Courtesy of washingtonpost.com...
Justice Dept. Probes Clear Channel
The Associated Press
Friday, July 25, 2003; 6:34 PM
SAN ANTONIO - The Justice Department is investigating Clear Channel, the nation's largest radio owner, amid complaints about consolidation and the use of coercive tactics by the company, officials said Friday.
R. Hewitt Pate, assistant attorney general for antitrust, told a House subcommittee that there is an investigation into Clear Channel. Officials would not disclose any details about the nature of the probe.
Pate said in a hearing Thursday that the Justice Department had interviewed people that Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., had referred to the agency after they complained of coercive tactics.
San Antonio-based Clear Channel, which owns 1,200 radio stations, played down the investigation, saying in a statement that the department "has evaluated, on a routine basis, nearly every acquisition that Clear Channel has made and approved each one.
"When you run a big company, engaging in complex transactions, inquiries of this sort become fairly routine. We are cooperating fully with all DOJ requests and we are confident the DOJ will find, as it has in the past, that our company is managed with the highest degree of integrity."
Berman wrote the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission in 2002 complaining that consolidation in the entertainment and media industries was hurting recording artists, copyright holders, advertisers and consumers.
He said earlier this year in a Senate hearing that after his letter went out he was inundated with complaints from independent broadcasters, concert promoters, venue owners, radio disc jockeys, musicians, bands' agents and managers, actor's representatives and recording industry executives.
"Virtually all decried the evils of consolidation in the radio and concert industries," he said. He added that most complained about Clear Channel.
Among the complaints were allegations that Clear Channel punished artists who didn't use the company's concert promotion arm by denying, or threatening to deny, radio airplay for their songs, he said.
When Berman complained during the hearing Thursday that he hadn't heard back from the Justice Department about his complaints, Pate replied that the department had two ongoing investigations into Clear Channel. But he would not elaborate.
Shares of Clear Channel fell 25 cents to close at $40.40 in trading Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.
© 2003 The Associated Press
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