*Ø* Blogmanac | Friends in High Places: The Story of Clear Channel
Clear Channel: Lessons in Building a Media Empire
Building a media empire is no simple task. But it helps to know the right people. Our story today is about Clear Channel Communications, the media conglomerate notorious for its vast network of radio stations, but which is increasingly spreading its tentacles across a broad array of music, advertising, and other media. Not surprisingly, this story includes profiles of two brothers closely connected to the Bush administration, which has been very supportive of allowing media conglomerates to grow even larger.
Send your message to John Hogan,
CEO of Clear Channel Radio: ACT NOW!
CONNECTIONS COUNT:
The Hicks brothers and the Bush Administration have had a mutually beneficial relationship for at least a decade. Tom Hicks, vice chairman of Clear Channel, and his brother Steven Hicks, who built and sold a radio empire, together raised about $200,000 for Bush’s presidential campaign in 2000, giving them “Pioneer” fundraiser status. Their connections, however, go much deeper than that.
President Bush's involvement with the Hicks family began shortly after his first gubernatorial victory in 1994. In 1995, as a member of the University of Texas Board of Regents, Tom Hicks successfully lobbied then Governor Bush and the Texas legislature to create the University of Texas Investment Management Company, a private enterprise known as UTIMCO that controlled the school's public funds.
Tom Hicks served as chairman until 1999, when reports surfaced that almost a third of UTIMCO’s $1.7 billion in private equities between 1995 and 1998 had been invested with firms personally or politically connected to Hicks or Bush.
In addition to these questionable dealings, Hicks helped make Bush a very wealthy man in 1998 when he purchased the Texas Rangers for $250 million from the ownership group that included the then-Texas governor. Bush's 1.8 percent stake in the franchise landed him nearly $15 million on a $600,000 investment.
Not surprisingly, Clear Channel is known for advancing an agenda friendly to the Bush Administration. For example, many media critics questioned Clear Channel’s “Rally for America,” a series of controversial 2003 pro-war rallies sponsored and promoted by individual Clear Channel stations throughout the country. [Emphasis added. -v]
Thanks to the efforts of Steven and Tom Hicks and the continuing erosion of media ownership laws, Clear Channel now stands as the largest owner of radio stations in the country, with more than 1,200. It also owns 39 television stations, a number that could grow under new media ownership laws, as well as 135 live entertainment venues, 41 amphitheaters in the United States, 30 venues in Europe and a half million outdoor billboards worldwide. [Emphasis added. -v]
Read the entire story on the Hicks brothers and their connections to the Bush administration:
WHAT DOES CLEAR CHANNEL OWE US?
Clear Channel reaches some 180 million listeners across the country. They do so using airwaves that are the property of the American people. Clear Channel merely holds a broadcasting license for them. With that kind of privilege comes great responsibility. Common Cause thinks Clear Channel owes the public more. [Emphasis added. -v]
Read more about Clear Channel and find their stations in your community.
What do you think about radio? Because YOU own these airwaves, you have a voice in changing them.
Join us and send a message to Clear Channel as we ask the company to do better.
What would you like hear more of:
More local musicians on your favorite radio station?
More coverage of local and national elections and issues?
More news stories of local interest?
More diverse opinions on talk radio?
You Decide! Now let Clear Channel know.
Send your message to John Hogan,
CEO of Clear Channel Radio: ACT NOW!
Know someone who would like to send Clear Channel an opinion? Forward this message!
Support our Common Cause campaigns.
---
Related Articles:
Clear Channel Sucks
by Hector Carosso
http://www.bnfp.org/neighborhood/Carosso030508.htm
Apparently ClearChannelSucks.org has been "disappeared." Too bad. It put up a great freedom fight! In its place has appeared ClearChannelBites. Long may she run!
Clear Channel: Lessons in Building a Media Empire
Building a media empire is no simple task. But it helps to know the right people. Our story today is about Clear Channel Communications, the media conglomerate notorious for its vast network of radio stations, but which is increasingly spreading its tentacles across a broad array of music, advertising, and other media. Not surprisingly, this story includes profiles of two brothers closely connected to the Bush administration, which has been very supportive of allowing media conglomerates to grow even larger.
Send your message to John Hogan,
CEO of Clear Channel Radio: ACT NOW!
CONNECTIONS COUNT:
The Hicks brothers and the Bush Administration have had a mutually beneficial relationship for at least a decade. Tom Hicks, vice chairman of Clear Channel, and his brother Steven Hicks, who built and sold a radio empire, together raised about $200,000 for Bush’s presidential campaign in 2000, giving them “Pioneer” fundraiser status. Their connections, however, go much deeper than that.
President Bush's involvement with the Hicks family began shortly after his first gubernatorial victory in 1994. In 1995, as a member of the University of Texas Board of Regents, Tom Hicks successfully lobbied then Governor Bush and the Texas legislature to create the University of Texas Investment Management Company, a private enterprise known as UTIMCO that controlled the school's public funds.
Tom Hicks served as chairman until 1999, when reports surfaced that almost a third of UTIMCO’s $1.7 billion in private equities between 1995 and 1998 had been invested with firms personally or politically connected to Hicks or Bush.
In addition to these questionable dealings, Hicks helped make Bush a very wealthy man in 1998 when he purchased the Texas Rangers for $250 million from the ownership group that included the then-Texas governor. Bush's 1.8 percent stake in the franchise landed him nearly $15 million on a $600,000 investment.
Not surprisingly, Clear Channel is known for advancing an agenda friendly to the Bush Administration. For example, many media critics questioned Clear Channel’s “Rally for America,” a series of controversial 2003 pro-war rallies sponsored and promoted by individual Clear Channel stations throughout the country. [Emphasis added. -v]
Thanks to the efforts of Steven and Tom Hicks and the continuing erosion of media ownership laws, Clear Channel now stands as the largest owner of radio stations in the country, with more than 1,200. It also owns 39 television stations, a number that could grow under new media ownership laws, as well as 135 live entertainment venues, 41 amphitheaters in the United States, 30 venues in Europe and a half million outdoor billboards worldwide. [Emphasis added. -v]
Read the entire story on the Hicks brothers and their connections to the Bush administration:
WHAT DOES CLEAR CHANNEL OWE US?
Clear Channel reaches some 180 million listeners across the country. They do so using airwaves that are the property of the American people. Clear Channel merely holds a broadcasting license for them. With that kind of privilege comes great responsibility. Common Cause thinks Clear Channel owes the public more. [Emphasis added. -v]
Read more about Clear Channel and find their stations in your community.
What do you think about radio? Because YOU own these airwaves, you have a voice in changing them.
Join us and send a message to Clear Channel as we ask the company to do better.
What would you like hear more of:
More local musicians on your favorite radio station?
More coverage of local and national elections and issues?
More news stories of local interest?
More diverse opinions on talk radio?
You Decide! Now let Clear Channel know.
Send your message to John Hogan,
CEO of Clear Channel Radio: ACT NOW!
Know someone who would like to send Clear Channel an opinion? Forward this message!
Support our Common Cause campaigns.
---
Related Articles:
Clear Channel Sucks
by Hector Carosso
http://www.bnfp.org/neighborhood/Carosso030508.htm
Apparently ClearChannelSucks.org has been "disappeared." Too bad. It put up a great freedom fight! In its place has appeared ClearChannelBites. Long may she run!
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