December 13, 2005

A radio station has sold the naming rights to its newsroom, sparking some concern that advertisers had crossed a line and could influence news coverage. Hilarious? Moot? Pathetic? When is it all too clear that corporations control what you know about current events?

It was not clear whether the move was a companywide policy of the station's parent, Clear Channel Communications, a San Antonio-based company that owns nearly 1,200 radio stations and a national radio network. Tyler said producing news is getting expensive and the sale had to be done. He insisted it won't affect news content. In other news, students at Burger King High School marched in protest against animal rights legislation this afternoon . . .

posted by petebest 18 years ago
  • When I worked in radio, during the Jurassic DJ Era, full-time sponsors of traffic reports got to name the station's helicopter/plane/radio room, and there were stations that announced every weather update "from the Pepsi Blue Weather Center", which was actually a wire service ticker that also provided all the national headlines and sports scores. There were even stations where one sponsor paid for all the newscasts the station did all week (most of which were on the morning drive-time show). How is this all that much worse?
  • Could have been worse. Could have been Trump.
  • Radio is irrelevant. Clear Channel has seen to that. This is just one more nail in the coffin.
  • It's worse because you're not likely to change how you report the weather all that much based on a sponsor. You might get "Boy, it's a hot one out there. A good day to drink a nice, cold, refreshing Pepsi Blue." Even if you do, the weather's the weather. It's fact, and really hard to color with perspective or viewpoint. On the other hand, if a bank sponsors the news station, will they have any say in how certain news gets reported? Will financial news be slanted to the views of the banking industry or that bank in particular? Will it color the way the news in general is reported? I hope that if I ever have kids, I can have them at the Mountain Dew MDX Gynecological and Neonatal Center.
  • That's funny, my son was born at Mr. Pib's California Pacific Fresca Medical Center.
  • It is sad, but I am way past crying. The rare occasions that I watch the so-called morning news on any of the networks, what I see is cross promotion from the various Disney brands on ABC, the Viacom brands on CBS and the Universal brands on NBC, with infotainment segments bumpered by brief bits of watered down, inoffensive to corporate sponsorship, news bits. So WIBA sold the naming rights to their newsroom. When they sell the naming rights to their news-readers, wake me up.
  • Yeah I don't think it affects that much wendell, I just think it's another "sure why not" in that slide to fully corporate-controlled mindspace. The fact that it's the newsroom just struck a chord, as there's constant talk of the big 3 networks closing down news altogether because it's not profitable. 200 channels and nothin' on. The FCC, by the way, are a bunch of corporate-interest-only assclowns. Despite their "best" efforts. This is "our" bandwidth they've souled off to PepsiCo & Texxon.
  • I agree that radio news is almost totally irrelevent. Unless it is a news show that is oging to comment on, or at least try to make jokes about the news, I find radio news to be totally irritating and pointless. However, Zanshin, it was Mr. Pibb with two "b"s and they have since become Totally Extreme To the Max and changed the name to Pibb Xtra. I will, however, overlook the transgression because you also mentioned Fresca, which is also made by Coke, and is, quite possibly the best beverage ever made. However, only original version of Fresca, since the two new flavors Black Cherry and Peach are unremarkable. The original Fresca tastes like burning. mmmmm... burning...
  • But it's also not the danger of misreporting stories, as much as it is not reporting stories. Or reporting a non-story. "Today the president issued a new meme . . "
  • ...and this is why I don't watch TV.
  • I"m not sure that radio news is irrelevent to those who listen to it on their commutes, and then watch Fox news for a half hour when they get home, then eat dinner with the feeling that they're really informed. Even on the internet, staying informed takes some serious work. Newspapers, for me, were the bastion of good reportage. My local rag still does some good stuff in challenging local stupidity, but reports broader news as it comes off the wire. And, since some of the major newspapers and the wire services have lost their independence, it's hard to find a source you can trust.
  • How is not watching TV going to help you avoid the RADIO???? Insert literacy joke here! :P
  • There ya go! Another one bires the dust.
  • Well "t", of course.
  • Oh well there goes more editorial freedom - of course if Murdoch had anything to do with the station previously then they haven't had that for a while anyway. Ps path yep newspapers are great until you get a monopoly at which point in time it becomes pointless looking for objective opinion or reportage there as well
  • !.,"-
  • Hee hee.