Interesting...
Steve

----Original Message Follows----
From: George Antunes
Subject: [Medianews] Teens Turning Off Bay Area's Most Popular Music
Stations
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2005 16:47:03 -0500

Tuned out
Why teens are turning off some of the Bay Area's most popular music stations

By Momo Chang
TRI-VALLEY HERALD STAFF WRITER

http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_3144258


SAN FRANCISCO — USING THE BACK of a rental pickup truck as their platform,
50 youths, activists and poets chanted in front of the Bay Area
headquarters of the largest radio corporation in the United States.

As a dozen or so police looked on, they sang, read poetry and rallied using
a single microphone running off a generator, trying to elicit some kind of
response from Clear Channel Communications.

But the corporation, with 1.5 million listeners in the Bay Area and $9
billion in annual revenue, gave no indication that the protesters existed
on this particular afternoon in September, except for the few curious
employees who peeked through their office windows from above.

When protesters tried to deliver a letter signed by organizations such as
La Pea Cultural Center, Media Alliance, Youth Movement Records and EastSide
Arts Alliance, they were turned away by a security guard.

Most of the noise against Clear Channel comes from Oakland-based Youth
Media Council, an umbrella organization composed of more than 20 community
groups asking for better representation of youths in media.

And youths — the target audience of 106.1 KMEL-FM and 94.9 KYLD, or "Wild
94.9" — are challenging the company, accusing the stations of lacking
community programming and leaving local artists at the door. In June,
94.9's hiring of controversial producer Rick Delgado sparked a fire in the
anti-Clear Channel campaign.

It has been an ongoing challenge for the group after Clear Channel bought
KMEL and Wild 94.9 in 1999. Two years later, KMEL, a local hip-hop station
geared toward a younger market, fired its popular host and community
affairs director, Davey D, and other employees, which sparked protests from
local listeners.

So what's all the fuss about now?

Clear Channel, like all radio stations in California, is applying to renew
its radio licenses this year through the Federal Communications Commission,
an organization better known for slapping indecency fines against breast
exposure at the Super Bowl and shock jock Howard Stern. The renewal process
is one that occurs every eight years and consists of pushing paperwork
through the FCC, an event that usually goes unnoticed by listeners.

Opponents know it is unlikely the FCC will yank Clear Channel's radio
licenses, including those for the two most popular radio stations geared
toward youths, KMEL and Wild 94.9.

But protesters want to make sure someone is listening.

Since Aug. 1, YMC has promoted an "Unplug Clear Channel" campaign. The
public - since it technically owns the airwaves - has until Nov. 1 to
comment either in favor or opposition to any radio station in California;
all are up for renewal this year. By Dec. 1, the FCC will decide which
stations' licenses will be renewed.

A radio industry representative says stations rely on the community to stay
in business.

"Everybody's got a different idea of what they want in a local radio
station," said Mark Powers, vice president of the California Broadcasters
Association, a trade organization. "That's why there are so many types out
there."

Youths speak
But Meuy Saephanh, 21, of Oakland, a member of YMC for five years, says she
likes the type of music the two stations play - she just wants them to be
better. She still listens to 94.9 and KMEL - which is exactly why she is
protesting them. The groups are asking Clear Channel to hire a community
affairs director for each station, give local artists more airtime and
include community affairs programming.

For listeners who don't tune into these two stations with an "urban"
format, there are many choices, from iPods to satellite radio. Many young
people at the rally, though, want these stations that are supposedly geared
toward them to be better.

Leslie Santiago, a 16-year-old poet with Youth Speaks and student at
MetWest High School in Oakland, says she is concerned that the way
corporate rap radio portrays youths perpetuates stereotypes.

"Youths of color are already getting stereotyped," she said. "The music
promotes too much violence. There's already enough violence on the streets.
When someone listens to these stations, they might think all youths are
like that."

"It's a serious battle over the airwaves and brain waves," said Chris
Wiltsee, founder of Oakland's Youth Movement Records, an organization that
works with teenagers to produce their own music and shows. "If you're 14
and on a steady diet of this corporate radio that's just all about sex and
thugging, what does that do to your perception of reality about what's
normal?"

Others complain that stations just seem to rotate the same few songs and
that KMEL and 94.9 are beginning to sound more and more alike.

"A lot of people are dissatisfied and don't like how the stations are,"
said Chris Lyons, 17, a member of YMR. "It's hard to listen to these
stations because it's repetitive. They don't give you too much selection."

A community affair
FCC's deregulation of media in 1996 has created near monopolies in regions
such as the Bay Area. In 1996, Clear Channel owned 40 radio stations in the
United States. By 2002, it controlled 1,200.

Former FCC Chairman William Kennard said the 1996 laws "unleashed a frenzy
of consolidation in the radio marketplace and forever changed the economics
of radio station ownership." Activists say they deserve better than
"cookie-cutter radio."

Their goal is to have each station add a community affairs director, which
Clear Channel eliminated when it bought the stations. Currently, there is
one community affairs director for all 11 Bay Area stations Clear Channel
own, which range from conservative talk-radio station KNEW-AM 910 to Al
Franken's liberal talk-radio KQKE-AM 960, plus KMEL, 94.9 and seven others.

"Anybody who owns a station is committed to that particular geography to
try to serve it," said radio industry representative Powers. "They'll try
to make sure their audience is satisfied, or they go out of business."

One way that radio stations appear to be community-oriented is through
"instant requests," though they are almost never live, says former KMEL DJ
Davey D.

The stations will take calls, record them and then look at the computer
where playlists are preprogrammed. When a certain song that a listener
requests is about to be played, the station will play the recording of the
request and then the song, making it appear that listeners are being
listened to.

"Nobody just gets to play whatever they want on the airwaves," Davey D
said. "People who really control the strings hide their faces."

Powers says that corporations such as Clear Channel are targeted because
they own so much wattage.

"There's a mind-set that bigness is somehow bad, but one of the best things
about the radio industry is that you've got a huge spectrum that serves
different needs," he said.

Racial controversy
But Clear Channel recently made other groups, not normally heavy media
critics, upset. In July, Wild 94.9 fired the "Doghouse" morning show crew
after guests claimed sexual harassment - and replaced them with Rick
Delgado, a DJ/producer from New York famous for writing and airing an
offensive "tsunami song."

Delgado, who worked at New York's Hot 97, wrote a song that poked fun at
the tsunami disaster in South Asia, including lyrics such as "screaming
chinks," "little Chinamen swept away" and "Africans drowning." After much
community outcry, the station fired him.

Bay Area listeners say they are livid that a local station would hire
someone who was fired for airing an allegedly racist song.

"To us, that's unacceptable, particularly in a city that's 33 percent Asian
American," says Malcolm Yeung, staff attorney at San Franciso-based Asian
Law Caucus.

A Clear Channel spokeswoman said she will not comment about the youth
campaign or the hiring of Delgado.

Within a week, 500 people in the Bay Area signed an online petition, and
many threatened to boycott the station. In response, Clear Channel
executive Kim Bryant sent the same e-mail to petitioners, including the
statements:

"We'd like to emphasize that Rick brings to the table great connections,
and that is the sole function he was hired to fulfill. While Rick Delgado
was previously part of a controversial morning team, and involved in some
inappropriate on-air bits, neither of those two facts are true today, nor
are they useful in the San Francisco Bay Area market."

Petitioners who received this letter say they were baffled, since Delgado
was also an off-air producer at Hot 97 and it was clear that the station
only cared about Delgado's "connections."

Real alternatives?
Although more teens are listening to iPods and downloading music, some said
it is just not a realistic option for them. Alternatives to KMEL and 94.9
do exist but may be difficult to access.

"It isn't realistic that everyone has access to iPods, buys a whole bunch
of CDs or listens to satellite radio," said Lyons, a senior at Oakland
Technical High School.

He says he doesn't own an iPod, nor do most of his friends. He adds that
his peers also don't own computers, much less have Internet access to
download songs.

There are other alternatives to corporate radio - college or independent
stations such as Berkeley's KALX 90.7, San Francisco's KPOO 98.5 and
Stanford's KZSU 90.1, which each have hip-hop shows, as well as Pacifica's
KPFA 94.1. But for youths who don't have cars or a radio with a huge
antennae, they usually can't pick up such low-frequency stations.

Instead of KMEL, 16-year-old Leslie Santiago listens to underground hip-hop
such as Oakland rapper Ise Lyfe and Latino artist Panama.

"They're not big or famous or well-known, so they're not catching the
stations' attention," she said. "But they're talking about the truth and
sending a good message."

Laney College student Leslie Lopez, 18, says it is hard not to listen to
these stations.

"I don't really like listening to the radio, but that's all that's on."

YMC is leading the first concerted effort involving youths to challenge
Clear Channel license renewals. In 2003, Essential Information, a
Washington, D.C.- based public interest group, unsuccessfully challenged 63
of the corporation's stations in Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.

"You get to vote with your ears for the kind of community radio you want,"
Powers said.

-----------------------------

The public can make comments, in favor or against, any California radio
stations, which are all applying for renewal through the FCC through Nov.
1. Visit www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/renewal/index.html for instructions or
www.action.youthmediacouncil.org under "Take Action" to file a public
comment.