Songs on Clear Channel’s Blacklist

The Blacklist.

The week after the attacks on September 11, 2001, Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia) sent out a mass e-mail to its program directors at stations across the country with an updated and expanded list of songs they considered having “questionable lyrics.” Clear Channel management strongly suggested through the corporate network that stations should avoid playing any of them. Some of the 162 songs — more if you include the blanket directive against “All Rage Against the Machine Songs” might be understandable from Tipper Gore, such as “Seek and Destroy” by Metallica, Van Halen’s “Jump” or Ozzy Osbourne’s “Suicide Solution.” But many of the blacklisted songs are just that – songs. The Bangles’ “Walk Like an Egyptian”, Bobby Darin’s “Mack the Knife”, and the Beatles, “Ticket to Ride” are all included on this list.

The strangest inclusion had to be John Lennon’s unquestionably pacifist anthem “Imagine,” unless Clear Channel was pushing the military industrial complex and its pro-war agenda?

A major uproar erupted among left-wingers and conspiracy theorists — who love throwing shade – and they started asking if this was blatant censorship, or was Clear Channel simply being sensitive to traumatized listeners?

Clear Channel executives made every effort to deny the existence of this list in 2001 and issued a press statement categorically denying the existence of a blacklist, saying:

San Antonio, TX, September 18, 2001…Clear Channel Communications, Inc. (NYSE: CCU) today issued the following statement as a result of numerous stories, emails and calls concerning an alleged “list of banned songs” on its U.S. radio stations following last week’s tragedy in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania:

“Clear Channel Radio has not banned any songs from any of its radio stations. Clear Channel believes that radio is a local medium. It is up to every radio station program director and general manager to understand their market, listen to their listeners and guide their station’s music selections according to local sensitivities. Each program director and general manager must take the pulse of his or her market to determine if play lists should be altered, and if so, for how long. ‘In the wake of this terrible tragedy, the nation’s business community is responding with a degree of hypersensitivity,” explained Mark P. Mays, President and Chief Operating Officer of Clear Channel. “Even some movie companies have altered some of their release schedules in light of the mood in America today. Clear Channel strongly believes in the First Amendment and freedom of speech. We value and support the artist community. And we support our radio station programming staff and management team in their responsibility to respond to their local markets”‘ but we all know how the internet works now.  

Jack Evans, regional senior VP of programming at Clear Channel made a statement insisting this list was not an effort initiated by management: “After and during what was happening in New York and Washington and outside of Pittsburgh, some of our program directors began e-mailing each other about songs and questionable song titles,” though the finished list was emailed to the program directors by Clear Channel management.

Research done by snopes.com revealed two relevant facts: One, the email listing 162+ songs did exist, despite Clear Channel’s denials and two, the songs on the list weren’t actually banned from radio airplay, although Clear Channel strongly suggested that its stations eliminate the songs.

Today, Clear Channel is singing another tune and sporting another moniker. Rebranded in 2015 as, iHeart Media, it is a company that includes 859 radio stations in over 150 markets, with more than 245 million listeners a month — the largest reach of any radio or television outlet in America. However; this shiny description mentions nothing of its current problems. First quarter numbers from 2016 reveal that they are carrying an astounding $20.8 billion in long-term, outstanding debt, and the corporate entity is struggling to find a way to survive. Bloomberg.com explains in a February 2016 article, “The business was bought by Bain and Thomas H. Lee in July 2008 in one of the last mega leveraged buyouts before the credit crisis. The firms paid $24 billion for the radio and billboard company that spawned IHeart, formerly known as Clear Channel Communications Inc. and has been battling ever since.” In 2019 the company will need to come up with $8.3 billion due for senior debt, which represents 40 percent of its total obligations. Clear Channel Outdoor has lost more than half of their value in the past nine months. Are the problems at iHeart Media and Clear Channel Outdoor today reflective of the Corporate Giant mentality they so aggressively displayed at in the first part of the millennium? Their money management skills certainly reflect a “Too Big to Fail” method of doing business, but those may be salad days for this floundering media giant.

How many songs on the blacklist have you listened to?

3 DOORS DOWN – Duck and Run

311 – Down

AC/DC – Dirty Deeds

AC/DC – Hell’s Bells

AC/DC – Highway to Hell

AC/DC – Safe in New York City

AC/DC – Shoot to Thrill

AC/DC – Shot Down in Flames

AC/DC – TNT

AD LIBS – The Boy from New York City

ALICE IN CHAINS – Down in a Hole

ALICE IN CHAINS – Rooster

ALICE IN CHAINS – Sea of Sorrow

ALICE IN CHAINS – Them Bone

ALIEN ANT FARM – Smooth Criminal

ANIMALS – We Gotta Get Out of this Place

LOUIS ARMSTRONG – What a Wonderful World

BANGLES – Walk Like an Egyptian

BARENAKED LADIES – Falling for the First Time

FONTELLA BASS – Rescue Me

BEASTIE BOYS – Sabotage

BEASTIE BOYS – Sure Shot

BEATLES – A Day in the Life

BEATLES – Lucy in fhe Sky with Diamonds

BEATLES – Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

BEATLES – Ticket to Ride

PAT BENATAR – Love Is a Battlefield

PAT BENATAR – Hit Me with Your Best Shot

BLACK SABBATH – Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

BLACK SUICIDE – Suicide Solution

BLACK SABBATH – War Pigs

BLOOD SWEAT & TEARS – And When I Die

BLUE OYSTER CULT – Burnin’ for You

BOSTON – Smokin’

BROOKLYN BRIDGE – Worst that Could Happen

ARTHUR BROWN – Fire

JACKSON BROWNE – Doctor My Eyes

BUSH – Speed Kills CHI-LITES – Have You Seen Her

DAVE CLARK FIVE – Bits and Pieces

PETULA CLARK – A Sign of the Times

THE CLASH – Rock the Casbah

PHIL COLLINS – In the Air Tonight

SAM COOKE – Wonderful World

CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL – Travelin’ Band

CULT – Fire Woman

BOBBY DARIN – Mack the Knife

SKEETER DAVIS – End of the World

NEIL DIAMOND – America

DIO – Holy Diver

DOORS – The End

DRIFTERS – On Broadway

DROWNING POOL – Bodies

BOB DYLAN – Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

EVERCLEAR – Santa Monica

SHELLY FABARES – Johnny Angel

FILTER – Hey Man, Nice Shot

FOO FIGHTERS – Learn to Fly

FUEL – Bad Day

PETER GABRIEL – When You’re Falling

GAP BAND – You Dropped a Bomb on Me

GODSMACK – Bad Religion

GREEN DAY – Brain Stew

NORMAN GREENBAUM – Spirit in the Sky

GUNS N’ ROSES – Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

HAPPENINGS – See You in September

JIMI HENDRIX – Hey Joe

HERMAN’S HERMITS – Wonderful World

HOLLIES – He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother

BUDDY HOLLY & THE CRICKETS – That’ll Be the Day

JAN & DEAN – Dead Man’s Curve

BILLY JOEL – Only the Good Die Young

ELTON JOHN – Benny & The Jets

ELTON JOHN – Daniel

ELTON JOHN – Rocket Man

JUDAS PRIEST – Some Heads Are Gonna Roll

KANSAS – Dust in the Wind

CAROLE KING – I Feel the Earth Move

KORN – Falling Away From Me

LENNY KRAVITZ – Fly Away

LED ZEPPELIN – Stairway to Heaven

JOHN LENNON – Imagine

JERRY LEE LEWIS – Great Balls of Fire

LIMP BIZKIT – Break Stuff

LOCAL H – Bound for the Floor

LOS BRAVOS – Black Is Black

LYNYRD SKYNYRD – Tuesday’s Gone

MARTHA AND THE VANDELLAS – Nowhere to Run

MARTHA AND THE VANDELLAS – Dancing in the Street

DAVE MATHEWS BAND – Crash into Me

PAUL MCCARTNEY & WINGS – Live and Let Die

BARRY MCGUIRE – Eve Of Destruction

DON MCLEAN – American Pie

MEGADEATH – Dread and the Fugitive

MEGADEATH – Sweating Bullets

JOHN MELLENCAMP – Crumbling Down

JOHN MELLENCAMP – I’m on Fire

METALLICA – Seek and Destroy

METALLICA – Harvester Or Sorrow

METALLICA – Enter Sandman

METALLICA – Fade to Black

STEVE MILLER – Jet Airliner

ALANIS MORISSETTE – Ironic

MUDVAYNE – Death Blooms

RICK NELSON – Travelin’ Man

NENA – 99 Luft Balloons/99 Red Balloons

NINE INCH NAILS – Head Like a Hole

OINGO BOINGO – Dead Man’s Party

PAPER LACE – The Night Chicago Died

JOHN PARR – St Elmo’s Fire

PETER GORDON – I Go To Pieces

PETER GORDON – A World Without Love

PETER PAUL & MARY – Blowin’ in the Wind

PETER PAUL & MARY – Leavin’ on a Jet Plane

TOM PETTY – Free Fallin’

PINK FLOYD – Run Like Hell

PINK FLOYD – Mother

POD – Boom

ELVIS PRESLEY – (You’re the) Devil in Disguise

PRETENDERS – My City Was Gone

QUEEN – Another One Bites the Dust

QUEEN – Killer Queen

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE – [all songs]

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS – Aeroplane

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS – Under the Bridge

REM – It’s the End of the World as We Know It

ROLLING STONES – Ruby Tuesday

MITCH RYDER & THE DETROIT WHEELS – Devil with the Blue Dress

SALIVA – Click Click Boom

SANTANA – Evil Ways ‘

SAVAGE GARDEN – Crash and Burn

SIMON & GARFUNKLE – Bridge Over Troubled Water

FRANK SINATRA – New York, New York

SLIPKNOT – Left Behind

SLIPKNOT – Wait and

SMASHING PUMPKINS – Bullet with Butterfly Wings

SOUNDGARDEN – Blow Up the Outside World

SMASHING PUMPKINS – Fell on Black Days

SMASHING PUMPKINS – Black Hole Sun

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – I’m on Fire

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – Goin’ Down

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – War

EDWIN STARR – War

STEAM – Na Na Na Na Hey Hey

CAT STEVENS – Peace Train

CAT STEVENS – Morning Has Broken

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS – Big Bang Baby

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS – Dead and Bloated

SUGAR RAY – Fly

SURFARIS – Wipeout

SYSTEM OF A DOWN – Chop Suey!

TALKING HEADS – Burning Down the House

JAMES TAYLOR – Fire and Rain

TEMPLE OF THE DOG – Say Hello to Heaven

THIRD EYE BLIND – Jumper

THREE DEGREES – When Will I See You Again

TOOL – Intolerance

TRAMPS – Disco Inferno

U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday

VAN HALEN – Dancing in the Streets

VAN HALEN – Jump

J FRANK WILSON – Last Kiss

YOUNGBLOODS – Get Together

ZAGER & EVANS – In the Year 2525

ZOMBIES – She’s Not There

Source Material:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-03/iheart-said-to-weigh-bond-exchange-before-wall-of-debt-comes-due

http://www.iheartmedia.com/pages/Press.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Clear_Channel_memorandum

 

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