CLEAR CHANNEL INFO

[ACcountryFan]

are the only Clear Channel hold outs

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it's the principle of the thing by this point i guess? Clay obviously knows the consequences for not teaming up with Clear Channel. i guess he wants to show them that with talent, fans, and ultimately luck, any singer can be a potent force and he doesn't need "clear channel" buying him a career?? i guess that's why he went with AEG again...but with The Firm and Clear Channel having a relationship, why wasn't Clear Channel automatically alligned with Clay? Do they still doubt his popularity?

[Pamela]

Rolling Stone magazine rips Clear Channel
Web Posted: 08/12/2004 12:00 AM CDT

L.A. Lorek
Express-News Business Writer

The latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine, which hits newsstands Friday, features an article blasting San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communication's radio and live concert business.

The article calls Clear Channel "a music company on steroids" and reports "that Clear Channel uses its size to crush the competition while force-feeding audiences the same playlists no matter where they live."

The article quotes Dixie Chicks manager Simon Renshaw saying, "They don't care about music. They care about ad rates."

But Clear Channel spokeswoman Lisa Dollinger said the article contains more than 30 instances of errors or omissions.

"We're giving Rolling Stone the opportunity to recant the article," Dollinger said.

Rolling Stone publicist Andy Shearer had no comment on Clear Channel's allegations Wednesday.

In particular, Clear Channel objects to the article's statement that the company controls about 70 percent of all live events promoted in the United States. That's false, Dollinger said.

The headline says Clear Channel's "domination of the radio and concert industries has made the airwaves blander and tickets more expensive."

Clear Channel contends it doesn't dominate the radio industry, because it owns just 9 percent of the radio stations in the United States, Dollinger said.

The article reports that the company "resides in a green-glassed sprawling office complex in San Antonio." Clear Channel's headquarters are in a limestone building at 200 E. Basse Road that is quite small, Dollinger said.

It also reports that Lowry Mays "refused to be interviewed for this article," but it doesn't point out that Mays has been recovering from a brain clot and emergency brain surgery since May.

Mays is in rehabilitation now. His son, Mark Mays, is Clear Channel's acting chief executive officer.

No link available yet. Will revise later.

[Pamela]

Clear Channel’s Practices Show What’s Wrong with Media Monopolies

Jan. 30—The practices of Clear Channel, the nation’s largest radio station owner, illustrate what is wrong with federal media ownership policies that make it easier for companies to establish media monopolies, according to a Cornell University study for the AFL-CIO. In six years, Clear Channel has grown from owning 44 stations to 1,239 stations today, and the corporation now generates 20 percent of all radio industry revenues. Clear Channel also owns 44 amphitheaters, 51 theaters and various clubs and arenas. According to the report, The Clear Picture on Clear Channel, Clear Channel uses several cost-cutting measures that lead to homogenized news and entertainment—and in some cases, even endanger public safety.

“Clear Channel is the poster child for what’s wrong with media consolidation and the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) continued deregulation of this industry,” says Paul Almeida, president of the AFL-CIO Professional Employees.

Read the rest at AFL/CIO

[grammaof6]

Brought over from the ClayBoard. It was posted there today!

Did the Claymates influence Clear Channel--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 After reading this article I've been wondering if all our complaints and concerns to the FCC and others about Clear Channel may have had an influence.

In the Sunday Chicago Tribune newspaper in the Arts and Entertainment section the article is "JAM: In search of worlds to conquer"

The article is lengthy. It talks about Jam productions and its cofounder Arny Granat. Jam's main rival is Clear Channel.
Jam' now says it's a credible buyer of CC Entainment, which includes an extensive theatrical operation with a 50% interest in Broadway in Chicago and a chain of other major entertainment venues across the country.

Last month Clear Channel announced plans to spin off its live entertainment division, in a move designed to boost the company's stock price. That makes it a likely target for a sale-

"Although Clear Channel long has been the whipping boy for concert fans and independently minded artists who have accused it of everything from bullying to monopolistic practices to price-gouging, the live-entertainment business
actually is a risky business with little capacity to make money.
Hence a spinoff."

The article also mentioned this.
"Earlier this year, Jam was awarded $90 million in damages after it won a federal lawsuit charging that Clear Channel had engaged in unfair practices"
"CC interfered with our contract and our business," Mickelson
said. "The court found that they stopped us from competing."

Maybe the lawsuit and complaints of unfair business practices had something to do with the spinoff rather than "a risky business with little caspacity to make money."

[ACcountryFan]

"Although Clear Channel long has been the whipping boy for concert fans and independently minded artists who have accused it of everything from bullying to monopolistic practices to price-gouging...."

===========================
I have always felt that if the facts point a certain way, then that's the way i form an opinion. The facts that i've seen so far say that Clear Channel is a bully...wanting total control of every aspect of a singer's tour and if they don't get that control, since they also own radio stations, then when you put two and two together one can't help but draw the conclusion that Clear Channel abuses it's power with reduced or NO airplay of acts they can't control. The accusations to me prove right on target.

"Earlier this year, Jam was awarded $90 million in damages after it won a federal lawsuit charging that Clear Channel had engaged in unfair practices"

==========================
Good for that company! Clear Channel's case must have had plenty of holes in it in order for them to have to fork over that kind of money!!

[grammaof6]

NYTimes~The Trick of Making a Hot Ticket Pay
 

June 6, 2005
The Trick of Making a Hot Ticket Pay
By ROBERT LEVINE
The New York Times

Norah Jones fans who wanted to see the singer perform live last summer had little trouble finding tickets. Although she was touring to promote the platinum-selling album "Feels Like Home," Ms. Jones sold an average of only two-thirds of the tickets available for each show, according to Pollstar, which tracks the pop concert business.

She was not the only artist staring out at empty seats. For Incubus, a rock band that had done well in 2003, "sales were brutal," according to Randy Phillips, chief executive of AEG Live, the promoter that booked most of the dates. Even Simon and Garfunkel, whose reunion was the sixth-highest-selling tour in 2003, took in about half as much money a show last year. "Last summer," Mr. Phillips said, "was a disaster."

Nobody felt the trouble more keenly than Clear Channel Communications, the radio conglomerate that became the country's largest live music company in 2000, when it bought the concert promoter SFX Entertainment for $4.5 billion. Clear Channel, which controls many of the nation's big live-music venues, including the amphitheater at Jones Beach on Long Island and the Shoreline Theater near San Francisco, had hoped to exploit synergies between radio and concerts through advertising and tour sponsorships.

Those extra advantages never materialized. But in an effort to control a larger part of the concert business, Clear Channel aggressively raised advance payments to artists, which sometimes pushed acts into inappropriately large houses and drove up ticket prices for an already fickle audience.

"Clear Channel acted like it had to dominate the marketplace and in order to buy everything, it had to pay," said Alex Hodges, executive vice president of House of Blues Concerts, the promotion division of House of Blues Entertainment, a competitor to Clear Channel in the live-music business.

Since then, the company has changed course. A few weeks ago, it announced that it would spin off the Clear Channel Music Group as a separate company, apparently giving up its vision of synergy but also removing some of the pressure to increase its market share at any cost.

Michael Rapino, who last August was promoted from head of the company's European division to run the entire live-music business, is trying to impose discipline on artist guarantees and to make amphitheater concerts, a significant part of the company's business, more appealing. "I think the industry in general used last year as a wake-up call," said Mr. Rapino. "We have to be more aggressive when it comes to motivating the casual consumer."

Last week, Clear Channel Music announced some steps aimed at getting more people into the cheap seats. For certain shows at 33 of the amphitheaters it controls, lawn tickets will cost $20, about half to two-thirds of the prices in the past. For other shows it is introducing a $39 "grass pass" that includes parking and a $10 food and beverage voucher. It has also struck some vending deals with upscale food suppliers including Au Bon Pain, Ben & Jerry's and even Legal Sea Foods. "Our economic driver has always been our event revenue," Mr. Rapino said, referring to concessions and other so-called ancillaries.

It is not clear whether price reductions will increase demand for tickets. Marquee acts like the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney, both touring this summer, have no problem commanding several hundred dollars for some seats. Even smaller bands sell the best and most expensive seats first, sometimes leaving part of a house empty.

Mr. Phillips of AEG Live, a Clear Channel competitor, is skeptical. "The bet," he said, "is that lower lawn prices and Cherry Garcia cones will make a difference to get people to see an act they might not have seen anyway."

Mr. Rapino is also trying to control the spiraling costs of booking talent. From the perspective of gross revenue, 2004 was actually a good year for the concert industry - up 12 percent, to $2.8 billion. But booking costs also rose, fueled by overly optimistic projections and competitive bidding.

That led to higher ticket prices, often beyond what some fans were willing to pay. Last year, the average price of a ticket to one of the top 100 tours was $52.39 before Ticketmaster charges and other fees were added, up about 25 percent since 2000, according to Pollstar.

Concert-ticket revenue is split between the performer and the promoter, with the performer receiving most of the money, customarily around 85 percent. To book talent, the promoter pays an artist or his agent an advance against that share - a guarantee, in industry parlance - in the belief that enough tickets can be sold to make the performer's price worthwhile.

This amounts to a high-stakes bet. "The promoter gets 15 percent of the upside and 100 percent of the downside," said Marc Geiger, head of contemporary music at the William Morris Agency. "The same way an airline may have too many flights to one city, there was too much incorrect guessing on what amount of tickets would get sold."

Promoters, led by Clear Channel, bet too big too often.

"The agents loved this - all they had to say is, 'Someone else might do the show,' and the bidding escalated," Mr. Hodges of the House of Blues said. "With the increase in the cost of talent, we increased ticket prices. And when fewer people show up, we can lose money on what otherwise would be a great show."

As he is adjusting the price of some seats, executives in the industry said Mr. Rapino is trying to impose more discipline on the performers' guarantees. "I couldn't charge these prices if our costs hadn't changed a bit as well," Mr. Rapino said. In certain cases, he said, an artist may get all the net proceeds from ticket sales. That kind of deal would presumably be made in exchange for a reduced guarantee.

Managers' reactions to these changes have been cautiously optimistic, in part because for artists the stigma of playing to empty seats can offset the benefit of a high guarantee.

"I believe that acts are being paid far more realistically, based on how they actually perform," said Jim Guerinot, who manages Gwen Stefani and Nine Inch Nails, who will both play at arenas in the fall.

Concert promoters also face some problems beyond their control. Rappers and pop stars dominate radio, but generally do not have the draw of rock bands on the road. Even Eminem, who sells millions of albums, will mostly play at amphitheaters on a package tour. On the rock side, "there's less demand for things people have seen before," said Dave Roberge, manager of the band O.A.R. "Seeing John Mellencamp today might not be that different from seeing him two years ago."

At the same time, there are simply more concerts to choose from. "The pressure on the consumer entertainment dollar becomes very dramatic between Memorial Day and Labor Day," Mr. Guerinot said.

So far, business this summer already looks as if it will improve from last year. "This time last year, we felt we were being run over by a truck every day," Mr. Hodges said. "We feel pretty good now." Several superstar tours, including those by the Stones, U2, Coldplay and the Dave Matthews Band, should give the business a lift.

"In the world of the music business," Mr. Guerinot said, "the live business is one of the best because you can't download it. It boils down to creating an environment for it to be successful."

And Mr. Hodges added: "There's an oft-used expression: 'There are no bad shows, there are just bad deals.' We live and die by that."

Concert-ticket revenue is split between the performer and the promoter, with the performer receiving most of the money, customarily around 85 percent. To book talent, the promoter pays an artist or his agent an advance against that share - a guarantee, in industry parlance - in the belief that enough tickets can be sold to make the performer's price worthwhile.

This amounts to a high-stakes bet. "The promoter gets 15 percent of the upside and 100 percent of the downside," said Marc Geiger, head of contemporary music at the William Morris Agency. "The same way an airline may have too many flights to one city, there was too much incorrect guessing on what amount of tickets would get sold."

Promoters, led by Clear Channel, bet too big too often.

"The agents loved this - all they had to say is, 'Someone else might do the show,' and the bidding escalated," Mr. Hodges of the House of Blues said. "With the increase in the cost of talent, we increased ticket prices. And when fewer people show up, we can lose money on what otherwise would be a great show."

As he is adjusting the price of some seats, executives in the industry said Mr. Rapino is trying to impose more discipline on the performers' guarantees. "I couldn't charge these prices if our costs hadn't changed a bit as well," Mr. Rapino said. In certain cases, he said, an artist may get all the net proceeds from ticket sales. That kind of deal would presumably be made in exchange for a reduced guarantee.

Managers' reactions to these changes have been cautiously optimistic, in part because for artists the stigma of playing to empty seats can offset the benefit of a high guarantee.

"I believe that acts are being paid far more realistically, based on how they actually perform," said Jim Guerinot, who manages Gwen Stefani and Nine Inch Nails, who will both play at arenas in the fall.

Concert promoters also face some problems beyond their control. Rappers and pop stars dominate radio, but generally do not have the draw of rock bands on the road. Even Eminem, who sells millions of albums, will mostly play at amphitheaters on a package tour. On the rock side, "there's less demand for things people have seen before," said Dave Roberge, manager of the band O.A.R. "Seeing John Mellencamp today might not be that different from seeing him two years ago."

At the same time, there are simply more concerts to choose from. "The pressure on the consumer entertainment dollar becomes very dramatic between Memorial Day and Labor Day," Mr. Guerinot said.

So far, business this summer already looks as if it will improve from last year. "This time last year, we felt we were being run over by a truck every day," Mr. Hodges said. "We feel pretty good now." Several superstar tours, including those by the Stones, U2, Coldplay and the Dave Matthews Band, should give the business a lift.

"In the world of the music business," Mr. Guerinot said, "the live business is one of the best because you can't download it. It boils down to creating an environment for it to be successful."

And Mr. Hodges added: "There's an oft-used expression: 'There are no bad shows, there are just bad deals.' We live and die by that."

[Pamela]

Very interesting, thank you Barb.  Also interesting is that several of the promoters for the JBT are affiliated with CCE.  

Mohegan Sun Arena, 10,000 (Jim Kolpik Presents, a division of CCE)
Darien Lake,  (Ron Delsener Presents, a division of CCE)
Chevrolet Amphitheater, (Belkin Productions, a division of CCE)
Chastain Park Amphitheater, (Peter Conlon Presents, a division of CCE)
Meadow Brook Music Festival, (PS& E/The Cellar Door, a division of CCE)
Fraze Pavilion, (Belkin Productions, a division of CCE)
Toledo Zoo Amphitheater, (Belkin Productions, a division of CCE)
Bank of America Pavilion, (Tea Party Concerts, a division of CCE)
Borgata Casino, (Electric Factory Concerts, a division of CCE)

How about that.

[Pamela]

Clear Channel agrees to go private
Equity firms offer $18.7 billion for the radio network
 

SAN ANTONIO - The new owners of Clear Channel Communications are betting that they can stem the tide of stagnating radio advertising sales and listeners who have migrated to the Internet, satellite radio and iPods.
In the third-largest buyout ever, the nation's biggest radio station operator said Thursday that it had agreed to an $18.7 billion offer from private equity firms Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners.

In addition to paying $37.60 in cash for each Clear Channel share -- a 10 percent premium on Wednesday's closing price -- the buyers will assume $8 billion in debt.

Chief executive Mark Mays said the time was right to take the company private because its stock -- which has lost 60 percent since 2000 -- was being undervalued by equity markets. The San Antonio company put itself up for sale last month after asset sales and share buybacks failed to boost the stock price.

"We tried to figure out what would be a way out of that, and obviously the private equity markets have a much different view," he said by telephone.

Mays said $37.60 was a "great price" for shareholders, and the private equity firms "think they got a great company and have a long-term view associated with it."

The transaction would be one of the biggest deals to take a company private, excluding debt, and illustrated the vast sums that buyout specialists have been able to assemble to acquire public companies.

The company has until Dec. 7 to solicit competing proposals. Another bid for Clear Channel had been expected from Providence Equity Partners, the Blackstone Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.

"The private equity firms are looking to capitalize on an opportunity," Fred Moran, an analyst at Stanford Group in Boca Raton, Fla., said. "They see that media stocks have been pummeled and perhaps they are now speculating that this is the beginning of a recovery."

Lee and Bain will put in equal amounts of money to own a company, which posted an 8.2 percent rise in profit in the most recent quarter. They also will control billboard-advertising company Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, which tripled profit on a 7.8 percent rise in sales.

Clear Channel owns or operates 1,150 radio stations and is the largest operator of radio stations in the country. The company said it plans to sell 448 of its radio stations, all located outside the top 100 markets, as well as its 42-station television group, which are also in smaller markets.

Clear Channel's four Triangle radio stations -- country station WRDU-FM (106.1); classic rock station WRVA-FM (100.7); adult contemporary station WRSN (93.9); and contemporary hits station WDCG (105.1) -- aren't among those the company is putting up for sale.

Once stock market darlings, radio stocks have fallen out of favor on Wall Street in recent years. Clear Channel has instituted several measures to try to regain listeners, including cutting back on the number of commercials.

However, other operators have yet to embrace its "less is more" strategy.

Clear Channel was founded in 1972 and benefited greatly from the loosening of media ownership rules, which allowed more radio stations to be held by a single owner in each market.

The deal would rank behind KKR's 1988 buyout of RJR Nabisco, which still is the biggest going-private deal ever, at $25.1 billion. It would also trail two other deals announced this year. Those included the $21.8 billion buyout of airport development company BAA and the $21.3 billion buyout of hospital company HCA on Thursday.

The company said it doesn't expect any senior management changes or significant layoffs as a result of the buyout.

Mark Mays would remain CEO, and Randall Mays, his brother, will stay on as chief financial officer. Their father, Lowry Mays, the chairman, will continue to have an active role, the company said. Mark Mays said Thursday that might mean a "chairman emeritus" role for his father.

Under terms of the agreement, Clear Channel could seek other offers and negotiate a new agreement until Jan. 5. Clear Channel would pay Lee and Bain $300 million to $500 million in breakup fees if it chooses a better offer.

Kit Spring, an analyst for Stifel Nicolaus, wrote in a note that shareholders should reject the initial offer.

Clear Channel's "assets could command a much higher price if sold piece by piece, in our view," the note said.

Clear Channel said that it expects to close the acquisition by the fourth quarter of next year.

And beyond that?

"Maybe they won't be private forever," analyst James Goss of Barrington Research said. "That's always a possibility (going public again) because private equity usually has an exit strategy. They don't really buy it just to own it forever. ... If it were public again, it wouldn't look the same as it did the first time around."

Clear Channel's shares jumped $1.24 to $35.36 Thursday after rising earlier to a 52-week high of $35.88.

©News & Observer