U.S. Official Assails Some Radio Deals

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s top antitrust enforcer Wednesday said radio mergers that give one company more than 35% of a metropolitan area’s market raise antitrust questions that may prompt scrutiny from the federal government.

Though not a “hard-and-fast rule . . . when you’re doing a deal that’s in the 35%-and-above range, or that consolidates a large part of a particular format even when that involves less than 35% of the overall market, you should bring in antitrust counsel early on,” Assistant Atty. Gen. Joel Klein told a National Assn. of Broadcasters meeting of radio company executives in Washington.

Klein, head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, rejected industry arguments that radio competes with television and other media and couldn’t unilaterally raise prices without losing customers.

Klein, without identifying companies, said internal corporate sales documents obtained during some merger investigations discussed the prospect of raising rates by 20% to 50% in some markets because of reduced competition after a merger.

Klein spoke amid a record wave of radio-industry mergers, sparked by last year’s telecommunications deregulation law, which eased federal limits on the number of radio stations one firm can own.

On Tuesday, Evergreen Media Corp. agreed to pay about $2.6 billion for Chancellor Broadcasting Co. and Viacom Inc.’s radio stations.