Contact: Tracy Rosenberg, Media Alliance (510) 684-6853
LA Clearchannel Hosts John and Ken Suspended for Calling Whitney Houston a Crack Ho:
Kobylt and Chiampou Under Advertising Boycott by LA Community Organizations for Harassing an Immigrant Rights Activist
Los Angeles-AM shock-jock hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou were suspended by management at Clearchannel station KFI-AM in Los Angeles on Thursday, after referring to the recently deceased entertainer and singer Whitney Houston as a “crack ho”. The cause of Houston’s weekend death has not been determined. She was the subject of an emotional tribute at this past weekend’s Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, where she had been expected to appear. Houston was also the mother of a teenage daughter, Bobbi Christina Brown, who was hospitalized earlier in the week. Continue reading LA Clearchannel hosts John and Ken Suspended for Calling Whitney Houston a Crack Ho→
For a surreal stretch of hours last June, a radio tuned to 91.1 FM in Nashville did nothing but emit bottomless, hissing static. The erstwhile WRVU, which for decades beamed out an engaging, erratic mishmash of everything from punk rock to country classics, jump blues to hip-hop, had been sold to local NPR affiliate WPLN, its signal cut off abruptly. Continue reading What’s Left of the Dial→
Artist education, research and advocacy organization Future of Music Coalition announces the release of a report that analyzes radio playlists to determine whether policy interventions resulting from payola investigations have had any effect on the amount of independent music played on terrestrial radio.
To some observers, the broad protest movement that erupted this summer to defend Bay Area community radio station KPFA (94.1 FM) looked like a near riot.. To others, the grassroots action that reversed the station’s shutdown looked like the deliberate work of a well-organized and media-savvy coalition of professional activists. In reality, our movement–which drew in thousands of ordinary people, commanded front-page media attention, and won the support of celebrities and government officials–was neither pure chaos nor pure calculation. Like all popular movements, the “Free KPFA” mobilization was a lot of both. At this point, we should neither mystify nor deify the struggle, but examine it critically. We can apply the resulting lessons in our ongoing fight to establish democratic, community control of the entire Pacifica network–and eventually of the U.S. media establishment as a whole. Continue reading CALCULATED CHAOS: Inside the Mobilzation that Rocked Pacifica, by Van Jones→
Produced in San Francisco, the radio program Street Soldiers is well known as a live forum for youth to talk openly about their experiences with gang violence, crime, drugs, pregnancy, and countless other issues. Antiviolence activists credit the program with saving lives by mediating conflicts through dialogue and providing an on- and off-air system of social support. Continue reading STREET SOLDIERS SILENCED BY MEDIA MERGER, by Laura Saponara→
Question: What is the single most valuable piece of property worth owning at the dawn of the information age? Answer: The radio frequencies–the electromagnetic spectrum–over which an increasing amount of communication and commercial activity will be broadcast in the era of wireless communications. Our PCs, palm pilots, wireless Internet, cellular phones, pagers, radios, and television all rely on the radio frequencies of the spectrum to send and receive messages, pictures, audio, data, etc. Continue reading GLOBAL MEDIA GIANTS LOBBY TO PRIVATIZE ENTIRE BROADCAST SPECTRUM. by Jeremy Rifkin.→
The Pacifica radio network, the nation’s only listener-sponsored community radio network, has recently emerged from a period of unprecedented turmoil, one that threatened its very survival as an oasis of free speech and dissent, a forum for news and radical analysis, and a venue for serious music and art. Continue reading MEDIA DEMOCRACY: PACIFICA VICTORY LAYS GROUNDWORK FOR MOVEMENT. by Juan Gonzalez.→
