On Tuesday a quartet of Clear Channel executives piled into the Federal Communications Commission building and buttonholed most of the agency’s top brass, including FCC Chair Julius Genachowski. Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman did most of the talking, it seems. Pittman “emphasized the ways in which the Internet and broadband technology offer Clear Channel the […]
Tag Archives | Clear Channel
SiriusXM turns a profit, plans to offer on-demand programs and personalized radio
SiriusXM announced its 4th quarter 2011 results today, revealing that the company turned a profit and reached 8.7 million subscribers, with 1.7 net subscribers added last year. While those numbers apparently look good both to the company and investors, SiriusXM is only holding on to 44% of subscribers who get a free trial when they […]
Clear Channel adds 14 College Radio Stations to iHeartRadio
Corporate commercial radio behemoth Clear Channel and fiercely independent college radio might not seem like the most logical of partners, but they are joining forces on iHeartRadio. Last fall I’d heard that Clear Channel was planning to incorporate college radio stations into its iHeartRadio tool and today they confirmed that rumor by announcing that they […]
They can take the radio out of Clear Channel (but that won’t take Clear Channel out of radio)
Friday the 900 lb. gorilla of commercial radio announced that it is changing its name to Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, striking the word “radio” from its name. Even though the company still owns 850 terrestrial broadcast stations–down from its post-1996 height of 1200–Clear Channel is trying to emphasize its belated focus on the internet, […]
Call Sign Changes in San Francisco: KKSF to KOSF, KNEW to KKSF, and KKGN to KNEW
As part of an overall re-branding and re-formatting effort across several Clear Channel-owned stations in San Francisco, call signs for KKSF, KNEW, and KKGN were changed yesterday. The station formerly known as KKSF, now branded as oldies station 103.7 FM, became KOSF. That left the KKSF call letters available for use by the former KNEW […]
FCC: Internet doesn’t count for local radio ownership rules (but should it?)
Despite heavy lobbying from Clear Channel and its allies, the Federal Communications Commission proposes retaining its current ownership rules for commercial AM and FM radio stations. Here is a quick refresher course on the local radio rules. They allow any entity to buy as many AM/FM signals as its wants, nationally, with these restrictions in […]
Naming contest: what to call a Clear Channel, Cumulus, Citadel merger
I am pondering the merger names as I compose this post: Clear Citadus? Cumulo Citichannel? Citaclear Channelculus? My meditation is inspired by Clear Channel’s announcement on Monday that Cumulus’ 570 radio stations will be featured on the former company’s iHeartRadio application “wherever it is offered.” In exchange: Clear Channel Radio will also advertise daily deals from Cumulus […]
Clear Channel ups the ante with 3 more months of commercial-free iHeartRadio custom stations
Clear Channel may have been too focused on scarfing up stations in the early 2000s to construct anything resembling an internet strategy, but the company has been making up for lost time with its iHeartRadio service. When it went live in 2008 it was primarily a site and mobile app to provide access to the […]
Clear Channel: laying off deejays; still pushing for deregulation
The New York Times reports that Clear Channel is laying off radio deejays across the country, perhaps in the hundreds. These include Tony Lynn and Myles Copeland of Clear Channel Albuquerque country music station KBQI, shown in the YouTube video below. But two weeks before the story came out, the radio giant once again asked […]
Even Randy Michaels admits his Chicago FM news experiment is not quite a success
Here’s some news that should be absolutely no surprise to Radio Survivor listeners: Randy Michaels’ new FM news station in Chicago WWWN-FM is tanking in the ratings. In fact, the former Tribune chief‘s station sits at number 48, a mere 45 spots below its main competitor, the news-talk stalwart WBBM, which not coincidentally has added […]