"Clear Channel to Buy 3 StationsClear Channel Communications dropped its petitions to buy four Youngstown area radio stations Jan. 13, then filed new petitions to buy only three of the stations and two days later was granted permission from the Federal Communications Commission to complete the deal. The manuevering puts an end to concerns voiced by the FCC in July 2002 that Clear Channel's initial deal to buy four local radio stations could adversely affect competition for advertising dollars.Clear Channel is now poised to buy WNIO-AM, WNCD-FM and WAKZ-FM from Youngstown Radio License LLC, a unit of Bain Gocom, the Boston venture capital company that was a major investor in WKBN-TV's former parent company. Clear Channel controls more than 1,200 stations. It owns the licenses for three Youngs-town area stations: WMXY-FM, WKBN-AM and WBBG-FM. It also operates stations in Mercer County and Lawrence County, Pa.Until the official transfer of the WNIO, WNCD and WAKZ licenses, the radio giant will continue to operate the stations under leasing arrangements signed a few years ago. Absent legal challenges, the deal to buy the three stations -- terms not known -- is expected to be consumated as soon as the FCC's public comment period ends.The fourth radio station that Clear Channel had wanted to buy, and also operated under a leasing arrangement until a few months ago, is WICT(FM), whose frequency is assigned to Grove City, Pa. WICT is being acquired by Forever Broadcasting of Altoona, Pa., which also owns stations in the Meadville/ Franklin market in Crawford County, Pa.Bain Gocom bought WNIO, WNCD, WAKZ and WICT in the 1990s after the U.S. Justice Depart-ment's antitrust division refused to sign off on Connoisseur Communications of New Jersey buying more area radio stations. Connoisseur has since become part of Cumulus Communications of Atlanta, the other big radio operator in the market.FCC permission for Clear Channel to purchase WNIO, WNCD and WAKZ came to light after Broadcasting & Cable reported the first half of the story -- that the license transfer petitions had been dropped, which the Daily Business Journal Online also reported -- but not the second half of the story -- that new licence transfer petitions were then filed.The refiling of license transfer petitions for the three stations -- but not the fourth station -- puts Clear Channel within station ownership limits for the Youngstown/ Warren radio market and negates the need for the corporation to undergo an administrative review of how the acquisitions would affect competition.The review was ordered by the FCC in July 2002 after the regulatory agency determined the elimination of a third competitor in the local market "would create an effective duopoly with Clear Channel and Cumulus having a combined share of 95.3% of the in market advertising revenues and 89.4% of the audience share attributable to in-market stations. The Youngstown market is highly concentrated and there are significant barriers to entry," the FCC said. "This market structure increases the risk of coordinated behavior leading to price discrimination, division of advertising accounts, and lower quality programming."Clear Channel opted to delay the administrative review pending the outcome of the FCC's initiative to revise media ownership rules. With the adoption of new rules last June, the FCC essentially abandoned its policy of designating acquisitions for review when markets are too concentrated."There really hasn't been any changes to the rules that affect this sale. It has to do with how the deal has been redone. Clear Channel is not purchasing all four stations," says Joseph DeScidio, attorney for Youngstown Radio License LLC. The new ownership rules do, however, count local marketing agreements, as station licensing arrangements are typically called, in the operator's tally of radio stations it owns. In a market the size of Youngstown, operators are limited to six stations.Last week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, sitting in Philadelphia, heard oral arguments on legal challenges to the new media ownership rules brought by public-interest advocates. In September the appeals court temporarily halted FCC enforcement of the new rules so opponents would have an opportunity to argue why they should be overturned.Andrew Jay Schwartzman, an attorney for the Media Access Project, one of the groups that brought the court challenge, contends the FCC "misread the legal standard, presuming a preference for deregulation that does not exist." Schwartzman also argues the new media ownership rules are based on "patently false conclusions about the sources of local news and information in the U.S. today."During the Feb. 11 hearing, the judges were skeptical about the design of the FCC's new diversity index, the model upon which relaxing ownership rules is based. The court offered no timetable for when a ruling might be forthcoming."