By Brendan McGarry and Ben Welsh

WASHINGTON, April 14, 2007 – Federal Communications Commissioner Deborah Tate has received talking points against the proposed satellite radio XM-Sirius merger from Clear Channel Radio, one of the country's biggest radio broadcasters and an ardent opponent of the deal.

Clear Channel Vice President Thomas English gave Tate three possible responses – each written in the first-person – in an attempt to help the commissioner reconcile her previous statements in favor of relaxing media ownership limits with the broadcasters' position against the satellite radio merger.

"The responses below were composed by our Government Affairs folks so they might be a little skewed toward our specific goals (imagine that) but I hope you find them helpful," English wrote Tate in an enclosure to an ex parte notice dated April 12 and posted electronically Friday morning.

By law, anyone who wishes to communicate with the FCC in a formal proceeding must file what is called an ex parte presentation, which documents outside parties' communication with the agency.

In his letter to Tate, English poses the question: "How do you reconcile your past recognition of all the entertainment options like iPods, Internet radio, satellite radio, etc. available to consumers as one of the reasons for relaxing local radio ownership rules with your present concerns with a merger of XM and Sirius being a monopoly?"

Then, like a speechwriter, he writes three answers in paragraph form in the first-person: "My position opposing the XM-Sirius merger and supporting a significant relaxation of local radio ownership rules is completely consistent with my primary guiding principal: avoid government action that seriously distorts the marketplace," states the opening line of the first answer.

The second answer begins, "My main concern is how can free radio survive when a combined XM-Sirius would control more spectrum in every market in the country than the entire AM/FM band combined?" Spectrum refers to the radio frequencies held by a satellite radio company, or a broadcaster or cellular carrier.

The third answer reads, "It is really quite simple – I consistently oppose a regulatory system that would disadvantage free, terrestrial broadcasting – the only platform that is free to listeners and operates in the public interest."

Tate, a Republican and Nashville native, was nominated to serve on the commission by President Bush in November 2005 after former FCC Chairman Michael Powell resigned. Her term expires June 30. She previously served as chairman of the Tennessee Regulatory Authority and as director of the State and Local Policy Center at Vanderbilt University.

When asked about the letter from Clear Channel, a spokesman in her office on Friday afternoon responded, "Yes, they do look like talking points, but the thing we wanted to convey was that the commissioner has not made a decision with respect to that proceeding. With respect to the way that ex parte is put together, you'd have to ask Clear Channel as to why… they were put together as talking points."

A message inquiring about the letter left late Friday afternoon on English's voice mail was not returned by Saturday morning.

The letter was part of a follow-up notice to an earlier ex parte filing (see the document's third page) indicating that Tate met with a group of Nashville-area radio executives on April 6. The executive raised concerns about the proposed XM-Sirius merger's negative impact on terrestrial radio.

Those present at the meeting included English; Whit Adamson, president of the Tennessee Association of Broadcasters (TAB); Bayard "Bud" Walters, president of the Cromwell Group, which owns radio stations in Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois; and Craig Jacobus, president of South Central Radio Group, a subsidiary of South Central Communications, which owns stations in Tennessee and Indiana.

The meeting was held to "request that the FCC avoid government action that seriously distorts the marketplace," according to the notice. The broadcasters also discussed with Tate "the need for local radio ownership deregulation."

XM and Sirius each lost more than $1 billion last year. They want to merge and create a satellite radio giant with 14 million subscribers worth roughly $13 billion. Terrestrial radio broadcasters argue the merger would create a monopoly over satellite radio.

Tate has not taken a public position on the matter. While the recent FCC correspondence suggests Tate has concerns about the deal, she has previously promoted less regulation in the evolving communications marketplace.

Testifying in February to the Senate Commerce Committee, Tate said, "XM and Sirius have signed up millions of satellite radio subscribers, and iPods and other digital music players are used by millions more, including one in five people under the age of 30; and our mobile phones now provide us with stock quotes and e-mail updates from sources across the globe. We must make sure that we account for these effects of the digital age, because, from a regulatory standpoint, the media marketplace of tomorrow is being shaped by our actions today."

Last month she told the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet that "whenever possible, I believe we must promote balanced, technology-agnostic regulation, which provides incentives to investment and encourage innovation."

The Center for Public Integrity's Media Tracker offers users a complete list of Clear Channel media properties, as well as political contributions by the company and its employees.

The Senate Commerce Committee will be holding a hearing on the XM-Sirius merger 10 a.m. Tuesday. The merger must be approved by the Justice Department antitrust division and the FCC.

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