivial detail that add nothing to the points being made; in other words, a conscientious editor’s nightmare. At least it would have been, had a conscientious editor actually been assigned to this mess. And of course this juvenile tome just happens to concern a subject matter that needs to be exposed to the public.
Where do these new “authors” go to learn the ways of their craft? The local comic book store?