At ‘Sensitive’ Clear Channel, Radio Revenue Up 10% in Q4

Saying the company is “acutely sensitive” to the needs of its listeners and communities, Clear Channel Communications reported revenues were up 19% in the fourth quarter, to $2.2 billion, and 6% for the year, to $8.4 billion.
In the company’s radio business, for the fourth quarter, revenues increased 10 percent, to $979 million, over the same period a year earlier. For all of 2002, Clear Channel Radio revenues increased 8 percent to $3.72 billion.
Chairman/CEO Lowry Mays accompanied the latest financial information with a statement that he was proud of the results and of the value the company creates for listeners and advertisers.
“We could not have achieved that success, and created that value, if we were not acutely sensitive to the needs of the listeners and communities we serve, and if we did not do a quality job of meeting those needs year in and year out.”
The company has become something of a poster child for big media consolidation in recent months, criticized by artists’ groups and some competitors during ownership rules hearings on Capitol Hill.