1) From Louis Wolf on Clear Channel:
Ten Reasons (And More) Why WPFW Cannot Sublet from Clear Channel
1. Clear Channel’s 1,200 radio stations and 40 TV. outlets are avowedly conservative and pro war – WPFW is founded on the principles of pacifism. Founder Lew Hill refused to serve in the military during WWII. Hill would be turning over in his grave if the network he founded was funneling money to Clear Channel.
2. Ultra-right wing talk radio hosts infamous for their homophobic, sexist, xenophobic, racist political rants find a cozy home on Clear Channel stations nationwide. It’s a ‘Who’s Who’ of rabid prominent conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and Glenn Beck.
3. Clear Channel was purchased by the infamous Bain Capital (Mitt Romney’s former company) in 2012 and due to its’ highly controversial status was forced to be converted to a private company.
4. WPFW, the jazz and justice station is founded on the principles of free speech and cultural diversity in programming whereas Clear Channel issued a memo in 2001 after the September 11th attacks banning a list of songs termed as ‘lyrically questionable’ including songs like Bob Dylan’s ‘Knockin on Heaven’s Door’ and Louis Armstrong’s ‘What a Wonderful World.’
5. When Dixie Chick Natalie Maines criticized President George W. Bush for leading the country to war, saying she was ashamed the president was from Texas, Clear Channel vilified the group, put their music on a ‘blacklist’ not to be played and held cd stompings of their music. WPFW practices free speech, and disavows censorship.
6. Antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, a mother who launched a one woman protest in front of the White House when her son was killed in Iraq, produced a paid ad against the war, and the Clear Channel TV. station KTVX was the only station nationwide that refused to air it! Meanwhile WPFW presented Cindy Sheehan with the ‘Unvarnished Truth Award’ for her heroism.
7. A Clear Channel station in Cincinnati practices open disdain for the least fortunate members of society. They hosted a so-called ‘Derelict Rodeo Roundup’ in which employees gave homeless people a $20 bill, a 40 ounce bottle of malt liquor and a bus ticket to the edge of town.
8. They show equal disdain for peace activists – Madison, Wisconsin’s Clear Channel Fox TV affiliate host Mark Hyman calls peace activists ‘whack jobs,’ progressives ‘the loony left’ and the so-called liberal media’ the hate America crowd’ or ‘the Axis of Drivel.’
9. A Clear Channel disc jockey in Denver suggested that Iraq war opponent and then Vermont Governor Howard Dean ‘should be shot’.
10. Long time progressive activist and KPFA radio talk show host ‘Davey D’ was fired from KMEL allegedly for airing voices that opposed the war in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Clear Channel is facing a rapidly growing number of legal challenges, Congressional hearings, investigations and targeted campaigns by a variety of unions. U.S. Senator Russ Feingold has introduced a bill targeting the conglomerate’s brutal domination of the radio and concert industry and its rapidly gaining public and congressional support
***Clear Channel’s hate radio model is in direct contradiction to WPFW’s mission ‘to provide outlets for the creative skills and energies of the community, to contribute to a lasting understanding between individuals of all nations, races, creeds and colors, and to promote the full distribution of public information.’
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In addition to being morally repugnant, any financial relationship or collaboration between WPFW and Clear Channel would be wholly antithetical to the letter and spirit of the Pacifica mission, its’ bylaws and the Articles of Incorporation.