Too old for radio?
You have to skip down through the Britney ‘news’ before you hit this disturbing article which describes how not just the record companies have gone insane in the music business.
Bruce: Magic Refused Radio Play
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.”
Just no new songs by Springsteen, even though it’s likely many radio listeners already own the album and would like to hear it mixed in with the junk offered on radio.
Why? One theory, says a longtime rock insider, “is that the audience knows those songs. Of course, they’ll never know these songs if no one plays them.”
Clear Channel seems to have sent a clear message to other radio outlets that at age 58, Springsteen simply is too old to be played on rock stations. This completely absurd notion is one of many ways Clear Channel has done more to destroy the music business than downloading over the last 10 years. It’s certainly what’s helped create satellite radio, where Springsteen is a staple and even has his own channel on Sirius.
It’s not just Springsteen. There is no sign at major radio stations of new albums by John Fogerty or Annie Lennox, either. The same stations that should be playing Santana’s new singles with Chad Kroeger or Tina Turner are avoiding them, too.
Guess that’s bad news for singles from the Eagles’ newest CD, or for Ozzy.
Well his latest stuff is cr*p, so I have no problem in not having to listen to it while i wait for the next crappy new song from britney to be played.
Just saying
No more of my money is going to those granny suing, coke snorting, pink handed, money grubbing lawyer wielding RIAA bastards. If I can’t get the music I want directly from the artist, or some non RIAA affiliated source, it’s a pirate’s life for me, buckos. Arrrrr!
When sales and creativity decisions are made solely by beancounters – it doesn’t matter what the industry is. Growth dynamics cease.
It’s political! Clear Channel is affiliated with the right wing conservatives and Springsteen is definitely not of that persuasion. The new album is critical of the current administration and that does not sit well with Clear Channel. Pure Politics.
This is why I stopped listening to commercial radio years ago. The only FM station I listen to now days is my local NPR affiliate. I listen to new stuff on the Internet and get tips from friends about new music. Clean Channel and the RIAA can bite my shiny metal youknowwhat.
Hooray satellite radio
6. jer- I think you got it.
Springsteen must be devastated after hearing this news. This means that now there is virtually no chance his new music will reach AM radios in 1987 Buicks driven by guys wearing Member’s Only jackets in Luckenbach, TX.
It’s offensive to me that some fat-cat gazziliionare can ‘send down an edict’ that we can’t listen to new Springsteen in my local community.
But, because Clear Channel owns practically everything in my local community, they can.
I’m for a “local doctrine” (rather than just fairness) that gives licensing preference to locally originated shows and local ownership of radio stations.
I enjoy network radio but national firms should not be allowed to dominate every local market, just because they have the bucks to do it.
AS FOR SPRINGSTEEN SPECIFICALLY, something stinks here. Springsteen has a relationship with Clear Channel, right? Is this some internal dispute between him and management?
Despite my concerns about Clear Channel, they do have a pretty cool music web site.
http://tinyurl.com/ynqofg
They offer full streaming of Springsteen’s new album, if you don’t mind a little talk-over
Yup!!!! Pure politics.This has nothing to do with his age.
I’m no fan of Clear Channel but I don’t want to hear any of Bruce’s new stuff either. I would likely change the channel immediately if they did play any.
Bruce’s concert tour is sold out because people want to hear “Born in the USA” and “Dancing in the Dark”, not tracks from “The Ghost of Tom Jode”.
The fact that he has the number one album in the country doesn’t mean much either since it took less than 100,000 copies sold the first week to get there. There is at least that number of die hard fans that would buy a CD full of beer farts if Springsteen decided to release one.
Tom Petty: The Last DJ
Well you can’t turn him into a company man
You can’t turn him into a whore
And the boys upstairs just don’t understand anymore
Well the top brass don’t like him talking so much
And he won’t play what they say to play
And he don’t want to change what don’t need to change
And there goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say
Hey, hey, hey
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
There goes the last DJ
Well some folks say they’re gonna hang him so high
Because you just can’t do what he did
There’s some things you just can’t put in the minds of those kids
As we celebrate mediocrity all the boys upstairs want to see
How much you’ll pay for what you used to get for free
And there goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say
Hey, hey, hey
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
And there goes the last DJ
Talk radio might be conservative (I don’t listen to it), but the “music” I hear sure is not conservative by any stretch of the imagination. What I accidently and unwillingly overhear is nihilistic, crybaby, anti-social dirty diaper crapaphony.
The Boss is on the current Rolling Stone cover, if that’s any consolation.
#17 Don’t you see? Hopelessness and irresponsibility serve the current so called conservatives perfectly. They keep the young-uns from getting uppity, and thinking they have any power to lift up the lid and jump out of the handbasket that we are all riding in, straight to Hell. This is not a generational thing either; when was the last time you heard Muse on a Clear Channel station? What, never? Could it be that Muse is critical of the idiots running things, and hopeful that people have real power in this world? It certainly isn’t lack of album sales, and one of the local independent stations (google: CD101) plays them quite often; they play Springsteen as well. I suppose that is the result of having to actually make money, rather than being a loss leading paid propaganda operation designed to get us thinking gibberish while wallowing in mediocrity.
#17
“but the “music” I hear sure is not conservative by any stretch of the imagination”
That’s actually quite simple, you air what can be sold. Period.
[Duplicate post. – ed.]
You really are dense, Mr. Wong. In most markets, Clear Channel has been loosing ears, even when there is no FM alternatives. In other words, CC could care less what sells, but it does seem that they certainly have something to sell; a dark dystopian reality, one part Britney Spears, a bit of 1984 and Brave New World, and a tiny dash of the Handmaden’s Tale for flavor. But I’m not buying, and frankly it looks like many people are tuning out.
Clear Channel; the best thing that ever happened for Apple’s bottom line. Why do you think the iPod has no standard FM radio? Their primary market is the American one, and who would want to listen to that crap.
Let’s extend the local radio mandate to newspapers, and say that they have to be locally owned as well.
Besides, neither talk radio nor the FM dial have been very conservative for a while. Since when was making light of torture, advocating constant war and spending more money than Lyndon Johnson ‘conservative’? The fact is that our ruling elite (to some extent on both sides, but particularly the GOP) are currently extreme radicals, treading under all our traditions, standards, and even the rule of law to gather power. ‘Conservative’ might now mean supporting treatment of prisoners and a foreign policy undistinguishable from that of the Soviets, and ‘Liberal’ might now mean anyone who disagrees with the current course, but I don’t support this stupid redefinition.
What a load of carp!
Cloudychannel wants to ban Springsteen’s new album because unlike most of the drivel out there, it makes people THINK!!!
Cloudychannel does NOT want people to think. They merely want to rule the airwaves. They have struck deals with even a public radio affiliate here in the Northeast, to try to gain more listenership.
Omega Man is right on. Tom Petty has been fighting with the music business for his ENTIRE CAREER. That song, “The Last DJ” goes a long way in illustrating what is going on in the music business today, and has been for quite some time.
Li, the “right wing” only looks extreme because you think Michael Moore is central. BTW, I regard Bush as a statest conservative, and that’s no praise from me.
The country is headed down because of the nihilistic pessimism being taught in the schools and on the radio, the “hate AmeriKKKa” stupidity, people pushing “weary, worldly cynicism” in place of actually knowing stuff, “you can’t do anything because you are a (whatever minority)” the /left/ is pushing, the criminal tax rate (and Bush’s spending is setting up higher taxes once he is out of office) and the minimum wage discouraging achievement from both ends of the scale, the class war the /left/ is trying to start, the boar teat useless education the universities are giving (and how are student’s going to pay off the loans?), and, of course, political corruption.
Plain and simple, Clear Channel SUCKS!!!! They now own seven stations in my area and have completely killed decent radio.
Angel Wong >> That’s actually quite simple, you air what can be sold. Period.
I suspect you’ve never worked in media. It’s not that simple at all.
Give me some mediocre music and give me a lot of air time to play it — and it will generate sales.
witness: American Idol.
Phillet >>Li, the “right wing” only looks extreme because you think Michael Moore is central.
Moore is not central and the New York Times and NPR are not leftist — or even particularly liberal.
It seems like many Americans make no attempt at an honest assessment of American political spectrum.
Moore is fairly far on the left but he’s hardly a bomb thrower either.
Clear Channel, best I can tell, is not exactly a far right organization either. They CREATED the 90% dominance of far right radio because they thought they could make a buck out of it — to hell with the good of America.
And, of course, that’s a conservative value system. But it’s not the same as far right.
#28
“Give me some mediocre music and give me a lot of air time to play it — and it will generate sales.”
Sounds to me like the perfect marketing scam.
I think Tommy Chong said it in Next Movie “Springsteen is ruining rock n’ roll, he’s f*ing it all up man…”
Well, this news inspired me to buy Springsteen’s “Magic” CD, which will be put on my iPod soon.
#12 has it right. I probably won’t be listening to Clear Channel stations if I can help it. They dominate many music markets, which makes them dangerous.
I like Tom Petty too…always have. The Last DJ pretty well nailed the problem with radio today.
One of the reasons talk radio flourishes is because so many music stations are repetitive and sucky.