FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	AT

TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 1998                                                                                                                          (202) 514-2008

                                                                                                                                                                                TDD (202) 514-1888







JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REQUIRES CAPSTAR TO SELL ELEVEN RADIO STATIONS
AS PART OF SFX ACQUISITION




	WASHINGTON,  D.C.  --  The Department of Justice reached a
settlement today with Capstar Broadcasting Partners, Inc.
allowing the company to go forward with its $2.1 billion
acquisition of SFX Broadcasting, Inc.  As part of the settlement,
Capstar must divest eleven radio stations -- four in Greenville,
South Carolina, four in Long Island, New York, one in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, one in Jackson, Mississippi, and one in Houston,
Texas.

	The Department's Antitrust Division said that Capstar
competes against SFX for the business of local and national
businesses that use radio to advertise in Greenville, Houston,
Jackson, Pittsburgh, and Suffolk County, New York.  Unless
restructured, the Capstar/SFX deal would eliminate this
competition, and advertisers in these areas likely would face
higher advertising rates or fewer services.

	"If this acquisition had been allowed to go forward as 




originally proposed, businesses that rely on radio to sell their 

products and services would have had to pay more to advertise,"
said Joel I. Klein, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the
Department's Antitrust Division. "The Antitrust Division is
committed to keeping competition in the radio industry vigorous,
and we will continue to block radio mergers that harm consumers
by leading to excessive concentration of ownership in a single
market."

	The Department's Antitrust Division filed a civil lawsuit in
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York to block
Capstar's acquisition of SFX.  According to the complaint, the
acquisition combines radio station assets in such a way that
Capstar and its related entities -- Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst
Incorporated and Chancellor Media Corporation -- would control
radio stations accounting for approximately 74% of the radio
advertising revenues in Greenville, 43% in Houston, 57% in
Jackson, 44% in Pittsburgh, and 65% in Suffolk County of Long
Island.  Hicks, Muse owns all the stock of Capstar and a
significant portion of the stock of Chancellor.  Because of this
common ownership, the Department says, the market positions of
Capstar and Chancellor must be analyzed together in assessing the
competitive impact of the Capstar/SFX transaction.

	At the same time as it filed its complaint, the Department
filed a proposed settlement which, if approved by the Court,
would resolve the lawsuit.  The proposed settlement requires
Capstar to divest radio stations KKPN-FM in Houston, WJDX-FM in
Jackson, WTAE-AM in Pittsburgh, and WESC-FM, WESC-AM, WJMZ-FM and
WTPT-FM in Greenville.  In addition, because Chancellor owns
WALK-FM and WALK-AM in Long Island, NY, the proposed settlement
would require Capstar to sell SFX's four Long Island radio
stations -- WBLI-FM, WBAB-FM, WHFM-FM and WGBB-AM to preserve
competition there.

	Capstar, headquartered in Austin, Texas, currently owns and
operates 242 radio stations in 70 markets in the United States. 
In 1997, its revenues were approximately $302 million.  Capstar
is wholly owned by Hicks, Muse, an investment fund headquartered
in Dallas, Texas.  Hicks, Muse also has an ownership in
Chancellor Media Corporation and several other entities that
operate radio stations.  

	SFX, a Delaware corporation headquartered in New York City,
owns or operates 86 radio stations located in 24 metropolitan
areas across the United States.  In 1997, SFX's revenues were
approximately $322 million.    

	Today the Department also filed two other radio merger
proposed settlements.  Under the first settlement, also filed in
U.S. District Court in Uniondale, Long Island, Chancellor Media
Company will agree to abandon its efforts to acquire SFX
Broadcasting Inc.'s four Long Island radio stations.  The case
was the Department's first contested court challenge to a radio
merger.  Under the second proposed settlement, filed in U.S.
District Court for the District of Columbia, CBS Corporation
could go forward with its $1.6 billion acquisition of American
Radio Systems, so long as it divests seven radio stations -- four
in Boston, two in St. Louis and one in Baltimore.

	Including today's lawsuits, the Department's Antitrust
Division has filed eight cases to restructure radio deals since
the passage of the Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996.  Three
additional deals have been restructured or abandoned in the face
of the Department's competition concerns without going to court.

	As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed consent decree
resolving the Capstar/SFX lawsuit will be published in the
Federal Register, together with the Department's competitive
impact statement.  Any person may submit written comments
concerning the proposed consent decrees during a 60-day comment
period to Craig W. Conrath, Chief, Merger Task Force, Antitrust
Division, U.S. Department of Justice, Suite 4000, 1401 H Street,
N.W., Washington, DC  20005, telephone (202) 307-0001.

	At the conclusion of the 60-day comment period, the Federal
District Court in the Eastern District of New York may enter the
consent decree upon finding that it serves the public interest. 

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