The Clear Channel "List"

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, rumors began circling around the Internet and in the general media that Clear Channel Communications, owner of over 1,000 radio stations across the country, had distributed a list of what it considered “objectionable” songs to program directors at its stations. As the rumor read, Clear Channel thought these songs were inappropriate to play in the days after 9/11. More than 100 songs appeared on this list, some from notable bands and artists like Led Zepplin, REM, Elvis, James Taylor and others.

Indeed, there was a list—however, contrary to popular belief, the list did not come from top Clear Channel brass. Rather, it came from a program director at a single Clear Channel station. Being a part of a large corporation myself, I know things like these can spread like wildfire thanks to the instant nature of email. According to an article on the website Snopes.com, which is where urban legends and rumors are often debunked, the list crept out of the Clear Channel organization after the original program director sent it to a few other Clear Channel program directors, who in turn forwarded it on, and so on. It was never a "ban," or even a "suggestion" from Clear Channel upper management.

While I still completely believe Clear Channel is one of the evil empires of the United States media industry (I find slight solace in the fact they recently sold off their entire 56-station television group and almost a third of their smaller radio stations), you have to call urban legend where it is warranted, and this is one such occasion. I’m sure that Clear Channel has had more than just a passing interest in what music is played on its stations, which isn’t hard to do considering most smaller stations have their content farmed out to DJs working at larger stations in a practice known as voicetracking.

When we discussed this in my RTVF 110 class, I brought up the fact that many radio stations and DJs "self-censor" during these times of tragedy or natural disaster. In October 2007, when hundreds of homes were burned to the ground due to wildfires raging in San Diego County, you did not hear R&B hits like Usher's "Burn" on San Diego hip-hop station Z90.3. (They did, however, play Alicia Keys' "No One" about once an hour, mixed with local news sound bites talking about the fires.) I can almost guarantee that any jock in their right mind would not add that song to his or her playlist during the height of the wildfires, or while the memories of houses—and lives—going up in flames were still fresh in the minds of many San Diegans.