Negativland Pranks Clean Channel, Forces Radio Format Change
January 30th, 2008
I know, I know… This story is soooo old. However, the "KJR Jam" played on my iTunes at work today and my boss was curious as to what it was.
An online media prank has changed the programming of a major market Clear Channel FM radio station.
Seattle's KJR-FM, a Clear Channel radio affiliate, quickly and quietly altered its playlist, following an amusing online tirade accusing the station and its Program Director of "false advertising."
Negativland, known for their media-critiquing music collage and culture jamming hoaxes and pranks, outed KJR-FM on charges that it played at least 114 different songs from the early to mid-1980's, despite marketing themselves as being a "Just the Greatest Hits of the '60s and '70s" radio station. Negativland members noticed that it was virtually impossible to listen for even a short period of time without hearing hits from such quintessential 80s artists as Huey Lewis and the News, Air Supply, Men at Work, Cyndi Lauper, and many others. KJR recently pushed the envelope further by adding "Kokomo," a 1988 hit by The Beach Boys.
