Clear Channel radio issued this press release yesterday. Apparently, they want us to know that they care about the listening audience and that 20 minutes of commercials an hour can be a bad thing.
The press release says that the new policy goes into effect January 1. Wow. I’m glad to see this is such a high priority issue for them. (“Yes, we care about you– that’s why we’re cutting down the number of commercials on our stations– six months from now.”) I suppose any listeners they lose between now and then are expendable.
Clear Channel’s stations in Chicago are: WGCI (urban, don’t listen to it); WGRB (gospel, don’t listen to it); WKSC (dance, don’t listen to it); WLIT (“lite” rock, dentist’s office stuff); WNUA (“smooth jazz” or as my kids call it, “Grandma Music”); WVAZ (soul and r-n-b oldies); WRLL (50s and 60s oldies, and probably the only one in the bunch I actually occasionally listen to by choice).
All told, I won’t notice the effect of Clear Channel’s new policy.
I rarely listen to the major radio stations here in Chicago. Aside from the fact that most of them play commercials every time I hit the button, the music is repetetive garbage, and the hosts are lame. When my radio is turned on, it’s usually tuned to the local NPR station or WXRT (which is under a corporate thumb, but it’s better than anything else). When I want to hear music, I hook up the iPod.
Now, if the programmers would stop playing it safe with the music they play we might get somewhere.