WTAT did air "The Point" (a one-minute conservative political commentary) that was also controversial and a requirement of all company-owned stations with newscasts until the series was discontinued in December 2006.

Some 42 percent of the revenue came from four small company-owned stations that have not switched to the Radio AAHS format.

The Radio AAHS network has grown from WWTC to include six other company-owned stations and 20 affiliates that broadcast to about a third of the nation.

Independent dealers have said that they could be driven out of business by the practice, which they said allows company-owned stations to charge less at the pump than the independents pay for wholesale gasoline.

All told, these stations reach about 35 percent of the population - a wider reach than ABC, NBC or CBS have with their company-owned stations.

At company-owned stations in Louisville, Ky., it lowered the pump price to $1.139 from $1.189, and in Minneapolis to $1.199 from $1.249, a spokesman, Roger Schrum, said yesterday.

The corporation broadcast a mix of random music and paid-programming (6am-6pm CT) and Beat Radio, a dance/club music format (6pm-6am CT), until its ten company-owned stations could be sold.

Refiners insist that the threat of company-owned stations undercutting franchisees was a fiction on Long Island, because only a small percent are company-owned.

At the time, the FCC Chairman Michael Powell said MTV and the CBS network's more than 200 affiliates and company-owned stations could be fined $27,500 a piece.

Sinclair Broadcasting wants to use the spectrum (our spectrum) to broadcast political messages through its company-owned stations.