Clear Channel Communications president and CEO Mark Mays Congress should allow broadcasters to own 50% more stations in the nation’s major markets than current ownership limits allow. “Mays claims that satellite radio and Internet services escape regulations on content and capacity that give them an unfair advantage that only can be overcome by allowing broadcasters to get bigger.”
Blog
Collector Sues To Stop Sale Of Stolen Paintings
In 1978 thieves stole seven paintings from Michael Bakwin. “The paintings, worth about $3 million, surfaced last spring in London, in the possession of the Erie International Trading Co., an obscure organization with a Panamanian address. When Bakwin learned that the company had plans to auction the works, he asked the Art Loss Register, a firm that tracks stolen art, to intervene. Julian Radcliffe, chairman of the Art Loss Register, said he wants to know who the owners of Erie International Trading are, how they got the paintings, and what they may know about the theft.”
Louisiana Phil Takes To The Road
Tuesday night, the plucky Louisiana Philharmonic plays a road game in Nashville, its first concert since hurricane Katrina. “The 68-member Louisiana Philharmonic was to open its concert season at the ornate Orpheum Theater on Sept. 15, but the venue, like most of the city, was flooded and may be lost for the season.”
The Great Experimenters (And Why)
“Even while popular writing has quietly glided into the realm of the culturally elite, doling out its severe judgment of fiction that has not sold well, and we have entered a time when book sales and artistic merit can be neatly equated without much of a fuss, Jonathan Franzen has argued that complex writing, as practiced by writers such as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett and their descendants, is being forced upon readers by powerful cultural institutions (this is me scanning the horizon for even the slightest evidence of this) and that this less approachable literature, or at least its esteemed reputation, is doing serious damage to the commercial prospects of the literary industry.” So where is the evidence?
Saltz: Is New York Art City?
Jerry Saltz writes that New York’s “art world has never been so flush with money. There are almost 300 galleries in Chelsea, with more than 30 expanding or relocating there this season. A 20-story “gallery condo” is under construction; Matthew Marks is opening a fourth gallery space, Perry Rubinstein a third, Pace a second; Marianne Boesky is building her own building. No one’s closing. There are also hundreds of contemporary galleries outside Chelsea. So New York truly is Art City. Or is it? Even with all the buzz, we’re in a predicament.”
August Wilson’s Song
“To say that Wilson was the greatest African American playwright the nation has produced — as some inevitably do — is to limit the scope of his significance as a contributor to the country’s dramatic heritage.”
The Harvard Effect
What is it with the American obsession with Harvard? “At the heart of the American obsession with the Ivy League is the belief that schools like Harvard provide the social and intellectual equivalent of Marine Corps basic training—that being taught by all those brilliant professors and meeting all those other motivated students and getting a degree with that powerful name on it will confer advantages that no local state university can provide.”
CBC Work Stoppage Ends
“The CBC and its union reached an agreement in principle early yesterday morning, seven weeks after the lockout began. Negotiators from both sides are still meeting, working on the details and language of the deal. The final deal is unlikely to be ratified until the weekend, but CBC viewers could get their first taste of normal programming then.”
CBC Lockout – Who Lost Most?
“Neither CBC management nor the Canadian Media Guild distinguished between radio, television or the Internet when presenting their sides to the public. But many of the issues raised (such as whether the CBC can remain competitive) were directed more toward television. Has CBC Radio been unfairly burdened by TV during the lockout and the damage the lockout may have done to audience loyalty?”
The Threat Of Used Books?
“According to the Book Industry Study Group, used book sales topped $2.2 billion in 2004, an 11 percent increase over 2003. Much of that growth can be credited to the Internet. While used sales at traditional stores rose a modest 4.6 percent, they jumped 33 percent online, to just over $600 million. More than 111 million used books were purchased last year, representing about one out of every 12 overall book purchases. By the end of the decade, the percentage is expected to rise to one out of 11, a troubling trend when sales for new works are essentially flat; authors and publishers receive no royalties from used buys.”