Meanwhile, the allegation that Clear Channel "parks" or "warehouses" stations won't go away. Competitors insist the company, as a way to get around ownership limits, has sold off stations to front companies that allow Clear Channel to continue operating the properties. And more important, the shell companies would allow Clear Channel an easy way to buy back the stations if the FCC were to further reduce ownership limits.

"You can only own so many stations in a market. That's the spirit of the rule. Everybody else is playing by the spirit and Clear Channel is allowed to circumvent it," complains one manager who oversees a handful of stations in a top 25-size market. "Everybody's scratching their heads asking, 'How can they do this?' and, 'What is it going to take to get the appropriate government agency to pay attention?'"

As Salon first reported last November, an advertiser in the small Ohio market of Chillicothe filed a petition with the FCC, urging that it deny Clear Channel's proposed purchase of a local country music station, WKKJ. The advertiser, David Ringer, argued the acquisition would give Clear Channel control of all four of Chillicothe's commercially licensed radio stations and would be able to drive up advertising rates. Perhaps more important, Ringer also alleged that Clear Channel has been illegally operating the station for years through a shell company.

Clear Channel answered with its own FCC filing, dismissing Ringer's "scattershot" and "inconsequential" charges. Company executives insist every station transaction they've made has been proper and legal, and that Clear Channel does not try to hides its properties.

Still, in an interview with Salon, a former Clear Channel employee from the Chillicothe area says it was common knowledge among staffers that Clear Channel operated WKKJ.

"It was like a running joke," says Nick Ramsey, who worked for Clear Channel station WSRW and left voluntarily last June. He currently works at WVNU, an independently owned station in nearby Greenfield, Ohio.

Although technically WKKJ had different owners, the feeling among staffers at Clear Channel's nearby stations was that WKKJ was part of the family, says Ramsey. "It never took on the appearance of that was the enemy or a competitor. It was just the other station in town. There was a consensus that something was going on [at WKKJ] but nobody wanted to ask what."

Ramsey says Dan Latham, Clear Channel's general manager who oversaw seven stations in the Ohio region, was on the phone "daily" with WKKJ's G.M. offering advice, and that in 1999 when Concorde Media, the alleged shell company, took control of WKKJ, a Clear Channel engineer was at the station to help solve some technical difficulties.

Ramsey became concerned about the casual overlap with WKKJ because, like all Clear Channel employees, he had signed a noncompete agreement, forbidding him from working for any competing radio stations. Ramsey says he asked his Clear Channel boss if employees weren't violating company policy by doing work for WKKJ, but he did not get an answer.

"It just seems like Clear Channel is overstepping the bounds in Chillicothe," says Ramsey. "They look at what the FCC rules are and bend and shape them as they see fit to get the greatest gain."

Latham could not be reached for comment. A spokesperson for Clear Channel's radio division also could not be reached.

The specifics of Chillicothe may seem minor, considering that Clear Channel operates 1,225 stations in nearly 300 different markets. And in its response to the FCC, the company argues that whatever mix-up may have occurred at WKKJ was due to a "clerical error" committed by a company with such vast holdings. What could prove more damaging to Clear Channel is the allegation made by Ringer and his attorney that the radio giant, in its filings with the commission, has deceived the FCC in order to cover up the fact that it skirted ownership rules.

"The worst thing to do in a deregulated environment is to get caught lying," says Andy Schwartzman, president of the Media Access Project, a public interest group that has been critical of the FCC for not closely scrutinizing further media consolidation.

"When there's less regulation, the onus is on companies to be self-regulating. The FCC relies on people being truthful," says Schwartzman. "The one thing companies can really get in trouble for at the FCC, still, is lying."

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