FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	AT

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

                                                                                                                                                                                 TDD (202) 514-1888







CHANCELLOR MEDIA CORPORATION ABANDONS BID TO ACQUIRE

LONG ISLAND RADIO STATIONS

AFTER JUSTICE DEPARTMENT CHALLENGE 

Case was DOJ's First Contested Challenge to Radio Merger 	WASHINGTON,  D.C.  --  The Department of Justice today
announced that Chancellor Media Corporation has agreed to abandon
its plan to acquire four radio stations owned by SFX
Broadcasting, Inc. in Long Island, New York.  The Department's
Antitrust Division had sued to block the proposed acquisition
last November, in its first contested court challenge to a merger
in the radio industry since the passage of the Telecommunications
Act of 1996.

	The Department's Antitrust Division stated that Chancellor,
instead of fighting the Department's challenge in court, has
agreed to settle the lawsuit by agreeing to abandon its $54
million bid to acquire SFX radio stations WBLI-FM, WBAB-FM, WHFM-FM and WGBB-AM.  It also agreed to terminate an arrangement under
which Chancellor had been operating the SFX stations in
anticipation of the acquisition.  The deal would have created a
dominant Long Island radio group with more than 65 percent of the 

market.

	"With today's resolution of this matter, we won every ounce
of relief that we could have obtained by litigating this case to
the end," said Joel I. Klein, Assistant Attorney General in
charge of the Department's Antitrust Division,  "As the Long
Island case shows, we continue to be ready to fight in court
radio mergers that harm competition and result in higher radio
advertising prices for businesses relying on radio to sell their
products and services."

	According to the complaint, which was filed in U.S. District
Court in Long Island, Chancellor, which owns WALK-FM/AM on Long
Island, and SFX are the number one and number two radio companies
on Long Island and have been locked in a daily battle against one
another for listeners and for advertising revenues.  The
complaint further alleged that competition between the companies
had been an essential element in keeping down prices for Suffolk
County radio advertising.  The complaint also stated that
Chancellor recognized that its acquisition of the SFX radio
stations would have enabled it to increase the prices its charges
to advertisers.

	The settlement, if approved by the court, would resolve the
lawsuit and eliminate the need for a trial.  The settlement calls
for Chancellor to abandon its plans to acquire SFX's Long Island
stations.  It would also prevent Chancellor, SFX and any of their
successor companies from combining WALK-FM/AM with WBLI-FM and
WBAB-FM.  Finally, the settlement requires Chancellor and SFX to
terminate as soon as possible, but no later than August 1, 1998,
a local marketing agreement under which Chancellor has been
temporarily operating SFX's Long Island radio stations in
anticipation of the acquisition.  This would stop the companies
from making joint decisions on the prices of advertising and on
programming.    

	Chancellor, headquartered in Irving, Texas, is the second
largest radio broadcaster in the United States.  It owns 97 radio
stations in 22 major markets across the country, including a
presence in each of the 12 largest markets.  Chancellor's
stations generated sales in excess of $582 million last year.

	SFX, headquartered in New York City, owns or operates 86
radio stations located in 24 metropolitan areas in the United
States.

	Two other radio merger settlements were also filed today by
the Department.  In U.S. District Court in Uniondale, Long
Island, the Department filed a complaint and proposed settlement
that would permit Capstar Broadcasting Partners, Inc. (a company
affiliated with Chancellor through the common ownership of Hicks,
Muse, Tate & Furst Incorporated, a Dallas-based investment firm)
to go forward with its $2.1 billion acquisition of SFX
Broadcasting, Inc., so long as it divests eleven radio stations -- four Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, one each in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Houston, Texas and Jackson,
Mississippi, and, because of Chancellor's affiliation with
Capstar, the four SFX stations in Long Island, New York.  Also
today, the Department's Antitrust Division filed a complaint and
proposed settlement in U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia, which would permit CBS Corporation to 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 actions, 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 lawsuit against Chancellor and SFX 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, D.C.  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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