Radio Has Lost it's Soul, and Corporate Media, Like Clear Channel, is the Reason

Radio has lost its' soul, due to the influence of large corporate media. The Local classic rock station 96.9 The Eagle is a Clear Channel station. It is exactly the same as all of the other Clear Channel "classic rock" stations all over the world, playing the same 500 or so songs in constant rotation. But now, Clear Channel Media, one of the largest culprits, is filing for bankruptcy. What does that mean?

In the current system, Local DJs don't get to play local bands. They don't get to play a song they love. Nothing. It is mind numbing for someone that listens to music as much as I do. If you tune in at the same time two days in a row, you are likely to hear the same song (Def Leppard - Pour Some Sugar on Me, for example).

Now, I love Def Leppard, but the Def Leppard that I really love is their first album, On Through the Night, which had one of the top five most awesome album covers of all time, right up there with Yessongs and Boston's First Album. It was a raw, guitar driven rock album, written by a bunch of 20ish kids from Sheffield England. Standout tracks for me Rock Brigade, Wasted, Rocks Off, and It Don't Matter. I wouldn't mind hearing one of those tracks once in a while, but you are NEVER going to hear that on a Clear Channel Station.

  
 Anyways, this is just part of the trend to make everything part of a large company, it just happens to be in an area where I care more about the outcome than a lot of others. It's also abundantly clear in this case how much soul and heart is lost

With the rise of Amazon and WalMart, this is happening everywhere in every segment of American business. Shopping malls are closing, jobs are lost, and local soul is lost.

But maybe something is happening here that reverses that trend a bit. Toys R Us is closing along with Clear Channel. I doubt that these two things taken together are harbingers of a new day, but one can dream, can't they? Because, that's what it's all about.

This post was inspired by reading this:

https://www.thestranger.com/see-not-everything-is-bad-iheartmedia-declares-bankruptcy