To Whom It May Concern:

 Decisions are difficult things to make. Recently I had to decide whether I should wear my dark blue shirt with grey-blue jeans or my grey shirt with black jeans on a date with this girl I've been seeing. While this might seem inconsequential to you, how well the color of my eyes are brought out is vitally important to me in such a situation.

 The good people at Clearchannel in Fresno recently made a decision that didn't help them facilitate any sort of sparkle in their eyes. On Jon Bon Jovi's current tour he asked the gloriously brilliant, cultured, and fresh XM satellite radio as well as prosaic, corporate-run, vapid terrestrial radio stations to help bring independent, local (and I do emphasize local) bands to Mr. Bon Jovi so that they might be afforded the opportunity to open for him when he stops with his band of 40-something rockers at the nearest echo-ridden, overpriced arena.

 Many stations around the country had some sort of internet voting, live battle of the bands, or a combination thereof to help decide the winner. Clearchannel in Fresno didn't consult anyone outside their top-40-rich headquarters when deciding which shirt—er band, rather, to put on stage at the Save Mart Center on March first. They chose a band that is clearly based in Los Angeles, though one member was originally from Fresno. For any geographically-challenged radio-station employee, it should be noted that LA and Fresno are approximately 220 miles apart. That an LA band might be considered "local" to Fresno is like saying that Las Vegas is a beach city. But hey, I'm sure some people in Vegas were originally from coastal towns. You can just smell the salt air amongst all those casinos and desert sand, can't you?

 At the risk of sounding like some embittered loser, I will say that this strikes me as a bad decision. And not because my band didn't win, but because the moguls at Clearchannel decided to essentially tell every band in Fresno (or at least the 80 or so that entered) that they're not fit to represent their own local scene—that an LA band was needed and/or preferred.

 So thank you Clearchannel for feeding into my and others' disdainful perception of your company. Thank you for overlooking all the talent in this town and helping the bands see how inept they are at doing what they love compared to the insipid, repetitious and homogenized songs on Clearchannel stations. Thanks for picking a Fresno band as the runner-up (hopefully due to their music and not just to make your decision look less schemed).

 And congratulations to the band that won. I sincerely hope they have a great show and make some new fans.

 As for Clearchannel… Well, they retain their title of dead bug carcass on the windshield of America—so annoying yet so difficult to get rid of.

Yours in Rock and Roll,

Patrick Reetz

Guitarist, Chris Plays Guitar

Fresno Local

Gawaine@csufresno.edu