Randy Cassingham's Blog

One of my interests is "the media" in general. Long gone are the old days when one company could only own a few radio or TV stations. While you were sleeping, one company has managed to buy up 1,200 radio stations with over a billion listeners. Waldo in Virginia, a reader and friend of mine, alerted me to this -- as well as a new web site that's dedicated to letting people know what's going on. He notes: "Clear Channel's 1,200 radio stations control 60% of all rock programming, they own the vast majority of the musical venues in the U.S., they own the lion's share of billboards, talk show hosts, and popular musical acts. THEY decide what bands get famous, and what bands are doomed to play the bar circuit. If you don't understand why your favorite local band just can't seem to make it big, http://www.ClearChannelSucks.org has the answers. The music that you hear on the radio isn't played because it's popular, but because the labels paid for it to be played. If that's a problem for you, that site is the place to do something about it."

I work hard to remain independent. True is sourced* from a wide variety of newspapers and survives on ad sales (mostly to small, independent web sites and online businesses), plus paid subscriptions to the expanded "Premium" edition (Premium subscribers got five more stories this week). But I'm just one guy. Do you really want all the rest of your news and entertainment to come from a handful of gigantic companies, such as AOL-Time Warner, Microsoft (yes, news: they're the "MS" in "MSNBC"), and Clear Channel? If you don't support independent voices, that's what you'll end up with!

And I don't just mean me; all the independent sites online you like need your support, maybe simply by looking at their ads (and clicking on them if they're of interest) or by telling your friends about the ones you like (you can forward this edition to friends with your recommendation -- see the copyright notice for details). I'm proud that my number one source of income is Premium subscription upgrades -- how many writers make most of their income by being paid directly by their readers?! Collecting a few bucks a year from one person at a time is an interesting way to make a living. :-)

* (As for using "sourced" as a verb, just remember that English is a living language. I've abused it before and I'll abuse it again. Soon.)