Re: More on CLear Channel song ban

[Mark Laurence <mlaurence@mindspring.com>]

On Tuesday, September 18, 2001, at 12:12  AM, Dan Billings wrote:

> This smells like a hoax to me.  The list of songs is too long and some 
> of
> the songs that are included are just ridiculous.  It reads like a hit 
> piece
> put together by someone with an ax to grind with Clear Channel (and 
> there
> are lots of people like that).  These kind of things make the rounds on 
> the
> Internet regularly.

To me, the list seems short, considering that they're attempting to deal 
with all formats with artists ranging from Elton John to Metallica.  At 
Magic, we removed about 1/3 of the playlist for the days following the 
tragedy.  It's not just overt lyrics or titles like "I Melt With You" 
that can be offensively out of place in this situation.  We also didn't 
want to be playing the fastest songs or the happiest ones either.  
Nobody was in a mood to hear Rod Stewart "Having A Party."

After the weekend, we returned many of the dropped songs to the 
playlist.  Some songs still feel inappropriate, but the dropped songs 
are no longer numbering in the hundreds.

The website almost made it sound like Clear Channel was banning these 
songs forever because of terrorism.  I'm sure that's not their 
intention, it's not our plan either.

Mark Laurence
Magic 106.7