Clear Channel Begins Unprecedented Radio Consolidation Under Telecommunications Act

Clear Channel Communications begins an unprecedented consolidation spree following the February 1996 Telecommunications Act, acquiring $581 million worth of radio and television stations within just four months of the act’s passage. Before the Telecommunications Act eliminated ownership caps, companies were limited to owning no more than 40 radio stations nationwide. Clear Channel would exploit the new deregulatory environment to grow from 40 stations to 1,240 stations by 2002 - a 30-fold increase that previous congressional regulation had explicitly prevented.

The consolidation had immediate and devastating effects on local radio. Clear Channel began systematically eliminating local news programming, local DJs, and community-focused content in favor of nationally syndicated programming. Radio station ownership dropped from 5,100 distinct owners to just 3,800 within five years of the Act’s passage. By 2005, Clear Channel and Viacom (owner of Infinity Broadcasting) controlled between one-third and one-half of the entire radio industry.

This market concentration represented the exact opposite of the Telecommunications Act’s stated goal of promoting competition. Instead of “letting anyone enter any communications business,” the act enabled a handful of corporations to dominate entire media sectors, reducing diversity of voices, eliminating local journalism jobs, and concentrating unprecedented control over public discourse in corporate hands. Clear Channel’s consolidation became the paradigmatic example of how deregulation marketed as pro-competition actually enables monopolization and regulatory capture.