Clear Channel Loses

According to today's washingtonpost.com Columbia, MD's Merriweather Post Pavilion will get a new promoter:

"The Rouse Co., which owns Merriweather, says it has decided not to renew its contract with Clear Channel Entertainment, the giant San Antonio-based radio broadcaster that owns Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, VA and scores of other concert venues across the country.

Instead, the concert-promotion firm IMP will book and promote shows at Merriweather. IMP's owners, Seth Hurwitz and Rich Heinecke, have been promoting concerts at their own 9:30 club and other Washington area locations for more than two decades.

In recent months, some longtime fans of Merriweather have accused Clear Channel of steering acts away from it and toward the larger and more modern Nissan Pavilion.

'There was a pretty obvious conflict of interest there, and I think the Rouse Company figured that out,' said Hurwitz, who next month will begin planning next year's summer-long season. 'I don't have another amphitheater, so this is going to be the focus of my summer.' "

And speaking of Clear Channel, that recalls after 9-11 when Clear Channel circulated a list of songs deemed "inappropriate" after the terror attacks. Included on the list was John Lennon's song "Imagine". What an absurdity. For more, see John Lennon and Neil Young page on Clear Channel and "Imagine".

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