Clear Channel Communications has filed papers with the Federal Communications Commission denying charges that its eight affiliated Los Angeles radio stations require regional advertisers to do all their business with the broadcasting giant.

The firm calls Mt. Wilson FM Broadcasters Inc.'s allegations "vague and baseless" and "substantively meritless."

On January 19th, Mt. Wilson, which owns two radio stations in Los Angeles, filed a statement with the FCC accusing Clear Channel of anti-competitive behavior. Specifically, Mt. Wilson charges that Clear Channel demands a "quid pro quo" relationship from advertisers.

"The Clear Channel modus operandi allows the advertiser to utilize any one or all of the Clear Channel stations and, further, to receive discounts," Mt. Wilson's filing claims:

"The 'quid pro quo,' however, requires the advertiser to devote all of its radio advertising budget to Clear Channel stations and to refrain from placing advertisements on any other Los Angeles radio market stations."

The Mt. Wilson statement bases this charge on two assertions. First, that in 2003 a Mt. Wilson advertiser "would no longer buy time on the Mt. Wilson AM stations due to an advertising agreement with Clear Channel which required 100% of the advertiser's radio budget to be spent on Clear Channel stations."

Second, that in fall 2006, potential new customers told Mt. Wilson "that they now advertised on Clear Channel stations and were prohibited from advertising on any other Los Angeles radio market stations."

The filing includes affidavits signed by Mt. Wilson President Saul Levine and the firms' General Sales Manager, Kane Biscaya, and sales representative Lisa Penhart.

Clear Channel says it isn't so. Or, to be more precise, the firms' lawyers say that Mt. Wilson hasn't proven that it is so, calling the smaller firm's affidavits "completely devoid of specific facts."

"The Communications Act demands far more than Mt. Wilson has supplied," their February 1st response declares.

Clear Channel's filing also included an affidavit from Jeff Thomas, Vice President and Director of Sales for Clear Channel, Los Angeles.

The Mt. Wilson petition, Thomas declared, "does not provide enough specific facts to allow me to research and address the seven encounters Mt. Wilson personnel allegedly had with certain local advertisers in 2003 and 2006."

"I can confirm that we do not have either an oral or written policy of requiring advertisers to devote all of their radio advertising budget to our stations," Thomas continues.

Mt. Wilson has asked the FCC to block Clear Channel's recent bid to go private by transferring its properties to BT Triple Crown Co., or at least to impose a condition "that it will immediately cease its anti-competitive conduct."

The firm also says that it did not take this issue to the U.S. Justice Department because "Considering the workload and the priorities of the Los Angeles DOJ office and the nature/overall significance of such a complaint, the likelihood of DOJ intervention is infinitesimal."