Billboard Barons

It was a bomb that started the whole thing--an image of one anyway. A nationwide controversy erupted in July after Clear Channel Communications, one of the country's largest outdoor advertisers, refused to run an antiwar ad paid for by Project Billboard, a Berkeley, California-based nonprofit. The ad, which was supposed to appear on a billboard over Times Square during the Republican National Convention, featured an image of a bomb and the slogan "Democracy is best taught by example, not by war." Clear Channel said New York, in the aftermath of 9/11, is no place for a bomb image. Project Billboard sued for breach of contract. Critics accused Clear Channel of political censorship, equating the incident with the company's decision to fire shock jock Howard Stern after he repeatedly criticized the Bush Administration.

The two sides eventually settled, and Clear Channel is now running the ad, although with a dove replacing the bomb. But the billboard flap raises lingering questions about Clear Channel's control over outdoor advertising, a little-studied but important dimension of its media empire.

Billboards were the object of public derision for most of the twentieth century, particularly since the 1960s, when a national movement emerged to fight their proliferation along scenic highways. Nonetheless, in the past twenty years the outdoor advertising industry has become a multibillion-dollar behemoth, evolving from basic highway signage to more than 1 million multimedia displays targeting consumers in trains, buses, taxis, schools, airports, shopping malls, concert venues and stadiums. The growth spurt, which accelerated between 1996 and 2000, has followed a pattern of consolidation similar to other media. Just three companies now dominate the landscape: Viacom, the already bloated media empire; Clear Channel, the largest owner of radio stations in the United States; and Lamar Advertising, an advertising-only company that acquired 538 outdoor advertising companies beginning in 1997.

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