Fortune has a great article up about Clear Channel radio.

Lowry Mays, the CEO of Clear Channel has clear ideas about what business he’s in. From the article:

“If anyone said we were in the radio business, it wouldn’t be someone from our company,” says Mays, 67. “We’re not in the business of providing news and information. We’re not in the business of providing well-researched music. We’re simply in the business of selling our customers products.”

Personally, I’m extremely disturbed what’s been going on in radio for years. When I left Minnesota in 1994, I left behind my favorite radio station ever- Revolution Radio, Rev105. Founded by one of the Cargill Corp heirs, the station never made money, only breaking even, but they played whatever they wanted. When they said Alternative radio, they meant it. This is the station that introduced me to Semisonic (I won tickets on Rev105 to see Pleasure before they were Semisonic!), Soul Coughing and Ani DiFranco. (Ani DiFranco on the radio. It’s 6 years later and I’ve never heard her on the radio again – though I’ve bought all her CDs).

I moved back to the Twin Cities in January of ’97, and after watching the alternative station in Philadelphia die in ’96, I was subjected to it again. On March 11, ’97, the station flipped over to hard rock – which explains why when I got in my car that night to go home I heard Van Halen playing. Only later was I to find out that ABC / Capital Cities bought out Cargill Communications for $11 million and made them sign a non-compete. Now ABC owns all the rock – classic rock on 92KQ, Alt-rock on 93.7 The Edge, and hard rock / heavy metal on X-105. Through the last 6 years ABC has gone from Hard Rock (X-105), to alt-rock (Zone105), classic alt-rock (Zone105), R&B, and now alt-rock again (Drive105) while turning 93.7 the Edge from alt-rock to heavy metal (93X).

The irony comes in that Drive105 has just started adverstising: Not a Clear Channel radio station! But yet they’re Capital Cities, the #2 radio company in the U.S. Playing popular “alternative” music. To 40 spins a week.

There’s not much left on the web about Rev105, though Google comes up with 4 pages of results, not much works when you follow the links. I’ve found a couple though – here and here. Rev105 will always live in my heart – and my coffee cup! (Which is a Rev105 cup, the only choice for me to drink cofee out of).