Here is a quote from Clear Channel from an article on the New York Post website:

Bob Buchman, host of Q104.3's "Rock 'n' Roll Morning Show" and the station's programming director, said he got the list by e-mail last week from Clear Channel corporate executives and immediately deleted it.

"Are you kidding?" he said he asked himself when he saw the list. "A national no-play list?"

Buchman said that moments after he received the list, a second notice was sent, saying the list was merely a selection of titles deejays should consider avoiding.

Execs at Clear Channel stressed that the list was not an attempt to ban songs, only a guide for programming directors.

"It was never a mandated list to say, 'Pull these songs off the air,' " said Jack Evans, a senior regional vice president of programming at Clear Channel, who created and distributed the list.

And he claimed that Clear Channel, based in San Antonio, had never sent any such request to its stations.

Evans said he compiled the list after fielding e-mails from some station programmers asking what songs might be considered in poor taste.

"We don't need the help at Q104.3, but some stations might," said Buchman.

Among Evans' suggestions were some songs by Metallica and AC/DC, all songs by Rage Against the Machine and many pop songs mentioning planes, such as Elton John's "Daniel," Steve Miller's "Jet Airliner" and Peter, Paul and Mary's "Leaving on a Jet Plane."

Several Beatles tunes, including "Obla Di, Obla Da," "Ticket to Ride," "A Day in the Life" and "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," were on the list.

Even Lennon's call for peace, "Imagine," was listed, as was Peter, Paul and Mary's "Blowin' in the Wind," which was written by Bob Dylan, and Dylan's "Knocking on Heaven's Door."

Clear Channel's New York deejays have been ignoring the list.

Z100 has been spinning many of the songs. At Q104.3, some of the tunes - such as "New York, New York," "Imagine," and "Stairway to Heaven" - have been the most requested tunes of the week.

Joe Levy, the music editor at Rolling Stone, said he was concerned that the world's largest radio network had overstepped its boundaries.

"When does the action of a corporation slip over the line into censorship?" he asked. "To ask that all Rage Against the Machine songs be taken off the air is disturbing."