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Volume 3, Issue 17
CONCERTS KILLED THE RADIO STARYou've got to hand it to Salon.com. The once teensy mosquito of an Internet magazine has taken a painful bite out of Clear Channel's muscular neck. For months now, Salon has been aggressively reporting on the controversial mergers and corporate practices of the media conglomerate, which currently owns a majority of the top-rated radio stations in the Denver/ Boulder market, including 93.3 KTCL, 97.3 KBCO, 850 KOA, 106.7 KBPI, and 103.5 KRFX. On August 8, Salon staff writer Eric Boehlert published an account of how local promoter Nobody In Particular Presents (NIPP) is suing Clear Channel for unfair, monopolistic practices in its concert promoting division. Clear Channel, which owns both Clear Channel Productions and SFX Productions (the main booking agent for the Fillmore), allegedly strong arms acts into playing its venues by denying airplay to those who choose other promoters. In some cases Clear Channel has allegedly offered smaller pay days to bands than NIPP, confident that without airplay, the larger fee from NIPP is worthless. While these accusations aren't yet proven, and Clear Channel understandably refuses to comment, this suit does strike a chord in the local music community. Sure, NIPP has also been subject to a fair amount of grumbling from local musicians, but nobody can accuse the small local outfit of orchestrating a media blackout on competing acts. What's painfully obvious to music fans in this city, whatever the truth may be about Clear Channel's business practices, is that the quality of radio has suffered greatly since the merger with AM/FM, and that Clear Channel has been unabashedly aggressive in promoting itself through its radio stations. Even the previously above-it-all bastien of integrity, KBCO, has been sullied by obnoxious on-air promotions for other stations in the Clear Channel empire. NIPP's efforts are valiant, but perhaps the onus to do something about Clear Channel's alarming control over music in Denver lies with House of Blues, the other major player in the local concert promotion scene. With Barry Fey back in the business over there, House of Blues has the only clear hometown interest with the muscle to fight back. It will be an interesting battle to watch ... and we have a hunch which side Salon will root for. PUBLICITY STUNTWe have made a few friends, believe it or not, in our time here on Earth, and one of those friends is Mark Grove, the main man at Warrior Quest (an honest-to-goodness ninja training facility, among other things), and director of Denver-made action flick Dragon and the Hawk (which finally got a video distribution deal, so you all can see what we've been talking about for, oh, a year and half). Mark got to take his ninjas, and assorted others from Asgard Entertainment (the stunt company he formed after D&H), to a pre-show stunt extravaganza at The Colorado Center for the opening of Rush Hour 2. The show was promoted by KBPI and attended by two full rows of media types, including Greg "Did He Get That Job Just Because of the Bow Tie?" Moody. By all accounts, the show was a huge hit. There were live stunt fights and prat falls and sword fights, all of it cheered for with a football crowd's enthusiasm. In fact, the crowd was so impressed, it refused to disperse after the show (much to United Artist's chagrin), and Mark picked up healthy recognition for his talents as a stunt man, a dojo master, and a film director. Kudos! Oh, and I say 'by all accounts' because, for some reason, we weren't invited. Or even notified until the day of the event. But I'm not bitter. If the rest of the media world wants to exclude us, that's fine. They do it at their own peril. After all, Mark's on our side. So is Bobby. Like Andre the Giant, we got a posse, and we aren't messed with easily. CORRECTIONS, ETC.Apparently, we stuck it were the sun don't shine. In last issue's style profile [ www.gogomagazine.com/0316/style.html], we misspelled the name of the store in question. What we named 'Sunshine' is actually 'Sunneshine' ... a play on the owner Sunne Pollart's first name. We apologize for the error, and invite all our loyal readers to visit Sunneshine at 3003 East 3rd Ave. and ask Sunne not to hate us. Also, in our memorial to Vince Stott [ www.gogomagazine.com/0316/music.html], we mistakenly misspelled his last name as 'Scott'. Our deepest apologies for the error. --Chris J. Magyar
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