Prometheus Press Center

One Station Under God

By Tucker Teutsch III , November 14, 2002. The San Antionio Current.

Clear Channel is big like New York is a city. That is to say, the wildest hyperbole still feels like understatement when speaking of its size and cultural impact. To truly understand the San Antonio-based multinational’s collective effect on the media as a whole, it is necessary to take an impossibly long view. Bare facts shrink in perspective to the reality of its reach, and trying to gauge perception (which, at its most effective, is what Clear Channel Worldwide offers) is like trying to see your eyelid: It’s there, but it’s too close for scrutiny.

As recently as eight years ago, Clear Channel was a bit player in the media world. At the time, the company had assembled a core group of 30 radio signals, with just eight TV stations nationwide. Then, in 1996, the Telecommunications Act was passed, which removed many limits on the amount of competing media outlets a company could operate.

Clear Channel leapt headlong into a buying spree in the wake of this legislation, expanding its business into a variety of fields and swallowing radio, live entertainment, and advertising companies whole. By 2002, the company had amassed an empire of entertainment venues, advertising interests, and broadcast media, and spread its influence across 65 countries.

Geov Parrish, writing for the Institute of Public Affairs, recently quoted a Clear Channel executive who compared his company to “a very kind gorilla.” But some critics don’t agree — not with the “kind” part, anyway.

“They had a ruthless, unscrupulous acquisition process,” says Hannah Sassaman of the Prometheus Radio Project, an independent radio activism group. Clear Channel’s current size and influence across the entertainment marketplace have led a few competitors to cry “foul,” and some analysts have made noises about a need to break the company up into smaller divisions. Indeed, a number of lawsuits have been filed against Clear Channel for allegedly engaging in anti-competitive activities, and a new senate bill, introduced by Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, seeks to curb concentration in the radio industry and “level the playing field.”

Why all the fuss? Clear Channel’s radio division provides a telling explanation. Having swallowed up some 70 companies in the past eight years, Clear Channel Worldwide now operates 1,225 radio stations domestically, and controls 250 more signals abroad. In this country, one out of every six radio stations is owned by the company. Despite this exponential growth, Founder and CEO L. Lowry Mays confidently told market analysts recently, “There’s no reason for you to anticipate that Clear Channel’s momentum is going to stop.”

The fact that the airwaves are public domain, that Clear Channel’s most profitable medium is leased — at almost no cost — from the Federal Communications Commission on behalf of the American people, is often forgotten.

“That’s been made totally meaningless by lobbying,” says Jeffrey Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy. “It’s very important for the public to know that the notion that radio waves are publicly owned has been muddied.”

Indeed, the FCC’s mandate — to relinquish bandwidth to entities that serve the public interest — has been largely ignored by Clear Channel. Company executives, citing the corporation’s mantra of increased “customer service,” argue that consolidation has led to a diversification of radio. But it is hard to see their point: More and more, the practice of “voice-tracking” — pumping pre-fab radio programming from a central studio to stations around the country — has become the industry standard. And although Clear Channel is not alone in the practice, it has perfected it, bringing with it a homogenization of the medium on an unprecedented scale.

It has also directly led to a wave of lay-offs, as radio stations bought by Clear Channel are often purged of local staff. With a handful of DJs preparing a central feed for broadcast on hundreds of local stations (often going so far as to manufacture local “appearances” and present national on-air contests as regional affairs), the company is able to maintain their network of stations cheaply, while at the same time creating an efficient distribution vehicle for their many entertainment and advertising interests.

Under the current administration, another relaxation of regulations is likely in the near future. Soon, the government may allow companies to own a larger variety of media within one market. With San Antonio already tuning in to WOAI and six other “local” radio stations, as well as PAX and KMOL on TV — not to mention the draw of Clear Channel’s Verizon Wireless Amphitheater — some might wonder how the government could provide any further boost to consolidation efforts. Simple: They speak like Clear Channel executives.

“The FCC says that there’s never been as much diversity as there is now,” says Chester. “What Clear Channel has done to radio, the FCC is going to allow other companies to do with newspapers and cable systems and the Internet and the whole media landscape. It’s the Clear-Channelization of the rest of the media.”

With Clear Channel’s revenue hovering somewhere around $2.3 billion, other companies are eager to follow the path the leader has fixed. As far as the “public good” goes, it seems that executives are content to believe that what is good for them is good for us. Is it bland? Certainly. But nowadays, bland pays.

THE MEDIA HYDRA: CLEAR CHANNEL’S (PARTIAL) EMPIRE

SAN ANTONIO RADIO STATIONS:
KAJA-FM (Country)
KQXT-FM (Adult contemporary)
KSJL-AM/FM (Oldies)
KTKR-AM (Sports)
KXXM-FM (Top 40) WOAI-AM (News/Talk)


SAN ANTONIO TELEVISION:
KPXL (PAX)
WOAI (NBC)


IN THE U.S.:
Radio Stations: 1,225
Television Stations: 36
Amphitheaters: 41
Events: 26,000 last year
Attendance: 66 million


ABROAD:
Countries in which Clear Channel does business: 65
Radio Stations: 250
Billboards and other surface advertisements: More than 750,000 worldwide

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