Despite that, a number of Clear Channel employees have come forward to talk about the company.

Aside from the rampant cost-cutting -- some Clear Channel AM stations' news departments have been cut from 15 full-time staffers down to one -- what's most often mentioned by employees is the culture of the company. It's an often rowdy, good-ol'-boy way of doing business that leaves some employees, and particularly women, uneasy.

"If the FCC ever put out an announcement that they were investigating Clear Channel and wanted to talk to employees with incidents of sexual harassment, they'd get a flood of phone calls," suggests one former employee.

Last fall, the industry was abuzz over word that Bev Tilden, AMFM's highest-ranking female and dubbed one of radio's most influential women, had quietly left Clear Channel after it acquired AMFM -- but not before complaining about a sexual-harassment incident. Tilden would not comment for this story.

Earlier this month April Yerger, a former assistant at two Clear Channel stations in Tampa, Fla., filed a sexual harassment suit. According to her attorney, a station jock harassed her with unwelcome sexual comments ("When are you going to let me lick you?"), and when she complained to her supervisors they retaliated against her regarding other work incidents ("You fucking whining baby") and by opening a file on her and filling it with work critiques.

"There's an unwritten rule at Clear Channel: If you rock the boat they'll make life miserable for you," says Yerger's attorney, Michael Babboni.

Clear Channel has yet to respond to Yerger's suit in court.

	Radio's big bully A complete guide to Salon's reporting on Clear Channel Print story E-mail story

"The employee atmosphere is abusive towards any minority or woman," says Liz Richards, a former talk-show host who years ago sued one of the same Tampa stations as Yerger -- citing the same disc jockey -- for sexual harassment. (Richards eventually settled out of court.) "Any minority was at high risk to be the brunt of jokes and not treated well."

Adds another former Clear Channel on-air host: "There are absolutely incredible amounts of gender problems. My own boss told me once there are only two kinds of women in radio: hookers or cheerleaders. That's how he sees and treats women."

Employees say that atmosphere comes from the top down inside the company. "There are no women in power at Clear Channel," says one, "so when there was a corporate meeting in town they all went to the men's club to see strippers. It's an ugly, frat boy posse mentality."

In addition, she recalls a station meeting in which the head of Clear Channel programming for a major market mocked a white employee who messed up as being "the Negro" of the group. "Everybody noticed it and felt uncomfortable but were afraid to they might lose their jobs if they said anything."

Another employee tells of the Clear Channel manager who told programmers that when it came to designing station Web sites, "tits equals hits."

One former Clear Channel salesperson recalls the difficulty she faced after announcing she was pregnant. "My manager's whole attitude changed towards me right after," she says. His complimentary e-mails and memos stopped, she says, replaced by comments about how she seemed overwhelmed, despite the fact that she was meeting her monthly sales goals. "They started setting me up after I announced I was pregnant," she says. A few months later she was fired.

Another Clear Channel salesperson who quit after many successful years with the company cites a simple reason: "They want to limit how much money you can make." He says management doesn't want salespeople to become too successful for fear that if they quit they'd take their clients with them to the competition. The solution? "They started taking clients away from salespeople," says this person. "I think it's unheard of."

Now playing: Read all the recent movie reviews by Salon's critics