Right of the Dial: The Rise of Clear Channel and the Fall of Commercial Radio (Hardcover)

by Alec Foege (Author) "Howard Stern shuffled onto the stage of the Late Show with David Letterman on the eve of November 18, 2004, much in the way he..." (more)
Key Phrases: biggest radio company, voice tracking, ownership caps, Clear Channel, San Antonio, Lowry Mays (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Journalist Foege (Confusion Is Next) brings objectivity and insight to this exploration of Clear Channel, one of the most reviled media conglomerates in the U.S. The author aims for an unbiased understanding of the corporation and its practices, how it came to be and what it says about our culture. The reader follows the Clear Channel operation from its inception as a family business in the 1990s through commercial expansion, megamergers, vertical integration, antitrust lawsuits and the eventual sale of a third of its holdings. Foege cobbles together an oral history of the company, painting Clear Channel executives as businessmen first and foremost. To them, payola (accepting financial gifts in exchange for airplay) and voice tracking (phoning in local broadcasts from a centralized location) just made sense for the bottom line. The result has been the homogenization of radio—a phenomenon that has produced one, single, all-too-familiar classic rock station that Foege characterizes as a mild condition of being. Like a toothache or a strained knee. While many are quick to call this evil, media monopolies of this kind have been sanctioned by the government through deregulation. Foege's history is at its best while unpacking this confrontation of American values between art and commerce. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
For Ronald Reagan, the Soviet Union was “the evil empire,” but for music mavens, Clear Channel, the biggest radio-station owner in history, is the real deal. Its mastermind, Lyle Mays, made himself and his closest associates rich by gutting news, local content, and musical variety and laying off thousands at the stations it devoured. Mays’ golden-goose idea was that radio is essentially for advertising; programming is just, as another company higher-up put it, the “shit” between commercials. Besides 1,200 radio stations, the company sucked up billboards, TV outlets, and pop-concert venues and promoters (ticket prices soared). Nobody of consequence, certainly not the Clinton–Bush II FCC, seemed to object. Clear Channel’s glory days are gone because the Internet has made entertainment much more available and big advertising more avoidable, but its blighting effects on broadcasting continue. Mays and his two sons and successors wouldn’t talk to Foege, and this fascinating, appalling business history suffers accordingly, for the question of how the Mayses’ getting rich served the public interest—radio’s mandate, after all—goes begging. --Ray Olson

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber; 1 edition (April 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571211062
• ISBN-13: 978-0571211067
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #341,156 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Right of the dial and on the money, June 8, 2008

By	Ken R. Copper "radio renegade" (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Alec Foege has written a well put together monograph on the closely related demise of commercial radio and the increasing influence of the giant Clear Channel organization. Though certainly not the only culprit in the destruction of our most intimate medium, the arrogant buffoons from San Antonio were not only at the wheel of the bus that ran over radio; they also backed it over most of the people who toil (or, toiled) in the audio trenches. What used to be a fun and romantic industry is now going the way of the Pony Express and Alec Foege points an accusing finger in the right direction. You can always tell when a business is taking the slide to oblivion. The bean counters are running the show.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Just having Money is not the secret to Broadcasting Success, May 15, 2008

By	Dean P. Sorenson "Radio vet" (South Dakota) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I found the author most interested in how Clear Channel, according to him, made life more difficult for musicians, and musical acts. I was more interested in their radio efforts and results. We learned what has been surmised..........just because you can glean huge dollars from Wall Street doesn't make you an instant success in radio. And many of the Clear Channel ideas just didn't work in Burlington, IA....Mankato, MN and Minot, ND. The author seemed quite thorough in gathering his historical facts, and interviews with early players in the Clear Channel company. If you enjoy books about businesses, and particuarly the media, this is a good read.

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Amateurish, June 25, 2008

By	J. Slott "Howling Rabbit" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is full of bad grammar, redundant adjectives, sentences that contradict one another, trivial detail that add nothing to the points being made; in other words, a conscientious editor's nightmare. At least it would have been, had a conscientious editor actually been assigned to this mess. And of course this juvenile tome just happens to concern a subject matter that needs to be exposed to the public.
Where do these new "authors" go to learn the ways of their craft? The local comic book store?