Does Rupert Murdoch own radio stations too????

Clear Channel Communications, the world's largest radio broadcaster, called on Congress to ease restrictions on station ownership to help it compete with satellite and Internet-based rivals.

Congress should increase limits to 10 outlets from eight in markets where 60 or more stations operate and to 12 from eight in markets with 75 or more stations, Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays said this week in a speech in Washington.

''Free radio" stations are losing audience to competing media, including Sirius and XM. The Internet and electronic devices such as Apple's iPod are also taking listeners away from traditional broadcasters, Mays said.

San Antonio-based Clear Channel, which operates 1,200 stations, has reduced advertising airtime to help retain listeners.

(Beware .... my thoughts ahead)

I know that in Dallas that Clear Channel owns ALL 5 of the "top" stations and it just seems to me that if Clear Channel were REALLY worried about fear of losing market share that hey .... THEY'D STOP PLAYING CRAP and actually do more of what stations like Jack FM are doing (yes I am aware that a lot of people dont like Jack.) So let me clarify, they dont have to model a station after Jack but maybe a bit more after their behaviour, from what I understand they allow people to submit their podcasts to the station play lists. As far as Sirius and XM, well thats the wave of the future. Howard Stern realized that but I think that his move was more of a political statement than anything. Also, please remember that Clear Channel did this following gem:

One of the most famous cases of alleged banned songs occurred several days after September 11, 2001. As the story goes, a Program Director at one of the Clear Channel Radio stations, decided on his own to compile a list of songs that might be considered in "bad taste" - if played - following the awful events of 9/11. (I'll attach the link at some point if anyone really wants to see.)

Clear Channel said at the time that this wasnt a "hard" list but merely a suggestion for offering songs that were more "sensitive" to what the country was going through at the time. I saw the list the day it was leaked and none of the Clear Channel stations here in Dallas thought this was a "suggested play list." They pretty much followed lock step to not play any of the songs on the list.

My whole theory is this though, like Rupert Murdoch, if one station controls so much of what we see, and now hear, how much harder is it going to be to hear new music or to be able to watch a digestable news program where we dont have a babble head like Bill O'Reilly putting a "no-spin" on his lies. Contrary to popular opinion, just like the government, if we stop listening to corporate interests and start doing more things like XM and Sirius at some point, the media mega-conglomerates will have no choice but to take notice that people are walking away from them. Those are just my thoughts though.