Clear Channel Communications, owner of 1,200 stations across the United States, has undermined the values ​​of diversity, localism and market completion within the music industry since the media politics wars in the early 2000s. Since then, the radio industry has arguably lost much of the authenticity it once had. The one exception is college radio: the last safe haven for musical integrity. The only aspect of radio not owned and controlled by a large monopoly. Recently, however, Clear Channel has been getting into bed with college radio stations across the country. Although the corporate monopoly has excluded authenticity and artistic integrity from the mainstream, they still want more to completely wipe out independent music. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was the first major overhaul of telecommunications policy since the Communications Act of 1934; it covered everything from radio, to television, to cable television (Garofalo, 440). The act removed restrictions on the number of radio stations each corporation could own, which accelerated the trend of a small number of corporations owning the vast majority of stations. Clear Channel was a major beneficiary. In 1995 Clear Channel owned 43 stations. By the early 2000s it owned over 1,200 stations, which took up 20% of the industry's revenues in 2001. Additionally, Clear Channel owned over 700,000 billboards; controlled 65% of the concert business in the United States; and had total revenues exceeding $8 billion (Garafalo, 440). Four companies controlled 90% of radio and revenues in the early 2000s. Serious implications for programming occurred due to the level of concentration of ownership. According to Garafolo, “In one week, the forty major modern rock stations release…half paper…rig for profit. Clear Channel has bedded major college stations and is not a gentle lover. Local broadcasters must therefore not be enticed by Clear Chanel's diabolical plan. Instead, stations must look corporate criminals in the deceptive eyes and inform them that their conglomeration methods will not be tolerated; we must preserve the last refuge of musical programming and expression on the airwaves. Works Cited (MLA) Garofalo, Reebee. Rockin Out: Popular Music in America. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2010. 439-40. Print.Kirkpatrick, Bill. "On the radio: strange bedfellows." Antenna. March 25, 2012. Web. April 16, 2012. Waits, Jennifer C. "Does 'Indie' Mean Independence? Freedom and Moderation in a Late-1990s U.S. College Radio Community." The Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcasting and Audio Media 5.2 and 3 (2008): 83-96. Press.