Third in a series - Clear Channel leverages it's near-monopoly on
public bandwidth to dismantle local arts organizations!
Last year, Clear Channel took aim at Boston's historic Wang Center, a theatre and non-profit arts organization with deep roots in the Boston community, and kicked them right where it hurt most - that delicate "double bottom line" that all nonprofits must walk like a tightrope.
Cue Philadelphia, 2005. Clear Channel already owns and/or runs game on most of the major theatres in the market, but of course, it's not enough!
They already own the rock and pop scene, off-broadway and urban theater, 6 of the largest radio stations and 220 billboards in this market. Now, they want to strip away the last revenue-driving ventures by the Kimmel Center, a non-profit Performing Arts presenter that is also the umbrella organization for such cultural gems as The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Philadelphia Ballet, Opera and the world-reknown PHILADANCO dance company.
Clear Channel Is Rough Sailing For Boston's Wang Center
Boston's Wang Center for the Performing Arts, which has routinely been one of the best performing arts and entertainment venues in the city, has just recorded its first losing season since it opened in 1987, according to a report in the Boston Globe.
The Wang's $750,000 loss is being blamed on a combination of the aftershocks of September 11th and increasingly difficult competition from Clear Channel Entertainment, the largest promoter in the world which owns and/or operates numerous venues around the city. Faced with increasing losses, the Wang Center has begun to work with Clear Channel to bring acts into the theater, but it continues to struggle.
The 3600-seat Wang Center originally opened as the 4400-seat Metropolitan Theatre in 1925, a former movie palace in Boston's theater district. After decades of showing movies, the theater fell into decline, but was saved and restored in the late 1980s.
The Wang Center may be further hurt by Clear Channel's plan to resurrect another opulent movie palace, the former B.F.Keith's/RKO Keith's/Savoy/Opera House, which has sat dormant for years just a few blocks away on Washington Street..
Competitive threat looms
But as [Kimmel Center CEO Janice Price] tries to ramp up an endowment campaign, she could soon face a potentially serious threat to her new revenue stream: "Citizens Bank Broadway at the Academy," which took in $4 million in revenue for the year ended June 30, 2004, its first full season.
Clear Channel Entertainment, the country's largest live-entertainment company, plans to purchase the old Boyd Theater on Chestnut Street near 19th.
It will renovate it into a 2,400-seat theater and begin producing live entertainment there sometime next year.
Clear Channel already programs "Broadway Across America" at the Merriam Theater, the Kimmel's next-door neighbor on the Avenue of the Arts.
The two have been friendly competitors up to now, Price said. That's because the Kimmel has focused more on family-oriented shows like "Beauty and the Beast" and "Peter Pan" while Clear Channel has staged more offbeat, urban-themed productions like "Def Poetry Jam" and "Rent."
Nobody can yet say for certain what impact Clear Channel's programming at the Boyd will have on the Kimmel. But it clearly has Price a little nervous.
Last year, Clear Channel renovated the Opera House in Boston and went head-to-head with the Wang Center for the Performing Arts. Wang ended up losing two blockbuster shows...
And there's also Clear Channel's promotional advantage, thanks to its six radio stations and 240 billboards in the region.
Is this why our government licenses the publicly-owned FM and AM bands, so mega-broadcasters can leverage it into decapitating local non-profit arts organizations like The Wang Theatre and The Kimmel Center ?
Does Clear Channel intend to be a good corporate citizen, running summer camps for kids in the community, devoting millions of dollars to education and discount/free programming for Philadelphia families? Will they be the ones championing legacy artists, presenting them at break-even levels or less? Will they be the ones keeping alive the flame of the grand traditions?
Somehow, I doubt it. Thanks, Clear Channel!
Previous Entries:
2/27/05: Clear Channel posts Quarterly loss of $4.7 BILLION
2/26/05: Eliot Spitzer subpeonas Clear Channel