Round 6: AT&T/Cingluar/SBC vs Clear Channel

Image courtesy of

http://polls.gawker.com/poll.js.php?key==AjNzMTM

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you’re viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Clear Channel dumps 1,000 gallons of white gloss paint on American radio. Once a wild and wooly medium, now you can drive clear across America without having to listen to more than 15 songs on the FM. You still have to change the channel… but give that a few years. See this Salon story on them, “Radio’s Big Bully.”

Of all the carriers, Cingular (now part of AT&T) has been the most aggressively averse to upholding contract law in letting its customers leave without penalty, essentially daring their customers to sue them. Really, it was a nice shell game. Cingular bought all AT&T’s customers, fired the most unprofitable ones, and now AT&T has bought them back. Handy. Previous Cingular, AT&T posts, posts. — BEN POPKEN

Previously: Halliburton vs News Corp, Exxon vs Time Warner Cable, Comcast vs Sony, Best Buy vs Uhaul, RIAA vs United Airlines.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.