Clear Channel Ends Loss, Posts Profit

Clear Channel Communications Inc., the nation’s biggest radio broadcaster, swung to a fourth-quarter profit but warned that war worries are paralyzing advertisers.

San Antonio-based Clear Channel said net income for the fourth quarter jumped to $184 million, or 30 cents a share, contrasted with a loss of $366 million, or 61 cents, for the year-earlier period.

Fourth-quarter revenue rose to $2.2 billion, up 19% from a year earlier, as the company’s radio stations, concert venues and outdoor advertising operations all posted improved sales.

For the full year, the company posted net income of $725 million, or $1.18 a share. That contrasts with a loss of $1.1 billion, or $1.93 a share, for 2001. Full-year revenue rose to $8.4 billion, an increase of about 6%.

Despite the improved results, Clear Channel President Mark Mays told analysts the company had seen signs that “war rhetoric” had chilled sales in recent weeks. Advertisers, he said, have begun “to sit on their hands” while they determine when the U.S. might go to war with Iraq.

The company projected that first-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization -- a measure media businesses often use to assess growth -- would be between $370 million and $390 million, a forecast that disappointed some analysts.

Shares of Clear Channel closed at $35.38, after results were announced, up 78 cents on the New York Stock Exchange.