Clear Channel blacklisting Springsteen?

[villager]

It takes a lot to get the blood boiling after seven years of the Cheney/Bush administration, but Clear Channel -- that war-and-Bush lovin' media monopoly that dominates many markets around the nation and six here in Philly -- has got me more worked up than anything in recent weeks. If you care about what's been going in on this counrty -- and happen to love Bruce Springsteen, as I do -- then this from Roger Friedman of Fox News should ensure that you never listen to Clear Channel ever again:

Bruce Springsteen should be very happy. He has the No. 1 album, a possible Grammy for Best Album of the Year, for "Magic," an album full of singles, and a sold-out concert tour.

Alas, there's a hitch: Radio will not play "Magic." In fact, sources tell me that Clear Channel has sent an edict to its classic rock stations not to play tracks from "Magic." But it's OK to play old Springsteen tracks such as "Dancing in the Dark," "Born to Run" and "Born in the USA."

It's OK to play the old songs, but not the new ones? Do you think that Clear Channel -- which held a series of thinly disguised pro-war rallies in the winter of 2003 -- objected to lyrics like this:

The kids asleep in the backseat We're just countin' the miles you and me We don't measure the blood we've drawn anymore We just stack the bodies outside the door

Who'll be the last to die for a mistake
The last to die for a mistake
Whose blood will spill, whose heart will break
Who'll be the last to die for a mistake

It's pretty bad when your best excuse for banning Springsteen is ageism (he's 58) but you have to conclude this is really all raw politics. Down with Tyranny has a good analysis of what's really going down.

http://www.attytood.com/2007/10/avoid_1045_other_clear_channel_1.html

[ronnykmarshall]

1. Buuuzz! WRONG!

This was a topic on our local Air America station (a Clear Channel station). Not only are they playing Springsteen's music .... they are selling his MP3's on their website.

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

2. This Is Incorrect

I heard that show on KTLA, and they don't know what they're talking about.

I guess you expected them to come out and admit what they are doing. They're marginalizing Bruce, and he's not getting the airplay that a performer of his stature should.

[ronnykmarshall]

5. You should have called in .

[LindainCinci]

3. Maybe Bruce can boycott Clear Channel and ask his music

not be sent to them if they are going to be judge and jury in deciding which songs can be played.

[T Wolf]

4. I would love to see this. But it comes down to who really "owns" the

music. I bet that even for a mega-star like Bruce, it is still a corporate entity. And they will not bite the hand...

But wouldn't it be great to see someone who should have enough power to tell them to fuck off tell them to fuck off?

But, if Bruce cannot do it, who possibly could? Is there anyone "bigger" in the industry?

[shain from kane]

6. The Eagles have Walmart as a partner. Walmart is bigger than Springsteen, any way you measure it.

[donheld]

7. Denver - Boulder's KBCO is playing

the new Bruce CD.

[Jack Bone]

8. KBCO's one of the best stations in the nation..

along w/ WDST out of Woodstock...I love to stream those two

:headbang: