As I backed my truck out of the driveway, I started spinning through the radio stations. Fucking typical, it was almost the exact same music on over half a dozen stations. There’s no variety anymore. Things just seem to be getting worse since Clear Channel moved in a few years ago; now they seem to own most of Seattle’s media. They began with just a few radio stations. The cross-promotion started when they bought the Ackerly billboards around town. I knew we should have been worried right then and done something about it. The FCC was talking about loosening media regulations again and Clear Channel had already moved heavily into music scenes in towns like Boston and New York City, but at the time everyone didn’t think it could happen here. Not in a town like Seattle whose local music scene put the city on the world’s radar in the ‘90s.
Then Clear Channel bought into the White River Amphitheater, followed by the Key Arena, which was renamed Clear Channel Arena. Soon they began snapping up most of the larger venues in town, from the Showbox and Chop Suey, to the long running Crocodile CafÈ. If they didn’t buy venues outright, they took over booking and promotion, muscling even smaller venues like Funhouse, the Hideaway and the Sunset Tavern into exclusive contracts. The FCC regulations on media ownership were changed a couple of months later, allowing Clear Channel to pick up more radio stations in town, as well as branching out into newspapers and television. They bought KING 5 (channel 5), then KCPU (channel 13). Following their expansion into local TV, Clear Channel moved on to print. They acquired “The Weekly” with their buyout of the Village Voice papers, as well as “The Stranger,” when they purchased Index Papers. Their crowning acquisition in Seattle’s print media was buying “The Seattle Times” from the Blethen family, then ending their joint operating deal with the “Seattle Post-Intelligencer” and putting it out of business, making Seattle a one-town paper.
I suppose consolidation is the trend these days. People just didn’t care enough to fight media consolidation as they saw it going on. They thought, “How bad could it really get?” This bad—Clear Channel now owns 80% of Seattle’s media. There is no longer variety, diversity or opposing points of view in our news and entertainment media. There are tie-ins between radio, billboards, clubs, TV, magazines and newspapers, all only covering and promoting Clear Channel approved events and products. Musicians were forced to go along with the changes or stop playing live shows; almost every concert venue in town is controlled by the company. Independent publications were forced out of business as Clear Channel demanded exclusive contracts with their advertisers or bought the publications outright. Locally owned clubs were either bought out or forced out of business when they could no longer book bands that drew crowds—Clear Channel could outbid them on all the touring shows. Now we have no choices, high ticket prices, and one company as the sole source for almost all of our media and entertainment.
Whoops, I got a little ahead of myself. Only some of this has come to pass. But, if you think that this sounds like a doomsday scenario, talk to the music community in cities like Boston and do a little research into how rapidly media consolidation has been. The time to fight this shit is now; Clear Channel has their sights on Seattle. They’ve been gradually moving in, but there are quite a few indications that they are ready to step up their involvement in Seattle’s media and music scene. On February 9, Mayor Nickels announced his intentions of making Seattle more hospitable to the music industry, touting a recent study showing that our local music community produces about $650 million per year in revenue. Very soon afterward, it was revealed that Clear Channel was courting the Mayor, including meeting with him on a trip in Denver, Colorado. Coincidence? Maybe, but maybe not. And regardless, Clear Channel thinks our city is ripe for the taking. If they get their way, our music scene will change. They will put a lot of people you either know or rely on for live shows, radio and concert booking out of work. They will take over venues, outbid local promoters on touring bands, then pass the added costs on to you with higher ticket prices. It’s happened in a number of large cities, even with punk rock venues. Please don’t let it happen here.
So, what can you do? Make some noise. Start letting the mayor and city council know how you feel about Clear Channel now. If the city isn’t receptive towards the company, they may think twice about coming here. Mayor Nickels can be reached by phone at 206.684.4000 or there is an online form to send him comments at cityofseattle.net/mayor/citizen_response.htm. The contact info for Seattle’s City Council members can be found at cityofseattle.net/council/councilcontact.htm. There are many more reasons to hate Clear Channel, from censorship issues and their recent campaign against Howard Stern to their ties to the Bush family and Carlyle Group. I hope you can all take five minutes of your time and send a letter or make a phone call to our city government and let them know why you want them to work hard at keeping this company’s claws off of Seattle. And Portland, I’m sure you’re next on the list; no time like the present to get organized.
Stay independent and strong, dan@tabletmag.com
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