With ownership of at least 1,200 stations in nearly all of the nations 250 or so largest markets, Clear Channel clearly dominates the field of radio...is this right? I think the last statistic I saw was that their 2nd biggest competetor has less than half of the number of stations that CC has...

Stern certainly is shocking - after all he is a shock jock by trade. Does this really matter? Its looking more and more like privitization only brings corporate control rather than the alternative government control. What right does a company have to tell me what I can and can't listen to? And isn't this a first amendment violation?

Republican members of the government applauded the moves. Now I don't understand this. I thought generally they were against government reliance and control? Sure, there are some things that shouldn't be seen or said. But the world isn't clean and tidy...why bother whitewashing things when I could go into the city and see and hear things that are terribly worse?

it is pretty lame. its backlash from janet jackson trying to be cool. i hate the howard stern show because it is the same thing every day. in that same light, it seems a little late to crack down on him. there is another radio group that is still airing him. another reason they pulled him is because of the fcc jacking fines up to 200K+. the already had some sponge bob dj in florida rack up a fine and get booted and then pulled howard before he could do the same.


on a side note, i actually got to listen to music this morning on the way to work. yippie!!!!

as for the republican bit, they are very pro-family and in that prefer to keep a grasp on smut/indecency/etc. it kind of contradicts the lack of government control but everyone is 2-faced to an extent.

Strange, then, how it seems that more prominent republicans are divorced than prominent democrats. I cite Rush and Newt as examples. Maybe it just seems that way.

Clear Channel is a business, and they can fire or restrict what their employees say if they want to. It's not the employee that has to pay the $725,000 fine, it's the company.

Why should those restrictions be there in the first place?

Because these jocks represent Clear Channel, and Clear Channel is responsible for what they say.

Actually, I was referring to government restrictions.

Because the broadcast airwave are owned and licensed by the Government, and they have a responsibility to protect children against indecent material.

sounds like a strange law though - a member of the public says something offensive and Clear Channel get fined.

So if me and a bunch of friends had a gripe against Clear Channel, we could all ring up any of their phone-in shows and say something obscene or offensive. We get away free, and Clear Channel have a huge fine to pay.

And that's another weird one (although it's the same in the UK) - a government "owns" a frequency of radio wave. A radio wave is a natural occurence - including the visible spectrum, infra red, microwaves, and ultra violet light, as well as the frequencies that carry radio signals.

Owning a radio wave frequency is as absurd as (and scientifically identical to) owning the colour blue.

That's correct. It's the reason talk radio stations are on a seven second delay. So the engineer has time to bleep anything a caller says that violates FCC rules, because the station will be held responsible.

So are Clear Channel saying that Stern's engineer failed to bleep it out? If so then why not just sack the engineer for not doing his/her job correctly? By the sound of it, it wasn't Stern's fault - it's the engineer who's responsible for editing, and Stern even says he hung up as soon as the guy said it.

Hey, I own the color blue...

No, honestly, it is a good point.

Aside from that, people obviously don't so much mind. He has millions of listeners. If a parent deserves to have a kid then they should know enough to teach them morals and such. If they don't have enough of a home life to get that, then they're probably not going far anyway...

I agree with you there, but otherwise, only the most powerful transmitters would be heard, and nobody else.

I could see more violence and brutality (etcetera) on the 6 o'clock news than I could ever listen to on Howard Stern or "Bubba the Love Sponge." If we want to clean everything up so much, then just go and ban everything. Something is always going to offend someone. You can't try to keep everyone happy...its quite simply impossible. Deal with it, its a part of the world, like it or not. Whitewashing only will promote naiveity (sp?) and ignorance, and that isn't any healthier. It might be worse.

clear channel went too far when they used their puppet politicians and fcc officials to keep low power FM from being able to compete with their government granted monopoly

course, it's hard to get too worked up about radio monopolies these days, i got my 8 track in the truck, and internet radio at home

W00t. I claim the color blue. Mine. I'll fight ya for it.