That is according to its critics, who accuse it of concealing ownership of some stations in an effort to evade regulatory limits on station ownership.
Officially, the numbers are, if you excuse a pun, clear. Clear Channel owns "approximately" 1,225 stations across the US, or 10% of the market, which is within media-ownership limits. However, media-ownership laws prevent any one company owning more than eight stations in a particular market.
Clear Channel, however, has been accused of holding the reins of a further 75 radio stations. These are believed to be small stations in markets where Clear Channel had already reached the maximum ownership levels.
Arthur Belendiuk, a Washington communications lawyer, has filed a petition opposing Clear Channel's proposed purchase of two stations. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, he said: "The problem is that you have a company that's been told not to own radio stations in certain markets and has decided it's going to control those radio stations anyway."
Clear Channel's critics point to deals where third-party companies buy radio stations and, through marketing agreements or joint sales deals, hand over control of either a station's programming or its advertising to Clear Channel, effectively increasing Clear Channel's radio muscle in any one area.
The legal petitions against Clear Channel are for a Waco, Texas station called KBRQ-FM, which Clear Channel was ordered to divest when it acquired AMFM in 2000. Clear Channel was going to sell it to Chase Radio, but claims Chase backed out at the last minute.
Belendiuk claims that Clear Channel already runs Chase's stations and aims to back up these claims with regulatory filings to the US Federal Communications Commission.
The other case Clear Channel is waiting to hear from the FCC about is its request to be allowed to buy WKKJ-FM in Chillicothe, Ohio.
The station once belonged to Jacor Communications, which sold WKKJ-FM to a company called Secret Communications II. However, in 1999 Secret entered into an agreement with Concord Media Group, handing control of programming and sales for the station to Concord.
This time Belendiuk claims that Concord is really run by Clear Channel and says he has found regulatory filings to the FCC as evidence of this allegation.
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