The Man Can't Bust Our Music (?)

The Man Can't Bust Our Music (?)

That was the tag line of a classically bad CBS Records ad campaign of the late `60s, which also included "The Revolutionaries Are On CBS." Now, as a major fan of the Clash, who were on, uh, CBS, I've always been fascinated by the contradiction of multinational corportations marketing anti-corporate rhetoric. Or, as Strummer and Jones put it more succinctly, "turning rebellion into money."

I'm reminded of all this by the story of Radio Free Ohio, a "pirate" radio station that turned out to be bogus - it was a completely legal marketing ploy by the real owners of the frequency - Clear Channel Communication, the largest radio corporation in the country. Thus setting a new Olympic cynicism record.