Proposed Clear Channel Investigation

By Waldo Jaquith
FCC Chairman Michael Powell and U.S. Rep Howard Berman (D-CA) have asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate allegations of monopolistic behavior by Clear Channel Communications. Clear Channel controls the majority of the radio market, owning 1,200 stations including one in 247 of the top 250 markets in the U.S, controlling 60% of rock programming and with a total of 102 million listeners in the U.S. and nearly 1 billion listeners globally. They also own over 200 venues nationwide through their wholly-owned subsidiary, SFX, including nearly every major venue that you can think of. 93% of DMB's shows last year were at Clear Channel-owned venues. Most relevantly, they outright own the tours of artists like Janet Jackson, Aerosmith, Madonna, Pearl Jam and N'Sync, and heavily control the tours of many others, notably Dave Matthews Band. Oh, and they're investors in DMB's musictoday.com. To learn more about Clear Channel's monopolistic practices, read Eric Boehlert's April article on Salon, "Radio's Big Bully." For the skinny on the federal investigation, see the story on Yahoo.