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Letter to the editor

Officials heap scorn on noisy concert venue

Heavy metal rattles neighbors a second time, and Hillsborough officials threaten legal action.

By JAY CRIDLIN
Published December 10, 2004

TAMPA - The rage onstage at Tuesday night's Korn concert at the Ford Amphitheatre may have been ear-splitting.

But it was nothing compared to the ire directed at venue owner Clear Channel Entertainment Thursday morning from the chambers of the Hillsborough County Commission.

"A bane upon them," said County Commissioner Ronda Storms. "May the worms of your avarice consume your intestines, Clear Channel."

The venue is facing more criticism than ever - and the possibility of a total concert shutdown - after more than 50 residents near the Florida State Fairgrounds complained of noise from Tuesday's heavy metal concert.

The volume of Korn's music, which at times spiked nearly 30 decibels higher than the acceptable limit in neighborhoods hundreds of yards away, shocked even county Environmental Protection Commission officials, who this summer cited Clear Channel and the Florida State Fair Authority for noise violations.

So egregious were this week's violations that the County Commission, which sits as the EPC board, held an emergency meeting Thursday and discussed obtaining a court order to temporarily halt further concerts.

"Clear Channel owns the facility and they have people in the sound control booth," said EPC director Rick Garrity. "I don't see any reason why they can't be controlling the whole volume."

Commissioners did not pursue an injunction. The amphitheater's only remaining 2004 event, the Charlie Daniels Band's "Charlie-palooza" concert, is part of a major charity fundraiser for The Angelus, a home for the handicapped.

Had the concerts been reversed - had Charlie Daniels been the offender, and Korn still to come - the county likely would have gone forward with the injunction, said Rick Tschantz, general counsel for the EPC.

As recently as last week, the EPC and Clear Channel were approaching a settlement. Resident complaints had gone down, and Clear Channel's preventive measures - including a noise-reducing blanket along the outer fence and having performers adhere to a strict decibel output limit - seemed to be working.

Calls to amphitheater officials were not returned Thursday.

In a letter presented to the County Commission, Clear Channel attorney John Fenn Foster called the emergency meeting "troubling" and said canceling Saturday's show would cause "substantial damages." Organizers say the concert will likely attract a crowd of 10,000 and raise about $350,000 for The Angelus.

"To compare the Korn production, or any prior productions at the Amphitheater, to the Charlie Daniels concert, is inapposite," Foster wrote.

Both Clear Channel and the Fair Authority appealed their EPC citation in October. Clear Channel's appeal will go before a hearing officer in March.

The County Commission, minus absent chairman Tom Scott, unanimously voted for the EPC to pursue a lawsuit following Saturday's concert, as well as possible fines against Clear Channel, the Fair Authority and Korn after Tuesday's show.

The concept of fining bands and performers, not just the venue, is a new one, Garrity said.

Korn is the venue's first repeat headliner, and its first repeat offender. Its two shows have generated more than 100 complaints, and an EPC noise reading Tuesday of 90.6 decibels - the equivalent of a running blender - was the highest recorded yet.

The EPC can levy fines of as much as $5,000 for a noise violation.

"For every note, every line, every bar of music that is over the threshold of the noise limits, that would be a specific, additional violation," Garrity said. "You're talking about hundreds, if not thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines."

Any legal action might have a big impact on the Fair Authority, which has exclusive rights to the amphitheater in January, February and March, as it prepares for the Florida State Fair.

While this year's performance lineup has not been announced, fair officials said they will stage a major concert series similar to that in years past.

Giles Ellis, the Fair Authority controller, said sound and lighting for those concerts would be handled by an outside contractor, giving fair officials more control.

For residents, that would be music to the ears.

"This concert was real bad, and it was the same act," said Michael Harrah, who lives in the Terrace Oaks subdivision several miles from the amphitheater and complained after Korn's last concert.

"We've got an apples to apples comparison. I think it's just proven that they haven't done anything of any significance to solve the problem."

[Last modified December 11, 2004, 19:23:59]