I decided to make this interview pretty short because the questions were ones that would require a lot of thought and I didn't want Shelby Cinca of Decahedron to spend too much time on this, seeing as he is in Sweden right now. This is such an informative interview that reallys sheds light on why Clear Channel is evil that I hope will raise awareness to anyone who reads this..

1. Introduce yourself.

Shelby Cinca, guitar/vocals - Decahedron

2. Why is Clear Channel bad (I know that a lot of bands are against it, but I feel that kids will agree with the bands without knowing why)?

They own almost all the commercial radio stations in the US and they buy up clubs. This is why all music you hear on the radio is the same in every state. The idea when radio started was to represent regions, with Clearchannel that goes out the window. It's all corporate leveraging and affiliations plus they can censor content. So if music is lets say against George Bush, they can pull that from being played... if someone says something that they don't agree with, they can pull that person from the station. That is why Howard Stern is not on the radio anymore. They censor content and that is simply the most unamerican thing I can think of. America is about freedom of speech and expression. All in all - they even give money to the Bush campaign and they aren't a company that is improving the situation with money, they are just throwing in their own morality into the whole mix and trying to control as much as possible. This scenario of a large corporation with moral and slanted ideological affiliations can prove to be quite a bad thing for the future, and ethically i think it is wrong because it goes against the whole concept of radio and communication being used properly- to represent all peoples. Their ownership of clubs is just another part of their vision, after they own a club they can allow or disallow certain artists plus they own the recording of any performance there. I think it's possible for a company like Clearchannel to be something that would make the situation of radio and clubs better, but all they care about is purely money and have no moral/ideological standpoint in making radio a better and more pure form of communication.. they just want efficiency in all forms and that means: more listeners, tried and true formulaic programming (music and otherwise), and the numbers to prove that they can charge higher to advertisers. So it all boils down to greed in the end... which is a perfect example of the unethical capitalism that many large corporations in America are very good at displaying. I think there could be alternatives, there could be a way of having a large corporation that tries to make things better for everyone and share a bit more... I think this form of Ethical Capitalism will exist moreso in the future after some more time passes and these current "controller" companies crumble.

3. Scenario 1: I'm a 21 year old college student who enjoys going clubbing Thursday-Saturday. I will listen to whatever is on the radio and don't buy all that many CDs. Why should I care about Clear Channel becoming a monopoly?

Control. The thought that all your content you are getting is going through ONE LARGE FILTER that has affiliations to things you may or may not agree with. It's a matter of caring about what you are being fed and being aware of who the people are that are feeding these things to you. Worst case scenarios could happen: large companies will buy internet companies and filter content like what is happening in China. It's just about being aware... being a smart-consumer, which is something everyone should be... in the end it's about true FREEDOM.

4. Scenario 2: I'm a 34 year old sales manager who was just offered a job at a Clear Channel station. The job pays well, salary plus commission, which will allow me to move my wife and two children into a nice house. I don't care about the music as much as I care about the sales. Why shouldn't I take the job at Clear Channel?

I guess I would need to know in this scenario if said person agrees or disagrees with clearchannel.

Lets say you disagree and you have convictions that you can work there and make a difference.. then i think you should do it, change things from the inside form the best of your ability, climb the ladder and speak your opinion, actually care about making things better and not as imbalanced. If you get fired, then you tried. If you blindly do it for the simple reason of money and you don't agree with clearchannel, then you are part of the problem and a sheep. Your mind is a weapon... use it. Find another job.

5. You mention in your blog that you ended your set in Chicago by saying "destroy 2000 years of culture...destroy tradition." The books I've read about post-apocolyptic culture doesn't sound better than the culture now at all (1984, Brave New World, The Handmaid's Tale). How do you envision the world after culture and tradition are destroyed?

Destroy 2000 Years Of Culture: was a tip of the hat to the song by the same name by Atari Teenage Riot. I see it more as a call to arms to say "erase what you have learned, re-evaluate, critically think".

Destroy tradition... was about destroying the barriers in your head that stick to certain accepted traditions of musical structure/art in general. Popular radio is a part of continuing tradition. I said that mostly since people kind of were perplexed when we played.. it's almost like these days people need to be told whether to like something or not.. everything is so advertised and put in a very specific module as to what it is... people need definition and identity. I say, you don't need anything... define yourself... be yourself... destroy tradition.

Culture and tradition will never be destroyed in the future. It will just be shared...

6. Are you going to vote in this upcoming election?

Yes.

7. Would you rather have your candidate win with a small portion of the population voting (for example: a 35% voter turn out) or your candidate losing with a high voter turnout (example: 70% voter turn out)? Why.

Higher voter turnout. It means people are starting to care. Though I think if it really was a higher voter turnout - the candidate that I am voting for will win.

8. Any final comments?

Read Channel Zero comic book by Brian Wood for an interesting take on a warning of things to come.

Also check out Brian Wood's Main Page.

Written by: RF

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