Wednesday, June 4, 2008

1 Company, 2 Books, and 2 Very Different Stories

Clear Channel is the subject of two new books--one quite critical and the other quite complementary.



Which book is right? That depends on the lens through which you view the company. I worked there and certainly have my opinions, but I will say simply this: like any other place there was good and bad, but overall my experience was good. Don't mean to disappoint those of you who thought there might be some good dirt spewing out of this blog.

I was there, in a senior programming position, as many of the stories were being written about national playlists and other such supposed "crimes." Every time something was written that was patently false, and there were plenty of fictitious or skewed stories being written, I tried to pay as little attention to it as possible and stay focused on productive things.

At the same time the reduction/elimination of the farm team and the multiple rounds of cuts was tough to be a part of. I always believed there needed to be a better plan in place to ensure there would be an adequate stable of passionate radio folks for the future.

So, which book is closer to being right? I will let you decide which story seems closer to the truth. Maybe it's a mix of the two? wink wink.