A public filing indicates that Federal Communications Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate asked Clear Channel Communications for suggestions for professors at the University of South Florida for a panel "on younger listening habits."

The FCC has scheduled its next public hearing on its national media ownership rules to take place at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in Florida on April 30th.

The April 12th Clear Channel filing says that on April 6th, Republican Commissioner Tate met with the media giant and a group of Tennessee broadcasters to discuss their opposition to the proposed XM/Sirius satellite radio merger.

During the conversation, Tate also presented Clear Channel with a request "for contacts at The University of South Florida in Tampa to potentially help set up a panel to discuss younger listening habits," according to the Clear Channel response.

It isn't clear from the filing, but seems likely, that Tate was referring to a potential panel for the media ownership hearing scheduled for Tampa.

Clear Channel's Vice President Tom English then forwarded the question to the company's Tampa Market Manager, Dan Diloreto, who came up with the following suggestions and descriptions:

• Edward Jay Friedlander "Professor specializing in mass communications and society."
• Kenneth C. Killebrew Jr. "Associate Professor specializing in television reporting, writing public policy and opinion."
• Larry Z. Leslie "Associate Professor specializing in media ethics, mass comm. theory and impact on society."
• Terry Hynes, Ph.D. "Dean and Professor College of Journalism and Comm."
• Rebecca Hoover "Director of Development College of Journalism and Comm."

Hynes and Hoover come from the University of Florida's College of Journalism. Nothing in the filing indicates that any of these individuals volunteered themselves for the panel or work with Clear Channel in some capacity.

The FCC has not disclosed the names of the speakers and panelists at the upcoming April 30th media ownership hearing, which will be the fourth such event in a series of six.

The gathering is part of the Commission's evaluation of its media ownership rules.

On July 24th, 2006, the FCC launched a new Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking asking the public to comment on how to revise the Commission's broadcast ownership limits.

Up for grabs are rules restricting how many stations a company can buy, whether a corporation can own TV stations and newspapers in the same market, and if a firm can control enough television stations to reach more than 39% of the nation's viewing households.

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