FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
MONDAY, JUNE 2, 1997                               (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888
                                
  JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REQUIRES LOUISIANA ADVERTISING COMPANY TO
      DIVEST BILLBOARDS IN FOUR SOUTHEASTERN METRO AREAS 
                     AS CONDITION OF MERGER


     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice announced today
that it allowed Lamar Advertising Co. to proceed with its $65
million, nine-state acquisition of Hedrick Outdoor Inc. as long as
it divests 170 billboards in Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida. 

     Without the divestiture Lamar would have controlled more than
50 percent of the available billboards in each of the communities
involved, and would have had more than 70 percent of the billboards
along the most heavily traveled highways in the areas.  The
divestiture of billboards in Gulfport and Jackson, Mississippi;
Lafayette, Louisiana; and Panama City, Florida, will ensure that no
single company dominates the key highways or controls the majority
of billboards in those metropolitan areas. 

     The billboards will be bought by the New York City-based
XChase LLC, for about $6 million at the same time Lamar acquires
Hedrick.

     Joel I. Klein, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of
the Department's Antitrust Division, said, "Small and local
business customers, and many others, benefit from competition among
billboard companies, which results in lower prices and better
services.  With this divestiture, advertisers will continue to have
meaningful outdoor advertising choices to preserve competition." 

     Lamar, headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, owns and
operates outdoor advertising businesses in more than 20 states.  It
had revenues of more than $100 million in fiscal year 1995.  

     Hedrick, headquartered in Laurel, Mississippi, owns and
operates billboards in nine states.  It had revenues of about $12
million in 1995.

     XChase, an investment company, made its acquisition in
conjunction with a veteran outdoor advertising operator, James
Eatrides.  Eatrides is president of Chesapeake Outdoor Enterprises,
a Baltimore, Maryland-based billboard operator.
                               ###
97-228