Clear Channel Communications

Clear Channel is the largest owner of radio stations in the United States. Following the company's acquisition by two private equity firms, most of the 1100 radio stations acquired by the company since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 have been put on the block.

Given the clear advantages to managing more than one radio station, it might seem like Clear Channel was ignoring basic economic logic. But many other factors may actually make many smaller radio stations more profitable than one large conglomerate. Clear Channel takes a great deal of public flack for being an "evil corporation" with ties to the Republican Party in general and the Bush administration in particular.

With the ascendancy of the Democratic Party across more and more of the nation, the radio business is facing a large threat to its profitability. This threat takes the form of the so-called "Fairness Doctrine". Because talk radio is effectively controlled by conservatives like Rush Limbaugh, the Fairness Doctrine would right this imbalance by mandating equal time for opposing viewpoints. Unfortunately, it is the received wisdom in the radio business that the Fairness Doctrine will spell the economic death of the industry because no one wants to listen to people who disagree with them.

Clear Channel as an economic force is entirely a result of government policy - the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Ironically, the company is likely to be undone by the long-delayed political backlash against more than a decade of Republican rule in Congress.