09/11/2026
OVER 150 SONGS - It is important to note that there was never an outright mandate that banned these songs from being broadcast across the airwaves. Many of them are rock and metal recordings from artists such as AC/DC, Slipknot, Drowning Pool, P.O.D., Godsmack, Metallica, Green Day and dozens of others.
At the time, Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia) dominated the U.S. radio market as the largest operator of radio stations in the country with a command of roughly 1,200 stations running in nearly every one of the Top 50 markets.
In the aftermath of the attacks that took down two towers at the World Trade Center in New York and claimed nearly 3,000 lives, the company drafted a list of songs deemed sensitive in nature. There was a clear emphasis on song titles and lyrics that, for a variety of factors, could have reasonably been viewed as ill-fitting amid a nation in mourning, still dazed from the shocking tragedy.
Clear Channel's memorandum discouraging airplay of this list of songs was circulated internally and later leaked, which caused a public stir.
In response, Mark P. Mays, Clear Channel's President and Chief Operating Officer at the time, said (via ABC News), "In the wake of this terrible tragedy, the nation's business community is responding with a degree of hypersensitivity. Even some movie companies have altered some of their release schedules in light of the mood in America today. We value and support the artist community. And we support our radio station programming staff and management team in their responsibility to respond to their local markets."
