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Clear Channel CommunicationsFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with clear-channel radio stations, a type of AM radio station.
This article is about the broadcasting company. For other uses, see Clear channel .
CC Media Holdings, Inc.
Type Private
Industry Entertainment, Advertising
Founded 1972
Headquarters San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Key people Mark Mays, CEO & President
Products Radio, Billboards
Revenue $6.82 billion USD (2007)[1]
Net income $938.5 million USD (2007)[1]
Owner(s) Bain Capital
Thomas H. Lee Partners
Employees 18,115 full-time
Website http://www.clearchannel.com
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Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company
headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.[2] It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red
McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in
a leveraged buyout in 2008.[3] Clear Channel specializes in radio broadcasting, concert
promotion and hosting, and fixed advertising in the United States through its subsidiaries.
After 21 years, Mark Mays stepped down as President and CEO of Clear Channel on June
23, 2010.[4] Mays will remain as Chairman of the Board, a position he has held for a year
prior. The Board has engaged Egon Zehnder International, a leading executive search firm,
to lead the search for a new CEO.
Clear Channel is the largest owner of full-power AM, FM, and shortwave radio stations and
twelve radio channels on XM Satellite Radio, and is also the largest pure-play radio station
owner and operator. The group was in the television business until it sold all of its TV
stations to Newport Television in 2008.
The term "clear channel" comes from AM broadcasting, referring to a channel (frequency)
on which only one station transmits. In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting history, "clear
channel" (or class I-A) stations had exclusive rights to their frequencies throughout most of
the continent at night, when AM stations travel very far due to skywave. WOAI in San
Antonio, Clear Channel's flagship station, was such a station.
Contents
[hide]
1 History
2 Businesses
o 2.1 Radio
o 2.2 Outdoor advertising
o 2.3 Television
o 2.4 Live events
o 2.5 News and information
o 2.6 Worldwide
o 2.7 Vertical Real Estate
3 Corporate governance
o 3.1 Top executives
4 Programming on Clear Channel radio stations
o 4.1 Format Lab and HD2 Formats
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o 4.2 iheartradio
o 4.3 Urban, urban AC and rhythmic stations
o 4.4 News talk stations
o
4.5 Sports talk stations
o 4.6 Adult Standards
o 4.7 Adult Contemporary
o 4.8 Contemporary hit radio
o 4.9 Country music
o 4.10 Oldies and Classic Hits
o 4.11 Rock
o 4.12 Spanish
o
4.13 Religious
5 Clear Channel syndicated programs
6 Clear Channel Sale
o 6.1 Setbacks and cost-cutting
7 Criticism of Clear Channel
o 7.1 Market share
o 7.2 September 11, 2001
o 7.3 Live music recordings
o 7.4 Indecency zero tolerance
o 7.5 Concerts
o 7.6 Reluctance to produce local programming
o 7.7 Lack of local staff during emergency
o 7.8 Rejection of advertising images
o 7.9 Censorship
o 7.10 Use of Paid Actors Posing as Callers
8 Foreign Subsidiaries
o 8.1 Australia
o 8.2 New Zealand
9 See also
10 References
11 Further reading
12 External links
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[edit]History
Clear Channel Communications purchased its first FM station in San Antonio in 1972. The
company purchased the second "clear channel" AM station WOAI in 1975. In 1976, the
company purchased its first stations outside of San Antonio. KXXO AM and KMOD FM inTulsa were acquired under the name "San Antonio Broadcasting" (same as KEEZ). Stations
were also added in Port Arthur, TX (KPAC-AM-FM from Port Arthur College) and El Paso,
TX (KELP AM (now KQBU AM) from John Walton, Jr.). In 1992, the U.S. Congress relaxed
radio ownership rules slightly, allowing the company to acquire more than 2 stations per
market. By 1995, Clear Channel owned 43 radio stations and 16 television stations. In
1996, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 became law. This act deregulated media
ownership, allowing a company to own more stations than previously. Clear Channel went
on a buying spree, purchasing more than 70 other media companies, plus individual
stations.
In a few cases, following purchase of a competitor, Clear Channel was forced to divest
some of its stations, as it was above the legal thresholds in some cities. In 2005, the courts
ruled that Clear Channel must also divest itself of some "border blaster " radio stations in
international border cities, such as the alternative rock radio station 91X in Tijuana, Baja
California/San Diego.
In 1997 Clear Channel moved out of pure broadcasting when it purchased billboard firm
Eller Media[5] which was led by Karl Eller .
In 1998 it made its first move outside of the United States when it acquired the leading UK
outdoor advertising company More Group plc which was led by Roger Parry; Clear Channel
went on to buy many other outdoor advertising, radio broadcasting, and live events
companies around the world, which were then re-branded Clear Channel International.
These included a 51% stake in Clear Media Ltd. in China.[6]
In 1999, the company acquired Jacor Communications, a radio corporation based
in Cincinnati, Ohio.
In 2000, Clear Channel acquired AM-FM, Inc., which was created by the merger of CapStar Broadcasting and Chancellor Media Corp a year earlier, both controlled
by billionaire mogul Tom Hicks and run by his brother Steven.
In 2005 Clear Channel Communications split into three separate companies. Clear Channel
Communications was a radio broadcaster; Clear Channel Outdoor was out-of-home
advertising; and Live Nation was live events. The Mays family remained in effective control
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of all three, and held key executive roles in each (with Mark Mays as CEO of both radio and
outdoor and Randall Mays as Chairman of Live Nation).
On November 16, 2006, Clear Channel announced plans to go private, being bought out by
two private-equity firms, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners for $18.7
billion, which is just under a 10 percent premium above its closing price of $35.36 a share
on November 16 (the deal values Clear Channel at $37.60 per share).[7][8] The new
ownership of Clear Channel has also announced that all of its TV stations were for sale, as
well as 448 radio stations that were outside of the top 100 markets.[9] All of the TV stations
and 161 of the radio stations were sold to a Providence Equity Partners, a private-
equity firm, on April 23, 2007, pending FCC approval.[10]
On July 24, 2008, Clear Channel held a special shareholder meeting, during which the
majority of shareholders accepted a revised $36-per-share offer from Bain Capital and
Thomas H. Lee Partners.[11] The company announced on July 30 that it would offer
shareholders either $36 in cash or one share of CC Media Class A common stock for each
share of Clear Channel common stock held.[12]
In early 2010 it was announced that the company was facing bankruptcy due to its "crippling
debt."[13]
In November 2010 Clear Channel Radio announced a multi-platform campaign with the
USO as part of a National Community Engagement campaign.
[edit]BusinessesClear Channel has purchased interest in, or outright acquired, companies in a number of
media or advertising related industries. This is not an exhaustive list.
[edit]Radio
With 900 stations, Clear Channel is the largest radio station group owner in the United
States, both by number of stations and by revenue. According to BIA Financial Network,
Clear Channel Radio recorded more than $3.5 billion in revenues in as of 2005, more than
$1 billion more than the number-two group owner, CBS Radio.[14]
Clear Channel has purchased stations from or acquired the following radio companies:
The Ackerley Group
AMFM
Apex
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Capstar (also operating under Gulfstar, Southern Star, and Atlantic Star)
Chancellor
Clark Broadcasting
Dame Media
Eastern Radio Assets
Jacor
Quad City
Roberts
ION Media Networks
Taylor Broadcasting
Trumper Communications
SFX Radio
Mondosphere Broadcasting
[edit]Outdoor advertising
Billboards at Dundas Square in Toronto, owned by Clear Channel.
Clear Channel Outdoor is an advertising company owned by Clear Channel
Communications.
Bought Eller Media, Universal Outdoor, and More Group Plc, giving Clear Channel
outdoor advertising space in 25 countries. Owns part of an Italian street furniture company, Jolly Pubblicita S.p.A.
Owns BBH Exhibits, Yellow Checker Star Cab Displays, Dauphin, Taxi Tops, Donrey
Media, and Ackerley Media. Also owns an outdoor advertising company in Switzerland
and Poland and a major outdoor advertising firm in Chile.
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Has a partnership with APN Outdoor in Australia, which has resulted in a 49% share in
Adshel, a street furniture advertising company. APN Outdoor is the majority shareholder
(owning 51% of Adshel).
Operates over 500 digital billboards in 32 markets.
[edit]Television
The first television station Clear Channel purchased was WPMI in Mobile, Alabama in 1988.
It owned more than 40 additional stations, a few of which are independent (non-network
affiliates). In 2007, the company entered into an agreement to sell all its television stations
to Providence Equity Partners for $1.2 billion, a deal which eventually closed in March,
2008. All former Clear Channel television stations are now owned by Newport Television,
except for six stations then flipped to other buyers by Newport.
[edit]Live events
On December 21, 2005, Clear Channel completed the spin-off of Live Nation, formerly
known as Clear Channel Entertainment. Live Nation is an independent company (NYSE:
LYV) and is no longer owned by Clear Channel. Live Nation UKwas also included in the
spin off.
Note that post-spinoff, there is overlap the board between Clear Channel and Live Nation,
specifically: L. Lowry Mays, Mark P. Mays (Former Vice Chairman of Live Nation), and
Randall T. Mays (Former Chairman of Live Nation).[15]
[edit]News and information
Operates Clear Channel News Network and local news networks in Kentucky, West
Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Oklahoma, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida
Premiere Radio Networks
FOX Sports Radio Network
Acquired and later sold the Agri Broadcast Network (ABN), a farm programming provider
in Ohio
Publishes "Inside Radio" magazine - www.insideradio.com
Clear Channel Traffic reports on road and traffic conditions across the United States,
and in Mexico City, Mexico; these are used by many GPS navigation systems.[16]
Fan Radio Network a sports radio network that serves Minnesota, South Dakota, and
North Dakota. Flagship station is KFAN in Minneapolis, MN
Your Smooth Jazz, 24-hour smooth jazz network provided under the company's
"Broadcast Architecture" division[17]
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[edit]Worldwide
Owns part of radio groups in New Zealand, Mexico, Norway, and Australia
Owns outdoor advertising companies in Singapore, South
Africa, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, Poland, Chile, Brazil, Finland, Mauritiusand Italy
Owns L & C Outdoor Comunicacao Visual Ltda., of Brazil
Owns the only airport advertising contract in South America
United Kingdom
Large numbers of billboards (through a takeover of Adshel)
See Clear Channel UK
Operates urban bike rental services in several European cities:
France Caen - 350 bikes in 40 stations - www.veol.caen.fr (French)
Dijon - 350 bikes in 33 stations - www.velodi.net (French)
Perpignan - 150 bikes in 15 stations - bip-perpignan.fr (French)
Rennes (since 1998) - 200 bikes in 25 stations - veloalacarte.free.fr (French).
Norway - Oslo : Oslo Bysykkel ; Drammen : Drammen
Bysykkel ; Trondheim : Trondheim Bysykkel - www.adshel.no
Spain - Barcelona : Bicing - 6,000 bikes in 400 stations - www.bicing.com.
Sweden - Stockholm : S tockholm City Bikes, 1,000 bikes in 80 stations -
www.stockholmcitybikes.se
Italy - Milan : bikeMi , 1,300 bikes in 103 stations - www.bikemi.com
[edit]Vertical Real Estate
In 2003, Clear Channel created the Vertical Real Estate division and hired Scott Quitadamo
to promote its tower portfolio. Clear Channel owns and operates approximately 1,500
broadcast transmission towers across the US. many of which are available for co-location
by third parties such as cellular and PCS companies, wireless internet, fixed wireless, and
other broadcasters.
[edit]Corporate governance
Current members of the board of directors of Clear Channel Communications are: Alan
Feld, Perry Lewis, Lowry Mays, B.J.(Red) McCombs, Phyllis Riggins, Theodore
Strauss, J.C. Watts, and John H. Williams.
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Tom Hicks and Vernon Jordan were formerly members of Clear Channel's board of
directors. Jordan was a close friend and advisor to President Bill Clinton and was accused
of lying to investigators during the investigations into perjury and obstruction of justice
charges against Clinton. Hicks, Clear Channel's former vice-chairman, is a past donor
to George W. Bush's political campaigns and a close associate of the Bush family. Hicks is
the founder of Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, the private-equity firm which funded many of
Clear Channel's antecedent companies, including most significantly CapStar, Chancellor
Media and AM-FM, Inc..
[edit]Top executives
Lowry Mays
company founder, chairman;
Mark Mays
son of Lowry Mays, chief executive officer, president and chief operating officer ;
Randall Mays
son of Lowry Mays, executive vice president and chief financial officer ;
John Hogan
chief executive officer of Clear Channel radio
Sources:[18][19]
[edit]Programming on Clear Channel radio stations
Clear Channel operates the country's largest syndication
service, Premiere Radio Networks. In addition, Clear Channel syndicates
a number of its homegrown talk and music shows without the aid of
Premiere. While Premiere actively sells its shows to stations, the non-
Premiere syndicated shows are often used as a cost-cutting measure
and do not have a large sales staff. Those shows also do not carry
network-wide advertising (unless distributed by a third party), and allow
the affiliates to keep all local spots, which increases their appeal. These
networks carry many program hosts of various political ideologies anddistribute a variety of programs to both Clear Channel-owned and non-
Clear Channel-owned stations.
Main article: Premiere Radio Networks
Main article: List of shows syndicated by Clear Channel
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cluster with multiple urban stations owned by Clear Channel, one is
focused on Rap while the other is focused on Soul. Examples include
Philadelphia, with WUSL's focus on hip hop while WDAS-FM focuses on
Soul (in addition, the company also owns a rhythmic AC station in that
area, which is WISX 106.1), and Chicago, whereWGCI-FM focuses on
rap while WVAZ is focused on Soul. Clear Channel urban, urban AC or
rhythmic stations are branded as "Beat"
(KTBT Tulsa, WBTP Tampa & WIBT Charlotte) or "Power" (WWPR New
York City, WUSL Philadelphia &WPHR Syracuse). But for San
Francisco, Clear Channel owns more urban-related stations such
as rhythmic top 40 KYLD, urban oldies KISQ and urban
contemporary KMEL in that area, and the same happened in Detroit,
where the company also owns urban AC WMXD, urbancontemporary WJLB and rhythmic AC WDTW-FM.
For rhythmic AC stations, they used to have the "Party" branding
(particularly during the time when most used Wake Up With Whoopi as
their morning show), but the two "Party" stations in Denver (KPTT)
and Las Vegas (KPLV) have since exited the rhythmic AC format. KPTT
moved to top 40, whereas KPLV moved to adult top 40, but continue to
use the "Party" branding. All Clear Channel rhythmic AC stations are
now differently-branded per station.
[edit]News talk stations
News talk stations owned by Clear Channel usually have a standard
slate of hosts. The morning show is usually local, with other timeslots
filled by local and syndicated hosts. Programs that appear on many
Clear Channel talk stations include the Glenn Beck Program -- getting
his talk show start at Clear Channel owned WFLA (AM) in Tampa, The
Rush Limbaugh S how , The S ean Hannity S how , The Jason Lewis
S how and Coast to Coast AM , all of which are affiliated withPremiere
Radio Networks in some fashion. The S avage Nation (which was until
September 2009 flagshipped at Clear Channel's KNEW-910), The Mark
Levin S how and The Dave Ramsey S how are non-Premiere shows who
air on many (if not most) Clear Channel stations. Limbaugh is almost
universally carried on Clear Channel stations in markets where the
company has a news talk station, with the exception of markets such as
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Washington, DC and San Francisco, CA, where ABC Radio (which
previously was Limbaugh's home network) has a news talk station in the
market. New Clear Channel talk radio stations have typically been using
the branding "Rush Radio," while most older ones use a more generic
"News Radio" or "News Talk."
While most of Clear Channel's news/talk stations carry some
combination of Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage and Noory (of Coast to
Coast AM ), this is not always the case. Many stations (particularly in the
larger markets) like KFI, KFYI,KOA and WLW broadcast a lineup with
significant local programming.
Clear Channel does not operate any all-news radio stations. For a brief
time in the late 2000s, KFXR in Dallas ran a direct feed of HLN under the
on-air name CNN 1190 , but KFXR dropped that format in 2009. Almost
all of Clear Channel's primary talk stations are affiliated with Fox News
Radio for national news, part of a multi-year deal between Clear Channel
and Fox.
Liberal talk radio is heard on a few of Clear Channel's stations, primarily
secondary to its main news talk stations, and usually feature at least one
local host with Dial Global programming; Air America Radio also aired on
these stations. Clear Channel has shown a tendency to drop liberal talk
affiliations whenever possible and replace it with satellite Fox Sports talk
(see, for instance, WCKY, WARF, KLSD, WXKS [which currently runs
the Clear Channel conservative talk format instead], and WINZ); this has,
in a few rare circumstances, caused protests, such as those involved
when Clear Channel wanted to make the same move
with WXXM in Madison, Wisconsin (WXXM was eventually allowed to
keep its liberal format).
[edit]Sports talk stations
Most sports talk stations owned by Clear Channel are affiliated with Fox
Sports Radio and carry The Jim Rome Show; Fox Sports Radio has
recently picked up The Dan Patrick Show. They are usually branded
either Fox S ports or The S ports Animal .
[edit]Adult Standards
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Most of Clear Channel's adult standards stations are turnkey operations,
running a direct feed of a satellite format such as Dial Global's America's
Best Music or Music of Your Life. Most of these stations have no local
jocks or Web sites.
[edit]Adult Contemporary
Clear Channel's adult contemporary stations are often branded as "Lite
FM" (i.e. WLIT in Chicago, WLTW in New York, or WLYT-FM in
Charlotte) or "Sunny", although some stations use "Magic," "Star" or
something else similar as their identifiers. Evenings are usually filled
with Delilah, unless that show is already aired by another station, in
which case the John Tesh Radio Show is often substituted. Automated
programming is the next option for the 7PM- 12 AM timeslot.Y our
Weekend with Jim Brickman and the in-house American Top 40 the 70's
(or 80's) with Casey Kasem are popular weekend syndicated programs
on Clear Channel stations. Most AC stations air Christmas music from
the last week of November to Christmas Day. Some AC Clear
Channel stations are almost famous for playing Christmas music as
early as November 1 such as KOSY-FM in Salt Lake City or WLYT-
FM playing its first Christmas song of the season 2±3 weeks
before Thanksgiving. 2/3 of CC stations that play Adult Contemporary air
Christmas formats.
Hot adult contemporary stations are usually branded as "Mix," even
though a Cleveland radio station (WMVX) branded as "Mix" carried an
AC format instead. As of January 3, 2011, that station is now known as
106.5 The Lake (format similar to Jack FM. Some Hot AC stations lean
modern rock while others lean toward adult rock. Other Hot AC stations
have other brandings such as "Wild 105.7 and 96.7" on WWVA
[edit]Contemporary hit radio
Clear Channel's CHR stations are usually branded as KISS
FM (e.g., KIIS Los
Angeles, KBKS Seattle, WAKS Cleveland, WFKS Jacksonville), Z
(e.g., WHTZ New York, KKRZ Portland, WZFT Baltimore), Wild
(e.g., WLDI West Palm Beach,KYLD San Francisco), Channel
(e.g., WKQI Detroit, WIBT Charlotte), or Hot (e.g., WIHT in Washington,
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DC, and KIKI-FM in Honolulu, which is Rhythmic). Also other CHRs are
branded as "Hit Music Now" such as (WMKS Greensboro, NC) or as
"Radio Now" such as (WRNW Milwaukee),(KWNW Crawford-Memphis,
AR/TN),(WNRW Louisville). Q: (WIOQ-Philadelphia-102.1 FM-Q102), B
(B 104 Allentown-Reading PA 104.1 FM), FM: (FM 97 96.9 FM
Lancaster-Reading), Variety: (Variety 97.7/99.7 Williamsport, Lock
Haven, PA), Max: (Max 106.3 Sussex), KC: (KC 101, 101.3 FM,
Hamden-New Haven,CT-Long Island,NY) Some have other branding,
however, if the name to the format is owned by another company.
There are syndicated morning shows, Such as Florida's MJ Morning
Show), especially in smaller markets, Elvis Duran Morning Show based
out of WHTZ's New Jersey/New York's Z100, JohnJay & Rich based out
of KZZP Phoenix, AZ, or Matty In The Morning based out of WXKS-FMBoston, Kidd Kraddick In The Morning based out of KHKS in Dallas/Fort
Worth. Middays (on the East Coast) on CHR stations have On Air with
Ryan Seacrest.
On weekends, syndicated programming airs on the format such as FOX
All-Access, Open House Party, American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest,
Backtrax USA: the 90s with Kidd Kelly, Dawson McAllister Live, and
(aired on a few stations in small markets) Rick Dees' Weekly Top 40.
[edit]Country music
Country music stations owned by Clear Channel usually carry Blair
Garner in overnights (and occasionally evenings), and many (although
not all) carry Big D and Bubba in morning drive. There is no unified
branding of Clear Channel's country stations.
[edit]Oldies and Classic Hits
Clear Channel's Oldies station consists largely of FM stations with some
AM stations. Clear Channel uses brands such as "Big" and "Kool" on
many of its stations. Nearly all of the FM stations play oldies spanning
from 1964 to 1975, with a 500 song active playlist split nearly half 1960's
and half 1970's. The playlist also includes approximately a dozen pre
1964 tracks and around 50 songs from the late 70's and early 80's.
These stations generally have a few local live announcers; much of the
time these stations are voicetracked either locally or from another
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In a few markets, Clear Channel has a religious station on the AM band.
Some of these sell blocks of time to outside organizations and have no
local shows at all except where local churches buy time. These are
formatted similarly to Salem Media stations.
The other type of religious format Clear Channel uses in a few markets is
a Gospel music based format. On these stations Gospel Music appealing
to black Americans airs most of the time along with some block
programming sold to religious groups. These stations are often
programmed as urban stations that happen to be religious.
[edit]Clear Channel syndicated programs
S ee List of shows syndicated by Clear Channel
[edit]Clear Channel Sale
On Friday, November 17, 2006, Clear Channel announced that it
was going private and selling off almost one-third of its radio assets,
according to The Washington Post and DHM. The buyers, led
by Bain Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners, agreed to
pay $26.7 billion for the company. In a separate transaction also
announced on November 16, 2006, Clear Channel said it would
seek buyers for all of its television stations and 539 of its smaller
radio stations, presumably because the private-equity buyers arenot interested in owning television or small-market radio. Over a
hundred stations have already been assigned to Aloha Station
Trust, LLC upon the consummation of the merger. The television
stations were ultimately sold to Newport Television.
On September 25, 2007, the shareholders approved of the buyout,
allowing Clear Channel to proceed with being taken private, ending
35 years as a public company.
[edit]Setbacks and cost-cutting
Due to the recent credit market crunch of 2007, Clear Channel has
ended up with rejected sales of its radio stations. Clear Channel's
attempt to sell off over 100 stations to GoodRadio.TV, LLC was
rejected by the equity firm backing the deal. The deal has since
shifted to Frequency License LLC, but has yet to resolve itself as
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the two parties are engaged in lawsuits. On top of that, the sale of
Clear Channel's television portfolio to Newport Television had also
turned uncertain, as parent company Providence Equity
Partners considered other options, although this transaction was
ultimately completed.[21]
On December 4, 2007, Clear Channel announced that they had
extended the termination date of the merger from December 12,
2007, to June 12, 2008.[22] The buyout finally closed in July 2008.
The company, which has laid off thousands of employees in recent
years, announced that it would move to more centralized
programming and lay off 1,500 employees, or approximately 7% of
its workforce, on January 20, 2009. The reasoning was bleak
economic conditions and debt from its transition to a privatecompany.[23] Later on January 20, the company said that the total
count of employees to be terminated would be 1,850, or 9%.
Between January and May 2009 Clear Channel eliminated 2,440
positions.[24] On May 20, 2009, Clear Channel announced an
initiative to help its radio station listeners who are seeking
employment to market their skills and unique features on the air to
attract the attention of employers with available positions.[25]
[edit]Criticism of Clear Channel
[edit]Market share
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the company became an object
of persistent criticism.[26][27] FCC regulations were relaxed following
the Telecommunications Act of 1996, allowing companies to own far
more radio stations than before. After spending about $30 billion,
Clear Channel owned over 1,200 stations nationwide, including as
many as seven stations in certain markets. Although "media reform"
social movement organizations like Future of Music
Coalition mobilized against Clear Channel, so far the company has
been able to hold on to all of its stations after divesting a few
following the acquisition of AMFM, although over 500 stations have
since been sold or are in the process of being sold since the
company announced plans to become privately held.
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[edit]September 11, 2001
Main article: 2001 Clear Channel memorandum
Following the September 11 attacks on New York and The
Pentagon, radio stations circulated a list of songs that were deemedinappropriate for broadcast during the time of national mourning
following the attacks. A small list was initially generated by the Clear
Channel office on Thursday, September 13, 2001,[28] though
individual program directors added many of their own songs. A list
containing about 150 songs was soon published on the Internet.
Some critics[who?]suggested that Clear Channel's political
preferences played a part in the list.[29] A number of songs were
apparently placed on the list because they had specific words such
as "plane", "fly", "burn," and "falling" in their titles. Clear Channel
denies that this was a list of banned songs, claiming it was a list of
titles that should be played only after great thought. Also WOFX,
Cincinnati, owned by Clear Channel at the time continued to play
songs that were on the alleged list, even though radio headquarters
was in Cincinnati at the time.[30] Songs on the list included Tom
Petty's "Free Fallin'", Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World"
and the entire Rage Against the Machine discography.
[edit]Live music recordings
In 2004, Clear Channel acquired a key patent in the process of
producing Instant Live recordings, in which a live performance is
recorded directly from the sound engineer's console during the
show, and then rapidly burned on CD so that audience members
can buy copies of the show as they are leaving the venue. This had
been intended to provide additional revenue to the artist, venue, and
promoter, as well as stifle the demand for
unauthorized bootleg concert recordings made by audiencemembers. However, some media critics, as well as smaller business
rivals, believed that Clear Channel is using the patent (on the
process of adding cues to the beginning and ending of tracks during
recording , so that the concert is not burned as a single enormous
track) to drive competitors out of business or force them to pay
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licensing fees, even if they do not use precisely the same process.
The patent was transferred to Live Nation when Clear Channel
Entertainment was spun off, but the patent was revoked on March
13, 2007,[31] after it was found that this patent infringed on a prior
patent granted for Telex.
[edit]Indecency zero tolerance
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appropriate for Wikipedia. Specific concernsmay be found on the talk page. SeeWikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (April 2008)
During the nationwide crackdown on indecent material following
the 2004 Super Bowl, Clear Channel launched a "self-policing"
effort, and declared that there would be no "indecent" material
allowed on the air.[27] This led to the company's dismissal of several
of their own employees, including popular and high-profile hosts in a
number of cities. Free-speech advocates cried foul. During this
same period, Howard Stern was dropped from six Clear Channel
owned stations in Florida, California, Pennsylvania, New York and
Kentucky. By mid-year, rival Viacom (through radio division Infinity
Broadcasting) brought Stern's show back to those six markets. In
June, 2004, Viacom/Infinity Broadcasting Inc./One Twelve Inc. fileda $10 million lawsuit against Clear Channel for breaking of contracts
and non-payment of licensing fees due to the dropping of Stern's
show. (Viacom was Howard Stern's employer at the time, though he
has since moved to SiriusSatellite Radio). The following July, Clear
Channel filed a countersuit of $3 million. [32]
[edit]Concerts
In the early 2000s, Clear Channel settled a lawsuit with a Denver,
Colorado concert promoter, Nobody In Particular Presents(NIPP).[27] In the lawsuit, NIPP alleged that Clear Channel halted
airplay on its local stations for (NIPP) clients, and that Clear
Channel would not allow NIPP to publicize its concerts on the air.
The lawsuit was settled in 2004 when Clear Channel agreed to pay
NIPP a confidential sum.
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[edit]Reluctance to produce local programming
Clear Channel uses the Prophet Nex-Gen automation system
throughout their properties. Like most contemporary automation
systems, Nex-Gen allows a DJ from anywhere in the country to
sound as if he or she is broadcasting from anywhere else in the
country, on any other station.[33] A technological outgrowth of earlier,
tape-based automation systems dating back to the 1960s, this
method ² known as voice-tracking ² allows for smaller market
stations to be partially or completely staffed by "cyber-jocks" who
may never have visited the town from which they are broadcasting.
This practice may also result in local on-air positions being reduced
or eliminated. It has been stated the Clear Channel maintains a
majority of its staff in hourly-paid, part-time positions. Not all radiostations use Prophet; there are other systems available for
broadcasters, especially when satellite-based programming is used.
[edit]Lack of local staff during emergency
Main article: Minot Train Derailment
Clear Channel was criticized for a situation that occurred in Minot,
North Dakota on the morning of January 18, 2002. At around 2:30
a.m., a Canadian Pacific Railway train derailed and
leaked 240,000 US gallons (910,000 L) of toxicanhydrous ammonia,
releasing a cloud of caustic, poisonous gas over the city.[34] At the
time, Clear Channel owned all six commercial radio stations out of
nine in the Minot area. City officials attempted to contact the local
Clear Channel office by telephone to spread warnings of the danger
using its radio stations, but it was several critical hours before the
station manager was finally reached at his home. In the
meantime, 9-1-1 operators were advising panicked callers to tune
to KCJB-AM for emergency instructions, but the station was notbroadcasting any such information.[35]
The ammonia spill was the largest of its kind in the United States,
with one person killed, and over 1,000 seeking medical attention.
Clear Channel claimed no responsibility for its failure to warn
residents, maintaining that the city should have used the Emergency
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Alert System to trigger automatic equipment in place at all US radio
stations. The EAS equipment was later found to be functional at the
time, but had not been activated by city, state or regional
authorities.[36]Unfortunately, other critical systems throughout Minot
were either inoperable or had failed, including the public siren
system, electricity in parts of the town, and the 9-1-1 telephone
system, which became overloaded.[37]
[edit]Rejection of advertising images
Clear Channel Outdoor rejected the two images on the left
In June 2010 Clear Channel Outdoor rejected without comment
two digital billboard images submitted by St. Pete Pride,
an LGBT organization that sponsors gay pride events in the St.
Petersburg, Florida area, leading the group to cancel its contract
with Clear Channel. St. Pete Pride has stated that throughout its
eight year history, Clear Channel has edited the organization's
advertising material, and questioned whether the rejection of these
images were because they displayed same-sex couples in
affectionate poses. A Clear Channel spokesperson declined to
comment on the specific reasons why the images were rejected but
denied that the affection being shown was an issue, saying that
such images had been included in previous St. Pete Pride
campaigns.[38]
[edit]Censorship
Clear Channel has been criticized for censoring opinions critical
of George W. Bush and other Republicans. After Natalie Maines,
the singer of the Dixie Chicks, told a London audience "we're
ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas", the
band's radio airplay dropped precipitously. At the time Clear
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Adelaide ± Mix 102.3 FM, Cruise 1323 AM
Canberra - 104.7, Mix 106.3 (joint ventures with Austereo)
Perth - Nova 93.7 FM (joint venture with DMG Radio
Australia)
[edit]New Zealand
The Radio Network [edit]