FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                     May 19, 2003                                    

Who Controls What You Hear?

Concert at the 9:30 Club to highlight pending FCC vote on media ownership rules

The Future of Music Coalition and Common Cause are teaming up to sponsor a concert on Friday, May 23, 2003 at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC to draw attention to a key vote of a federal agency that will affect what every American watches on TV, reads in the newspaper, and hears on the radio.

The concert, entitled “Who Controls What You Hear?” is aimed at calling attention to a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) vote scheduled for June 2, 2003 that would loosen restrictions on media ownership rules. Featured artists will include Washington Social Club, Etherpool and Gavin DeGraw.

If the FCC accepts the proposed rules changes, the stage will be set for a wave of media consolidation similar to what happened to commercial radio following the 1996 Telecommunications Act. That law relaxed local limits and eliminated national caps on the number of radio stations a company could own. As a result, corporations like Clear Channel, ABC and Viacom bought numerous radio stations across the country – a move that has had a devastating impact on localism, competition and diversity in radio.

Media conglomerates want the larger deregulation that will enable them to operate in a totally free market, where bigger is better and economic power determines the winners and losers. Consolidation is inevitable as media giants prosper by merger and acquisitions, cutting staffs and budgets and homogenizing their product.

"Radio consolidation has been an absolute failure for the public,” stated Jenny Toomey, Executive Director of the Future of Music Coalition.  “It has reduced marketplace competition, programming diversity, public access to the airwaves and public satisfaction. It is amazing to me that we can even consider going down the same path of ownership deregulation for TV, cable and newspapers without addressing the very basic issues that radio consolidation has raised.”

“We’re moving rapidly toward a world in which a very small number of conglomerates will control nearly all of what you hear and see on radio and TV,” said Chellie Pingree, president of Common Cause. “That is a world where originality will become suspect and where those who wish to offer an alternative to the status quo will never be heard.”

“This is an issue that concerns us as concert promoters, as music fans and as citizens,” explained Donna Westmoreland, Director of Operations & Marketing at the 9:30 Club. “We are thrilled to provide a forum to spread the word and raise resources to take on these media giants, all the while presenting what promises to be a great show.”

Tickets cost $10 and are available through Tickets.com.  Money raised will benefit the Future of Music Coalition and Common Cause.

For more information on the concert and the campaign against media consolidation, visit www.futureofmusic.org and www.commoncause.org.

Common Cause: Mary Boyle @ 202.736.5770

Future of Music Coalition: Jenny Toomey @ 202.518.4117

9:30 Club: Donna Westmoreland @ 301.229.4675