Radio behemoth Clear Channel, owned by Mitt Romney's Bain Capital and cousin of LiveNation and Ticketmaster, knows what you want to hear on the radio.
At least they think they do.
According to the New York Times, for Boston radio listeners, it's not the local bands, independent artists and new and alternative music that was the staple of WFNX, which Clear Channel just bought from Boston's Phoenix Media/Communications Group for $14.5 million. As Boston radio listeners were well aware, WFNX was a community-minded, locally owned alternative radio station that was concurrent with the legendary free-form FM broadcaster WBCN-FM startling in 1983, and then filled the void when CBS took BCN off the air to make room for a sports station in 2009.
Clear Channel apparently knows what Boston listeners want to hear: Electronic Dance Music. So welcome "Evolution," at 101.7FM in Boston. Its first song with their new call letters (WHBA-FM) and new format? "Don't You Worry Child" by the E.D.M. stars Swedish House Mafia. Clear Channel must know what its doing since it had the $14.5 million to buy the station from the Boston Phoenix Media/Communications Group, the publishers of the nearly 50-year old Boston Phoenix weekly paper. Although, actually, Clear Channel leveraged the station against their mountain of debt and ... well, that's another story.