Media: Making Waves

Is he a traitor? Mel Karmazin built a couple of traditional media empires. Now his Sirius satellite firm is challenging the old guard of radio

Unless you're familiar with New York City's burlesque scene, you may not know about the Glamazons, a troupe of plus-size female dancers who like to camp it up around town. A few weeks ago, however, a handful of Glamazons were featured on a live national radio show, guests of a gay-and-lesbian duo named Derek and Romaine who were celebrating their second anniversary on the air. With a bartender mixing martinis in the studio, the scene was suggestive of radio's party days, before Big Radio ate the AM/FM dial, demanded quarterly profit growth and sucked the fun right out of the control...

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