Right of the Dial: The Rise of Clear Channel and the Fall of Commercial Radio

"Clear Channel may not have ruined American radio on its own, but it came pretty close. Alec Foege's Right of the Dial details the whole, sad media saga." —Eric Boehlert, senior fellow at Media Matters for America and author of Lapdogs: How The Press Rolled Over for Bush:“Read this book and you will want to scream. Alec Foege tells a tale of rapacity and financial engineering that could drive one to socialism. Not really, but close. In the hands of the Mays family, Clear Channel Communications became America’s radio behemoth. With its 2,000 radio stations, it devised ways to economize and centrally automate the music the stations played, the news it presented. For a time, it was good for investors, and for the Mays family. But as this book lucidly demonstrates, it was bad for citizens and bad for American culture.” —Ken Auletta“The story of Clear Channel's binge and purge says so much about media in our time. Alec Foege tells that complex story with characteristic insight and balance. He never settles for the easy take, only for the truth, which he illuminates with impressive clarity.” —Anthony DeCurtis, Contributing Editor, Rolling Stone “The Clear Channel corporation has been one of the most successful, most controversial, and most reviled companies in the history of the music business. With Right of the Dial, Alec Foege takes a thorough, clear-eyed look inside this mythic beast, and reveals a uniquely American saga of commerce and culture gone mad.”— Alan Light, former editor-in-chief, Vibe and Spin magazines