The world's largest radio company wants to be your local radio friend. So then, why has Clear Channel Communications dumped local talk radio shows on its newly acquired stations and replaced them with The Fan, a sports talk program originating 150 miles away in the Twin Cities?

To better serve the market, says Mary Befera, new manager of four Clear Channel stations in the Duluth-Superior radio market that the company acquired in March. The makeover occurred during the summer, before Befera arrived. But she defends it as sound programming and business practice.

"I believe Clear Channel made the right decision," Befera says. "I can see that already in the bottom line. A lot of listeners are just screaming for the kind of sports and entertainment The Fan provides."

It was the first visible- make that audible - local move for Clear Channel Communications, Inc. The $27 billion San Antonio, TX-based entertainment conglomerate owns 1,225 U.S. radio stations and another 250 overseas; 36 U.S. TV stations; an outdoor advertising subsidiary; and an entertainment group that books live concerts, Broadway productions and sports events and manages 130 concert venues.

Don't expect the shift to The Fan to be Clear Channel's last big move in this market.

The company intends to build audiences at its stations, which determine advertising rates. And it's looking to acquire more stations.

"We want to win everywhere we compete," Befera says.

Clear Channel's Duluth-Superior stations are WEBC 560-AM, now known as The Fan; KLDJ-FM "Kool 101.7," which plays oldies; "B-105" country station KKCB-FM 105.1; and the "hot" adult contemporary KBMX-FM 107.7, or "Mix 108."

The Duluth-Superior radio market, estimated at $8 million in annual advertising sales by Duncan's Radio Market Guides, is divided among five radio groups.

Managers at the other local stations say they're ready to compete with the industry giant, and claim an edge when it comes to homegrown news and community ties and public service.

Jeff Delvaux, general manager at Midwest Communications, one of those station groups, says Clear Channel's format change on WEBC left a void his stations are happy to fill.

"They changed formats and dumped local talk radio. They really opened up the local news-talk element. We pretty much own the franchise now," Delvaux says.

Most of the talk radio that aired on Clear Channel's WEBC - including the local call-in show hosted by longtime radio icon Lew Latto - has moved to Midwest's WDSM 710-AM. In a curious twist, the shift includes national shows of conservative commentators Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, owned by a Clear Channel subsidiary.

Midwest also lost something in the deal: Minnesota Vikings broadcasts now air on The Fan.

Overall, Delvaux declares mixed feelings about Clear Channel's impact in the market so far. From a purely business standpoint, picking up the highly rated Limbaugh show was a bonus. "Quite frankly, I'm thrilled," he says.

On the other hand, the Clear Channel juggernaut portends further uniformity in radio content. "I'm disappointed to see radio becoming so homogenized," he says.

Delvaux says his firm tries to balance the economic imperative for some automation and syndication with local content. "We've tried to pick up the best of the syndication but kept the local live wherever we could. We still think that's important for community service," he says.

Befera says it's a myth that Clear Channel stations are programmed from some sort of vast central bureaucracy.

"Clear Channel central headquarters has only 13 employees. The rest of us are out here," she says. Nationwide, that means 250 local general managers, 750 local sales managers, 900 local program managers and more employees bringing the total job count to some 30,000 at its U.S. stations.

"We try to satisfy everybody in the communities that we serve.

"Ninety-percent of our programming decisions are made locally, and here, that's me."

With a few exceptions, public affairs programming has all but vanished from U.S. commercial radio. Delvaux says Midwest Communications is one of those exceptions. It has four full-time employees gathering and reporting local news. "We are the only local news on commercial radio today," he says. "Clear Channel has laid people off."

Delvaux has hired several of those former Clear Channel employees.

Befera confirmed 40 local employees at Clear Channel Radio. That's down from 45 employees when Regent Communications owned the stations.

While it's nice to have a lock on the local news niche, Delvaux says it's a worrisome trend in an era when more and more stations are running on autopilot.

"I don't know how well radio in the future will be able to respond when you have a disaster," he says. "I guarantee, when the snow days come, KDAL will be up and running with school closings."

In fact, Clear Channel's performance in a disaster has drawn the ire of U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-ND. Early one morning in January 2002, a railroad tanker full of anhydrous ammonia derailed in Minot, sending choking, toxic fumes into the air. Hundreds of residents were sickened and at least one man died in the panic.

When the local emergency notification system failed, authorities called seven local radio stations, six of them owned by Clear Channel. No one answered the phone and it took an hour and a half to track down a station employee.

For her part, Befera says the industry has relied for years on overnight syndicated programming and automated soundboards. "That is a problem when a station gets a phone call," she says. "Generally in this community, we all know each other. We're all watching each other and helping to give back."

Former Clear Channel sales manager Mark Senarighi in Duluth found another way to give back to the community. He left the company this summer and went to Quarnstrtom Media Group, a radio company based in Cloquet that also has stations in Moose Lake, Hayward, International Falls and Aitkin.

Senarighi won't say much more than that it was a "difference in philosophy" with his new corporate boss that led to the departure. But he enthuses about the chance to get plugged into the towns Quartnstrom serves. "I've known Al Quarnstrom a long time. The stations are truly a part of the community and they really do community radio."

Senarighi is braced for competition from Clear Channel stations, whose signals will overlap some of the communities he serves. "Does Clear Channel call on my market? I'm sure they'll have some effect. I know the listeners in Cloquet, Moose Lake, Proctor and Hermantown are very loyal to community radio. I'll find out next year how much impact Clear Channel will have."

Competition for listeners and advertisers is one way to grow radio revenues. The other way is to acquire more stations, a strategy that helped Clear Channel balloon from 40 stations in the mid-1990s to 1,225 today.

According to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules, a "single entity" or company may own six stations in markets such as Duluth-Superior, with 15 to 29 stations. Shortly after the Texas radio behemoth bought the stations from Regent Communications - which days earlier had acquired Northland Broadcasting in a bankruptcy proceeding - Clear Channel executives said they were looking for more in the Duluth-Superior region.

Clearly, the local prize would be KQDS-FM 94.9. Airing as KQ95, the 100,000-watt local classic rock station, has been No. 1 among adults in the important "morning drive" slot for five years running, ever since the station was mainstreamed with the arrival of station manager Shawn Skramstad.

Owned by Fargo-based Red River Broadcasting, KQ blankets the region like few other stations. In addition to Duluth-Superior, it has towers in Grand Rapids, Babbitt-Ely and Grand Marais. Its signal carries from the western Iron Range north and east to the Ontario border; across northern Wisconsin to Michigan's Upper Peninsula; and south nearly to Hinckley.

"I have been told that the owners of the company have been approached (by Clear Channel), and we're not interested in selling, "Skramstad says.

As for competition for listeners, Skramstad says his company's stations don't compete with Clear Channel for the same target audiences. Red Rock Radio attracts rock and adult contemporary audiences, while Clear Channel programs country, oldies and sports. "We don't bump up against them much," he said. "We're looking for another banner year."

Then again, that might be another reason Red Rock's stations would hold continued interest for deep-pocketed Clear Channel. Such a deal also could include a Fox Network station as well, Red Rock's KQDS-TV, Channel 21.

Befera won't elaborate, but doesn't discourage such speculation. "We'd love to have to have more stations in this market."

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