Ohhh, how the rich get richer...

There's a great article in the Eastbay Express that clearly illustrates (again) how and why big businesses can and will dominate the little businesses that attempt to provide a potentially "authentic" alternative to the seemingly inexorable marketing machine we know as commercial radio. Power 92.7 was a radio station formed several months ago in the Bay Area in order to compete against the Bay Area's two big market Clear Channel urban stations (KMEL and Wile 94.9) by offering an authentic alternative to the two big market stations. It was Power's goal to offer a real alternative to the people of Oakland by catering their song selection towards what the people of the Oakland community wanted to hear (i.e. more local, "authentic" hip-hop) instead of dictating what the public wanted to hear through standardized program lists. But, this article by Chris Thompson and Anticon-hater Eric K. Arnold shows exactly what small market radio stations are up against in the world of media-conglomerate domination. The lesson is far from ambiguous: if Clear Channel won't get ya, good ol' buy, improve, sell-for-profit capitalism will.

Click me