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Residents give Clear Channel an earful

For people who live near the Ford Amphitheatre, Thursday night was payback.

By MICHAEL VAN SICKLER
Published September 30, 2005

[Times photos: Melissa Lyttle]

Rob Lilkendey of Siebein Associates Inc., who acts as the technical noise consultant to the Environmental Protection Commission, listens to Sterlin Woodard, assistant director of the EPC's air management division.

	Clear Channel representative G. Wilson Rogers listens to residents voice their concerns during a public meeting Thursday night. The entertainment company plans to keep pushing the county to relax noise standards to allow for loud evening concerts.

TAMPA - It's not every night that G. Wilson Rogers is shouted at, called a liar and told he should be considered lucky for not getting horse-whipped.

Then again, Rogers, a Clear Channel top executive, did voluntarily hop on a plane from Atlanta to hear what residents near the Ford Amphitheatre had to say during a Thursday night meeting about that concert venue's noise violations.

"If this county still followed "Cracker justice,' you would have been tied to a tree and horse-whipped," said one resident, Michael Harrah, to Rogers.Rogers sat stone-faced along with four other Clear Channel officials as they were yelled at and derided for more than an hour. When he tried to speak to the crowd, they booed and hissed.

For the residents of Temple Terrace, Staley Estates, Eureka Springs and other subdivisions in eastern Hillsborough County within 4 miles of the amphitheater, Thursday night was payback. Since Clear Channel's amphitheater opened on July 23, 2004, the county has received 326 complaints about noise. Still, Clear Channel intends to keep pushing the county to relax noise standards to allow for loud evening concerts.

Clear Channel is negotiating with the county a deal under which it would make some architectural improvements to absorb more sound. In exchange, concert performers would be able to play louder during the evenings.

"We have a right to operate our facility," Rogers said.

But in the opinion of the 20 residents who spoke Thursday, Clear Channel no longer deserved that right, after more than a year of violating noise standards. After meetings with Clear Channel officials failed to resolve the dispute, the county's enforcer of noise rules, the Environmental Protection Commission, sued Clear Channel in December 2004, to halt concerts until sound levels were reduced.

Clear Channel attorneys charge that the county's noise rules are too vague and unfair. Other events, they say, such as Gasparilla and sporting events, are allowed to exceed noise limits.

The two sides clashed in court until July 27, when county officials suspended the lawsuit to try to settle.

Thursday night's meeting was part of this effort to settle out of court. The county's noise limit in residential neighborhoods is 65 decibels. Clear Channel is asking to raise that limit by 10 decibels, which to the human ear is twice as loud. For comparison, heavy traffic at a distance of 50 feet is 80 decibels, and an air-conditioning unit at 20 feet is 60 decibels. At a concert, a typical amplified rock band at 100 feet is 110 decibels.

When EPC executive director Richard Garrity makes his recommendation on whether to settle to county commissioners on Oct. 20, he will take into account the reaction from Thursday night's crowd.

[Last modified September 30, 2005, 12:17:25]