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How can Clear Channel have so many properties in Cincy

N

northcoastradio

Guest
I just had a question concerning Clear Channel's ownership in a market like Cincinnati.

Originally from Cincinnati, this has always made me frustrated that Clear Channel owns 4FM's (WEBN/KISS/MIX/FOX) 4AM's (WLW/WCKY/WSAI/WKRC) and a TV station which counts as TWO FM's! If ownership limits say 9 MAX how can Clear Channel get away with 10?

Just questioning!

NORTHCOASTRADIO
 
> I just had a question concerning Clear Channel's ownership
> in a market like Cincinnati.
>
> Originally from Cincinnati, this has always made me
> frustrated that Clear Channel owns 4FM's (WEBN/KISS/MIX/FOX)
> 4AM's (WLW/WCKY/WSAI/WKRC) and a TV station which counts as
> TWO FM's! If ownership limits say 9 MAX how can Clear
> Channel get away with 10?
>
> Just questioning!
>
> NORTHCOASTRADIO
>

I've wondered about this as well, At on point CC/Jacor was running WKRQ along with the TV, but had to divest WKRQ due its merger with Citicasters I believe. They were able to keep the TV and still remain under the cap with 9 stations. I thought at some point they were required to sell the TV?





<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by microbob on 03/16/06 09:08 PM.</FONT></P>
 
> I just had a question concerning Clear Channel's ownership
> in a market like Cincinnati.
>
> Originally from Cincinnati, this has always made me
> frustrated that Clear Channel owns 4FM's (WEBN/KISS/MIX/FOX)
> 4AM's (WLW/WCKY/WSAI/WKRC) and a TV station which counts as
> TWO FM's! If ownership limits say 9 MAX how can Clear
> Channel get away with 10?
>
> Just questioning!
>
> NORTHCOASTRADIO
>

It has to so with a percentage of station in the area. I dont remember what the formula is.

Why are you frustrated that Clear Channel owns the stations?
 
> Why are you frustrated that Clear Channel owns the stations?

Probably because of Clear Channel's general suckingness.
 
> > Why are you frustrated that Clear Channel owns the
> stations?
>
> Probably because of Clear Channel's general suckingness.
>

I guess I was hoping for an educated, well thought out answer. Guess not.
 
Back in 1994 when Jacor bought everything, the FCC limit was a "25% share of the audience". I fought with the FCC over this, including my Representative at the time, Rob Portman, and could never get any answer from FCC.I guess whatever Randy Michaels wants, he gets.Why be frustrated? The question should be: Why don't the rules apply to them?Secondly, I live in Clermont County. There is no "non-Clear Channel" AM station receivable here at night.
 
major said:
Secondly, I live in Clermont County. There is no "non-Clear Channel" AM station receivable here at night.
Click to expand...
Well, I guess that means Clear Channel is the only one serving your community. Scratching my head as to why that's not a good thing.
 
JeffreyWigand said:
Well, I guess that means Clear Channel is the only one serving your community. Scratching my head as to why that's not a good thing.
Click to expand...
Because monopolies are bad, perhaps?
 
"Scratching my head as to why that is not a good thing?"Are you serious?? Why should one company, regardless of which one, be allowed to own every viable nighttime AM signal in a major market? This leaves out the fact that it VIOLATED THE 25% RULE AT THAT TIME.What part of this do you not understand? I'm not trying to be rude, but....
 
Only WLW was making money at the time of the purchases. The rest were dismal failures in both revenue and audience. Chances are that if another company owned any of those AM's, the service level would be less than what you get from Clear Channel. How would it be better if a company without a local radio newsroom or ties to a TV weather department owned one? The 107.1 signal was marginal; CC made it city-grade. The 92.5 was Magic and not in the fight. Mix still doesn't have that big of an audience - what - less than a three share? The feds made CC drop Q102 from the sale to get the group to fit their rules. It was not "whatever Randy Michaels wants" at all. The deal was in limbo for longer than any group purchase to that point and Randy wanted Q102 badly. The rules applied to the audience at the time of purchase, not the potential of the stations if run properly and as a group.
 
Still, the numbers of the stations involved was greater than 35% at the time. That is more than 25% by a LOT.Again, no one can answer why the rules of the time did not apply to Jacor.
 
Back in the '80s, when the rule was one AM and one FM per market, didn't Jacor acquire both WSKS and WEBN? If I remember correctly, they argued that because WSKS's city of license was Hamilton it was actually in a different market from WEBN. I think the FCC eventually caught on to this doublespeak and said Jacor had to sell one of these stations though.I do remember the big Jacor shakeup around 1994 or so. The only reason I can think of why this was allowed is that rules no longer applied to Jacor - just like how rules don't apply to Clear Channel now. Quite frankly, I have no idea why this would have been the case back in 1994 though.
 
OK, so not to be rude, but it brings up 2 questions:1) If you can't pick up WWL or WOAI or or or or or at night, you may want to invest $9 and get a new clock radio.2) if WLW or WKRC went dark, that would be better for cincinnati how? Oh I forgot, you could get all your local news from 740. Praise the Lord.
 
Seven Hills, then Republic owned WLW and WSKS (and others). Jacor owned WEBN (and others) and merged with Republic in 1987. FCC approval stipulated selling either WEBN or WSKS. Obviously, they sold WSKS and flipped the format to the Beaver 96-1/2 for the new owners.The multi-station ownership rules were applied by the Justice Department, not the FCC, and they were ill-defined and inconsistant. They held up many transactions for many companies, including Jacor leading up to and after the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Because the rules were so gray, companies tried (some successfully) to find the many loopholes. It was not favoritism or political, it was a lack of clear definition of the standards (like taking advantage of the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion). It was not as simple as "no more than X% of the audience" period. There were gray areas that left gaps in the language, if not the spirit, of the laws.
 
I don't know much about the history, but I can say that ever since Clear Channel came into town the programing has become completely monotonous. They have pretty much run any local hosts off the dial.
 
Seven Hills, then Republic owned WLW and WSKS (and others). Jacor owned WEBN (and others) and merged with Republic in 1987. FCC approval stipulated selling either WEBN or WSKS. Obviously, they sold WSKS and flipped the format to the Beaver 96-1/2 for the new owners.The multi-station ownership rules were applied by the Justice Department, not the FCC, and they were ill-defined and inconsistant. They held up many transactions for many companies, including Jacor leading up to and after the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Because the rules were so gray, companies tried (some successfully) to find the many loopholes. It was not favoritism or political, it was a lack of clear definition of the standards (like taking advantage of the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion). It was not as simple as "no more than X% of the audience" period. There were gray areas that left gaps in the language, if not the spirit, of the laws.


Is this how attorney Chuck Reynolds ended up owning 1360 as a "front" for Jacor? My blood still boils at the thought of that monkey business. I wonder if Reynolds ever walked into the studio or office of 1360...
 
Completely legal, like it or not. All of the FCC rules were followed. Clear Channel, Jacor, and/or Randy Michaels were not in the meetings at the FCC when the rules were crafted - they were the smart kids in the class who figured out how to beat the system.
 
"Completely legal, like it or not. All of the FCC rules were followed. Clear Channel, Jacor, and/or Randy Michaels were not in the meetings at the FCC when the rules were crafted - they were the smart kids in the class who figured out how to beat the system. "

Smart kids, maybe. Unscrupulous operators who looked to do an end run around licensing requirements, absolutely. The license says you're supposed to serve the "public interest as a public trustee". Where does greed and ego play into that?

The Telecom Act of 1996 has allowed these hacks to beat the system to within an inch of its life. Have we checked the radio stocks lately? Anybody making money off CCU, Emmis, Cumulus, CBS or Saga these days? I can't tell you how many CCU execs are wishing they hadn't banked on those stock options for their future welfare. And there are just as many horror stories from CBS/Infinity. Jeff Smulyan can't even buy back his stock and go private, as the Wall Street vultures are suing him over it. You can bet the Mays brothers' salaries don't reflect the stock price of CCU.

And, the same Wall Street hacks now control the voice at most of the radio, TV and at movie/TV makers...many of those controlled by foreign corporations and banks (Vivendi, News Corporation come to mind). At least in the "bad old days" of regulation, only Americans were allowed to own stations, the same companies who made movies weren't allowed to own the delivery pipeline. The ownership limits were there so that no one company could control public opinion.

Smart. Real smart. The smart kids turned radio into an industry that eats its young and spits them out, while reducing the product to a shell of its former self, just so, ultimately, the same three bankers could own everything. Yeah...they're smart, all right. Nice work, guys.

Glad we stuck with our P&G stock.
 
I work for CC and I don't really understand how they can own 8 stations and 1 TV station, and Riverbend...but I do know that we don't get any special treatment from the TV station or from Riverbend. If anything, they go out of their way to NOT show favoriteism to the radio stations. Hell, we had a board op get fired from our station and 3 months later get arrested in a big sting and 12 couldn't get the call letters right! They also identified him as a midday jock. And don't even get me started on how much Riverbend screws us over.
I guess the question is...is owning all these properties illegal? NO. Is it ethical? Maybe, maybe not. CC is a corporation, most of what they do is unethical by nature, I think. But, welcome to Capitalism.
I've been around radio since I was 5 years old, I'm in my late 20's now. I've noticed that radio people, by nature, are adverse to change. Those that don't or can't roll with the times, get crushed and end up hating whatever company "screws them over." Radio hadn't really changed up until about a decade ago and now all of a sudden there are technologies that let us do things better and sound better. VoiceTraking? I hate it and love it. I hate it because no matter how good I get and how much I bust my ass, they can always go with the guy in LA who is proven in the ratings. But, on the other hand, if I have to fill in on an overnight shift or if I have to leave early for a remote or whatever, it's nice to pre record some stuff to allow me to do that.
It always amuses me how much people hate CC. I really have no problem with them, except for the fact that my paycheck could be a little heftier but that's another deal.
 
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