No Rock And Roll Fun

MORE RADIO DAYS: Wired have a piece about Clear Channel's operations in San Diego - local voices and spark gone, national mush re-heated as faux local in place - and Mexico, where Clear all but buy stations (Mexican law won't allow Americans to own their media - Tony Blair might want to ponder why) and then basically broadcast them back across the border, pirate style. Wired is pretty balanced - consolidation in San Diego has given a stable market, it concedes, and it points out that the stations are popular. But even so...
Meanwhile, back in Britain, we've been told that Ritz - first step in Mean Fiddler's attempts to ape the Clear Channel mix of radio and venues - is currently playing a tape over and over again (like Tracy Barlow used to in her bedroom), prior to a relaunch under the frankly dreadful name of Mean Country - but then Fiddler Country would have been even worse, we suppose; and it's not like Ritz was a brand that suggested country music, either. Rollouts, digital, yadda yadda... you know how this goes...
We're wondering what sort of 'country' MC goes for - and, indeed, if there's a market for a country station at all. Sure, when digital penetration gets deep enough, as a national proposition it might fly; Liverpool might also prove a sustainable environment too. But London? I guess we'll see...