Synopses & Reviews
In
Right of the Dial, Alec Foege explores how the mammoth media conglomerate evolved from a local radio broadcasting operation, founded in 1972, into one of the biggest, most profitable, and most polarizing corporations in the country. During its heyday, critics accused Clear Channel, the fourth-largest media company in the United States and the nations largest owner of radio stations, of ruining American pop culture and cited it as a symbol of the evils of media monopolization, while fans hailed it as a business dynamo, a beacon of unfettered capitalism. Whats undeniable is that as the owner at one point of more than 1,200 radio stations, 130 major concert venues and promoters, 770,000 billboards, 41 television stations, and the largest sports management business in the country, Clear Channel dominated the entertainment world in ways that MTV and Disney could only dream of. But in the fall of 2006, after years of public criticism and flattening stock prices, Goliath finally tumbledClear Channel Inc. sold off one-third of its radio holdings and all of its television concerns while transferring ownership to a consortium of private equity firms. The move signaled the end of an era in media consolidation, and in
Right of the Dial, Foege takes an insightful look at the companys successes and abuses, showing the ways in which Clear Channel reshaped Americas cultural and corporate landscapes along the way.
Alec Foege has written for Rolling Stone, The New York Times, New York, People, Spin, Playboy, Details, and many other national publications. He currently is a contributing writer at Fortune Small Business. His previous books are Confusion Is Next: The Sonic Youth Story and The Empire God Built: Inside Pat Robertsons Media Machine. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and two children. Alec Foege explores how the mammoth media conglomerate Clear Channel Communications evolved from a local radio broadcasting operation, founded in 1972, into one of the biggest, most profitable, and most polarizing corporations in the United States. During its heyday, critics accused Clear Channel, the fourth-largest media company in the country and the nations largest owner of radio stations, of corrupting American pop culture and cited it as a symbol of the evils of media monopolization, while fans hailed it as a business dynamo, a beacon of unfettered capitalism. What is undeniable is that as the owner at one point of more than 1,200 radio stations, 130 major concert venues and promoters, 770,000 billboards, 41 television stations, and the largest sports management business in the country, Clear Channel dominated the entertainment world in ways that MTV and Disney could only dream of. But in the fall of 2006, after years of public criticism and flattening stock prices, Clear Channel Inc. gave in to legal and economic pressures and sold off one-third of its radio holdings and all of its television concerns while transferring ownership to a consortium of private equity firms. The move signaled the end of an era in media consolidation. In Right of the Dial, Foege takes an insightful look at the companys successes and abuses, showing the ways in which Clear Channel reshaped Americas cultural and corporate landscapeschanges that stand to outlast the corporation itself. "[Foege] is particularly adept at translating the medium's culture and technology for a lay audience . . . to those who care deeply about what has been lost, culturally, as Clear Channel has taken command of the public airwaves these last four decades, Foege's effort is a noble one. And the story he tells is as important as it is unnerving."Jacques Steinberg, The New York Times
"Clear Channel may not have ruined American radio on its own, but it came pretty close. Alec Foege's Right of the Dial details the whole, sad media saga."Eric Boehlert, senior fellow at Media Matters for America and author of Lapdogs: How The Press Rolled Over for Bush
Read this book and you will want to scream. Alec Foege tells a tale of rapacity and financial engineering that could drive one to socialism. Not really, but close. In the hands of the Mays family, Clear Channel Communications became Americas radio behemoth. With its 2,000 radio stations, it devised ways to economize and centrally automate the music the stations played [and] the news it presented. For a time, it was good for investors, and for the Mays family. But as this book lucidly demonstrates, it was bad for citizens and bad for American culture.”Ken Auletta
The story of Clear Channel's binge and purge says so much about media in our time. Alec Foege tells that complex story with characteristic insight and balance. He never settles for the easy take, only for the truth, which he illuminates with impressive clarity.”Anthony DeCurtis, Contributing Editor, Rolling Stone
The Clear Channel corporation has been one of the most successful, most controversial, and most reviled companies in the history of the music business. With Right of the Dial, Alec Foege takes a thorough, clear-eyed look inside this mythic beast, and reveals a uniquely American saga of commerce and culture gone mad.”Alan Light, former editor-in-chief, Vibe and Spin magazines
"Foege 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 radioa phenomenon that has produced one, single, all-too-familiar classic rock station . . . Foege's history is at its best while unpacking this confrontation of American values between art and commerce."Publishers Weekly
"Despite the title, Foege doesn't pay much attention to the proposition, loudly voiced by its many critics, that Clear Channel is a vocal ally of the right wing, broadcasting Rush Limbaugh and contributing big bucks to the GOP. He focuses more on dissecting the company's role over the past two decades in massively consolidating America's crazy-quilt network of local radio stations and analyzing what that has meant for the industry and the United States as a whole. The Texas-based corporation was started by Lowry Mays, a folksy San Antonio businessman who invested in a failing country-music FM station in 1972, when 90 percent of the country still listened to AM. Buoyed by the deal-making passion of Mays and sons Mark and Randall, as well as the shortsighted deregulatory fervor and merger mania of the '80s and '90s, the company began buying up stations at an increasingly accelerated pace . . . None of this was done with an interest in anything but the bottom line. The company cared not a whit about improving the product, Foege makes clear."Kirkus Reviews
"Foege kept hearing the same Led Zeppelin song over and over. Here, he suggests that Clear Channel Communications is largely to blame for this ubiquitous cookie-cutter radio programming, tracing the company's history and showing how its conservative business practices and values have affected American culture . . . Through sound research and interviews with industry experts and Clear Channel employees (though [Lowry] Mays, his sons, and other top executives refused to grant interviews), Foege finds that Mays's goal was primarily to make money. He had no experience or training in radio or music, no interest in radio's inherent value as a communication tool, and was more concerned with his advertisers than with the listening public. Foege concludes that radio broadcasting has been commodified into a one-size-fits-all product. On the whole, this work is an interesting blend of corporate history and social commentary."Donna Marie Smith, Library Journal
Review
"Clear Channel may not have ruined American radio on its own, but it came pretty close. Alec Foege's Right of the Dial details the whole, sad media saga." —Eric Boehlert, senior fellow at Media Matters for America and author of Lapdogs: How The Press Rolled Over for Bush:
“Read this book and you will want to scream. Alec Foege tells a tale of rapacity and financial engineering that could drive one to socialism. Not really, but close. In the hands of the Mays family, Clear Channel Communications became Americas radio behemoth. With its 2,000 radio stations, it devised ways to economize and centrally automate the music the stations played, the news it presented. For a time, it was good for investors, and for the Mays family. But as this book lucidly demonstrates, it was bad for citizens and bad for American culture.” —Ken Auletta
“The story of Clear Channel's binge and purge says so much about media in our time. Alec Foege tells that complex story with characteristic insight and balance. He never settles for the easy take, only for the truth, which he illuminates with impressive clarity.” —Anthony DeCurtis, Contributing Editor, Rolling Stone “The Clear Channel corporation has been one of the most successful, most controversial, and most reviled companies in the history of the music business. With Right of the Dial, Alec Foege takes a thorough, clear-eyed look inside this mythic beast, and reveals a uniquely American saga of commerce and culture gone mad.”— Alan Light, former editor-in-chief, Vibe and Spin magazines
Review
“A uniquely American saga of commerce and culture gone mad.”—Alan Light, former editor in chief of Vibe and Spin magazines
“Read this book and you will want to scream. Alec Foege tells a tale of rapacity and financial engineering that could drive one to socialism.”—Ken Auletta
“To those who care deeply about what has been lost, culturally, as Clear Channel has taken command of the public airwaves these last four decades, Foeges effort is a noble one. And the story he tells is as important as it is unnerving.”—JACQUES STEINBERG, The New York Times Book Review
“If youve ever overpaid for concert tickets or bemoaned the glut of advertising on the FM dial, [this book] will help you understand why . . . Worth [reading for its] juicy tales of ‘good ol boy nepotism and the sharp insights into a profit-obsessed business nicknamed ‘Cheap Channel.”—BIANCA BOSKER, Fast Company
Synopsis
In Right of the Dial, Alec Foege explores how the mammoth media conglomerate evolved from a local radio broadcasting operation, founded in 1972, into one of the biggest, most profitable, and most polarizing corporations in the country. During its heyday, critics accused Clear Channel, the fourth-largest media company in the United States and the nation's largest owner of radio stations, of ruining American pop culture and cited it as a symbol of the evils of media monopolization, while fans hailed it as a business dynamo, a beacon of unfettered capitalism. What's undeniable is that as the owner at one point of more than 1,200 radio stations, 130 major concert venues and promoters, 770,000 billboards, 41 television stations, and the largest sports management business in the country, Clear Channel dominated the entertainment world in ways that MTV and Disney could only dream of. But in the fall of 2006, after years of public criticism and flattening stock prices, Goliath finally tumbled--Clear Channel Inc. sold off one-third of its radio holdings and all of its television concerns while transferring ownership to a consortium of private equity firms. The move signaled the end of an era in media consolidation, and in Right of the Dial, Foege takes an insightful look at the company's successes and abuses, showing the ways in which Clear Channel reshaped America's cultural and corporate landscapes along the way.
Synopsis
In Right of the Dial, Alec Foege explores how the mammoth media conglomerate evolved from a local radio broadcasting operation, founded in 1972, into one of the biggest, most profitable, and most polarizing corporations in the country. During its heyday, critics accused Clear Channel, the fourth-largest media company in the United States and the nation's largest owner of radio stations, of ruining American pop culture and cited it as a symbol of the evils of media monopolization, while fans hailed it as a business dynamo, a beacon of unfettered capitalism. What's undeniable is that as the owner at one point of more than 1,200 radio stations, 130 major concert venues and promoters, 770,000 billboards, 41 television stations, and the largest sports management business in the country, Clear Channel dominated the entertainment world in ways that MTV and Disney could only dream of. But in the fall of 2006, after years of public criticism and flattening stock prices, Goliath finally tumbled--Clear Channel Inc. sold off one-third of its radio holdings and all of its television concerns while transferring ownership to a consortium of private equity firms. The move signaled the end of an era in media consolidation, and in Right of the Dial, Foege takes an insightful look at the company's successes and abuses, showing the ways in which Clear Channel reshaped America's cultural and corporate landscapes along the way.
About the Author
Alec Foege has written for Rolling Stone, The New York Times, New York, People, Spin, Playboy, Details, and many other national publications. He currently is a contributing writer at Fortune Small Business. His previous books are Confusion Is Next: The Sonic Youth Story and The Empire God Built: Inside Pat Robertsons Media Machine. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and two children.