Indoor/Outdoor

ate last year, San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications completed its acquisition of seven Memphis-area radio stations, the legal limit for the Memphis market according to the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Add in ownership of WPTY Channel 24 and operation of WLMT Channel 30, and you get a portrait of a company that has maxed out on Memphis broadcast media.

Where to next? All that's left is the great outdoors.

Last month, Clear Channel and Universal Outdoor Holdings, Inc., entered into an agreement to merge, giving Clear Channel control of Universal's 34,000 display faces nationwide, added to the 50,000 faces the company acquired earlier this year by purchasing Eller Media.

Locally, the merger is the latest development in a big fish/little fish frenzy of consolidation that began when Tanner-Peck purchased the area properties of Naegele Outdoor Advertising in late 1995. Last year, Tanner-Peck was in turn purchased by Universal, which then added to its area holdings by buying TransAd, the operator of ads on area bus shelters. A tidy bundle for Clear Channel to pick up.

And -- given that Clear Channel is not likely to obtain a waiver allowing it to acquire more stations or a print outlet at this time -- the only bundle left available. Unlike radio and television, outdoor advertising is not regulated by the FCC, which means the company's other broadcast holdings are irrelevant to its acquisition of billboards.

As a result of the transaction, Clear Channel will augment its roughly 40 percent share (by both ratings and revenue) of the local radio market with 85 percent of area billboards. Given the conventional wisdom that radio accounts for 7 percent of total advertising revenue, with outdoor advertising accounting for just 2 percent, that might not seem all that significant -- as those who argue that FCC limits on radio ownership are still too stringent will tell you.

Unless, of course, you're in your car.

Until you can figure out a way to read the paper or watch television while you drive, chances are you're going to be spending most of your time in transit as part of Clear Channel's captive audience. In other words, radio's "drive time" and so-called "out-of-home" advertising plastered on billboards are a perfect match.

From a business standpoint -- even aside from the additional revenue and the ability to bundle billboard and broadcast ads together -- it's a great boon, adding another dimension to the already aggressive cross-promotion of Clear Channel's radio and TV operations. From a motorist's standpoint, expect Clear Channel's chain of self-referentiality to tighten, as billboards advertise TV and radio stations that, in turn, advertise each other.

To paraphrase a slogan that announced Universal's entry into the Memphis market, you may begin noticing as you drive around town flipping through the dial that "Memphis has gone Clear Channel."7

A CAMPAIGN HAS BEEN WHIPPING around the Internet lately in an attempt to convince PBS-affiliate television stations to air the documentary Fear and Favor in the Newsroom, an exposé on self-censorship in the press.

According to its producers, Fear and Favor, narrated by Studs Terkel, "documents for the first time on film how corporate control of the press limits what Americans learn about controversial issues of the day." PBS itself declined to distribute the documentary to its member stations without citing a reason, according to its co-producer Randy Baker. However, the fact that the documentary singles out PBS itself for criticism for bowing to corporate-control has led to speculation that the network's reasons for not picking up the show were less than pure.

The second-largest national distributor of public programming, the American Press Service, also demurred, claiming that the show was not sufficiently balanced, says Baker. The nation's largest regional distributor, the National Educational Television Association, however, has agreed to feed the program, via satellite, to public television stations this Sunday. PBS did not return calls for comment.

Locally, Debi Robertson, advertising and promotions manager for WKNO-TV Channel 10, says the station only recently became aware of the program and may consider it for later broadcast. Factors in the decision about whether or not to air the show in Memphis, says Robertson, are its "production quality" and scheduling considerations. WKNO programming has already been scheduled through the end of the year.