I know the source is MTV, but this is the best article I could find on this. This is
soooo surreal.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/150...headlines=true
For one week now, radio listeners in Akron, Ohio, have been irritated by a pirate-radio broadcast that keeps bleeding into the programming on their favorite stations.
How could a shadowy pirate-radio syndicate manage to keep up this illegal activity against the largest radio network in the country for so long? Well, it couldn't. The fake pirate broadcasts and Web site, RadioFreeOhio.org, are all an elaborate promotional prank from radio giant Clear Channel to hype one of their new radio stations.
With the slogan "Changing Ohio radio," the Web site purports to be a movement of "concerned individuals who are compelled by their overwhelming sense of patriotism and pride to no longer accept what is considered the standard method of operation by a majority of Commercial Broadcasters."
The group claims it has been struggling to acquire the rights to a station in the area to bring "progressive conversation and viewpoints to the American public," which led to the decision to begin its "pirate" broadcasts from an abandoned rubber factory. The site then lists a number of stations in Northeast Ohio that should be forced to give up their licenses, with snarky comments about their programming.
Smart Web surfers, however, have not been duped by the elaborate promotion. They vented on the site's message boards — which, like most of the other content, was abruptly taken down on Thursday and replaced with the warning "The radio revolution begins Tuesday, May 31." Under the heading "@#%$ you Clear Channel," users posted the Web code that appeared to prove the media giant is behind the prank. User inYOURbrain posted the message, "You've got to be kidding me. Clear Channel is everything that is wrong with media distribution these days. I'm not even from Ohio, and I'm offended."
The Web site encouraged listeners to call local radio stations and mention Radio Free Ohio, though it seems like there weren't many takers. A handful of the stations — a mix of Clear Channel, rival Cumulus Broadcasting, NPR and independently owned outlets — reported no calls about the stunt as of Thursday.
Neither independent public radio station WAPS nor Cumulus' WRQK had gotten any calls, but Keith Kennedy, the Operations Manager at WKDD said ours was the first call he'd received, though he added cryptically, "Keep an eye on the Web site."
Did we mention that WKDD is owned by Clear Channel? "I'll be honest and tell you it's not a Clear Channel promotion," Kennedy said. "We heard that they think it's some clever [Web site] registering by someone, but it's not associated with us at all." Riiiight.
A Clear Channel spokesperson finally 'fessed up to the convoluted ruse late Thursday. "It is a promotional site, but we're not disclosing for what Clear Channel station at this time," Jennifer Geary said.
-Gil Kaufmann
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And another:
http://crainscleveland.com/news.cms?newsId=3405
Friday, May 27, 2005
Clear Channel pirates
By JOHN BOOTH
It seems the eyepatch has come off and the parrot has turned out to be stuffed.
But just what Clear Channel Communications is promoting in Northeast Ohio with its recent spate of “pirate” radio broadcasts and Internet calls for “radio revolution” is still a murky business.
The buzz — and a good deal of online backlash — began a little over a week ago.
On the Cleveland message boards at radio-info.com, the first post addressing a web site called RadioFreeOhio.org showed up May 19. The message mentioned that Clear Channel-owned WTOU-AM 1350 was “interrupted” by a purported pirate radio broadcast touting the Radio Free Ohio site. Within a day, another post claimed the site’s Internet protocol address was registered to none other than Clear Channel Communications, but offered no supporting facts.
Other messages indicate that similar “interruptions” were heard on other Clear Channel stations, and between May 23-25, several postings at woxy.com and on the weblog of Stay Free!, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based magazine that covers mass media, provided full data linking RadioFreeOhio.org’s registration to Clear Channel’s San Antonio headquarters.
A Crain’s search of Internet registration records backed up the connection.
In its first incarnation, RadioFreeOhio.org included a series of vitriolic rants about area radio stations, Clear Channel-owned and otherwise, along with its own set of message boards for visitors to the site.
Once those visitors became savvy of the Clear Channel connection, though, RadioFreeOhio.org abruptly changed to a static, noninteractive page consisting solely of a “Radio Free Ohio” logo, a promise that “The radio revolution begins Tuesday, May 31,” and a link to a Yahoo!.com email address.
A Crain’s e-mail to that address was not answered.
Since then, talk on the message boards about the subject is often derisive of the media giant’s apparent guerrilla marketing strategy, especially given Clear Channel’s domination of the airwaves in many markets.
RadioFreeOhio.org’s registration information included the Clear Channel e-mail address and phone number of Rick Moore. A query e-mail regarding the Radio Free Ohio site garnered the following two-sentence response from Mr. Moore, Clear Channel’s director of communications: “Please visit (Clear Channel’s internet site) to find more information about Clear Channel Radio. Thank you.”
North-Canton-based WKDD-FM 98.1 — one of 10 Clear Channel radio properties in Northeast Ohio — is currently running promotions teasing to a “career-changing announcement” from longtime morning personality Matt Patrick, also set for Tuesday morning.
The station is also promoting itself as "Matt FM" this weekend, and touting an eclectic "anything goes" music format, which may be a reference to the "Jack FM" format spreading across the country.
The unspoken slogan of Jack-format stations is "we'll play what we want," and the attitude seems to be one of backlash against corporate-mandated playlists and standardized music formats.
“We are making some changes in Akron,” said Keith Kennedy, director of programming operations for WKDD, WHLO-AM 640 and WTOU-AM 1350. “It’s something with one of (those) three.”
Mr. Kennedy said he could not elaborate, but denied the changes were tied to the Radio Free Ohio web site.
Linear Mode
