and the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools trying to anesthetize the way that you feel.

Earlier this week, Clear Channel announced their sale to a private investment group, which isn't notable in and of itself -- what's really interesting about the whole sale is how about 450 radio stations and ALL of their TV stations (via the division that owns them) will be spun off and sold. (Clear Channel's TV arm owns a couple of my employer's competitors; all we know about their ownership from our friends at said stations is that it makes for better initial salary numbers, supposedly.)

The consolidation effect from years of public ownership and swallowing up of radio stations has already passed in the sense that hoping to reverse it is a pipe dream. Privatizing the largest top-down conglomerate in radio and most aspects of musically related entertainment isn't going to have a discernible effect on what we see and hear in terms of entertainment -- the damage has already been done, and since it makes money, it's not likely to change. The effect of the BusinessWeek article is really to chronicle (almost by accident) just how all-encompassing the company has been, especially post-Telecommunications Act, when ownership rules were relaxed significantly. The company owned a major part of the airwaves, the promotional end of the musicians they aired, and a magazine that covered their industry.

They're going to sell the concert promotion, TV stations, and it seems, anything that isn't straight radio -- but the sentiment of the Elvis Costello lyric in the title will still hold.