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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



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



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



[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



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



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.



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]



[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.



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



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



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



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,



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



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



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.



[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



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

This section's tone or style may not be

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.



[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



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



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]

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