Clear Channel may not be a household name, but chances are, its products can be seen or heard in your home at any time. The company, run by the San Antonio, Tex.-based Mays family, could be the very definition of Big Media: its 50,000+ employees work in 65 countries and span 36 television stations, more than 1,200 radio stations -- 11 percent of all radio in the United States -- more than 770,000 outdoor advertising displays and one of the world's biggest live entertainment producers.

As recently as 1995, Clear Channel wasn't on many radar screens as it owned 43 radio and 16 television stations. It was certainly profitable though -- The Wall Street Journal identified Clear Channel as the eight-best performing U.S. stock from 1985 to 1995. And after Congress deregulated the communications industry with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Clear Channel charged into acquisitions, buying several billboard and radio conglomerates, most notably Jacor Communications, which added more than 400 stations to Clear Channel's lineup.

Critics of deregulation and large media companies in general argue that Clear Channel is too big for the radio industry's own good. Salon.com last year described Clear Channel as "radio's big bully" in an article that went on to blame the company for a decline in the quality of radio programming. "Looking for classy radio programming? Don't look here," wrote Salon.com's Eric Boehlert. "The company is known for allowing animals to be killed live on the air, severing long-standing ties with community and charity events, laying off thousands of workers, homogenizing playlists and a corporate culture in which dirty tricks are a way of life."

The criticism has had Clear Channel on the defensive much of this year. Company executives point out with the top 10 radio owners commanding less than half of the industry's market share, the concentration of power in radio is actually far less than in other media industries, such as movie production. Still, that hasn't stopped a few members of Congress from proposing limits on radio conglomerates; as a result, CEO Lowry Mays this past spring asked employees to contribute 1 percent of their paychecks to a political action committee that will lobby Congress for Clear Channel.

After 13 years of outperforming broad indices, Clear Channel's stock since January of 2000 has fallen along with the rest of the market -- the company's shares have lost 24 percent of their value this year alone.

Despite all the turmoil, Randall Mays has been able to keep the money flowing from the company's bundle of acquisitions. Although Clear Channel's debt remains substantial, Mays has been able to pare it down while increasing the company's cash and posting profits for the past two quarters. In June the Broadcast Cable Financial Management Association named him the group's first-ever CFO of the Year.

Randall Mays is the the son of company founder Lowry Mays, who is Clear Channel's chairman and CEO. Randall Mays' brother, Mark, is president and chief operating officer. Both sons have backgrounds in investment banking; Randall Mays worked in the mergers and acquisitions department of Goldman Sachs before coming to Clear Channel.

Mays is on the boards of XM Satellite Radio and CNET. He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

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Yemenidjian became boss of the legendary MGM in April 1999. At the time he took over, MGM was Hollywood's sick man, going more than a decade without a profit, churning out quickly-forgotten movies and coming close to becoming a relic of the past, more identified with Clark Gable and Greta Garbo than anyone resembling a current star.

Yet the former bean-counter -- Yemenidjian was an accountant for years -- may have turned things around. Last year, Forbes magazine called Yemenidjian the "Wizard of MGM" and for good reason: although MGM is still far from returning to its status as an industry titan, it has managed to make money over the past couple of years with several minor hits, as well as the occasional James Bond blockbuster. In Yemenidjian's first two years, MGM reeled off six profitable movies in a row, including Stigmata and a pair of movies starring Pierce Brosnan, The Thomas Crown Affair and The World is Not Enough. And MGM has done a better job of making money from its library of 4,100 films.

MGM's stock price has reflected the basic improvement. Since Yemenidjian took over more than three-and-a-half years ago, MGM shares have lost slightly more than 5 percent of their value, which sounds bad until it's compared with the broader market -- the S&P 500 is down more than 33 percent over the same period.

Still, there's no denying that MGM has been a dog in 2002. The stock is down 40 percent over the past year, and at one point was down more than 50 percent following a stream of flops in the first half of 2002, such as Hart's War.

But MGM tripled revenue year-over-year in the third quarter thanks to the surprise hit Barbershop. And Bond may be a hero for MGM yet again: the latest 007 movie, Die Another Day -- which could be an apt metaphor for MGM's revival -- had reported box office revenue of almost $140 million five weeks after its debut in November.

Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian brought Yemenidjian into MGM from the Las Vegas hotel casino MGM Grand, where Yemenidjian spent nine years, including five as president and chief operating officer. He was previously a partner in an accounting firm. Yemenidjian has a bachelor's degree from California State University, Northridge and a master's degree in business taxation from the University of Southern California.

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Rutherfurd heads the investment banking group of Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a merchant bank specializing in the media industry, and is a senior principal with the company's VS&A Communications Partners III fund. He also manages the VSS Focus Program, which looks for deals that Veronis Suhler Stevenson can take part in; he has closed more than $28 billion in media transactions, according to the bank.

Before Veronis Suhler Stevenson hired Rutherfurd in January 1999, he was a managing director in JP Morgan's mergers and acquisitions group and co-head of the company's media group. Rutherfurd has a law degree from the University of Virginia and a bachelor's degree from Princeton University.

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Gensler is president and investment advisory committee chairman of the T. Rowe Price Media and Telecommunications Fund, which he has managed since January 14, 2000, just a couple of months before the bear market started. Given the situation, Gensler has done well -- according to Morningstar, the T. Rowe Price fund outperformed its sector average in 2000 and 2001, and is ahead of it this year. Gensler even managed to beat the S&P 500 in 2001, despite one of the worst years ever for telecom stocks.

The T. Rowe fund has stayed ahead of its sector peers this year in part because of a large shift into media and away from communications. At the end of September, 42 percent of the fund's assets were in media stocks, with Viacom as the single largest holding.

Gensler has been with T. Rowe Price since 1993, when he was hired from his analyst job at Salomon Brothers. He received a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from Stanford University.

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Goss covers media and entertainment for Barrington Research. Last year he was third in the entertainment part of The Wall Street Journal's Best on the Street Analyst Survey. In 1996 he was the top cable and broadcasting analyst in the Journal's All-Star Team for earnings estimate accuracy.

Companies covered by Goss include:

• Clear Channel (CCU)
  
• Cox Radio (CXR)
  
• Emmis (EMMS)
  
• Entercom (ETM)
  
• Salem (SALM)
  
• Hearst-Argyle Television(HTV)
  
• Gannett (GCI)
  
• Tribune (TRB)
  
• Viacom (VIA)
  

Before Barrington, Goss was an analyst with Nesbitt Burns Securities and Duff & Phelps. He was president of the Investment Analysts Society of Chicago from 1989 to 1990.

Goss has a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Lewis University and an MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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