The story
Founded by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs in 1972, in San Antonio.1
History
20th century
Clear Channel Communications purchased its first FM station, KEEZ-FM in San Antonio, Texas, in 1972. The company purchased the second "clear channel" AM station WOAI in 1975. In 1976, the company purchased its first stations outside of San Antonio. KXXO (now KAKC) and KMOD-FM in Tulsa were acquired under the name "San Antonio Broadcasting" (same as KEEZ). Stations were also added in Port Arthur, Texas (KPAC-AM-FM, now KDEI and KTJM, from Port Arthur College), and El Paso, Texas (KELP, now KQBU) from John Walton Jr.
In 1992, the U.S. Congress relaxed radio ownership rules slightly, allowing the company to acquire more than two stations per market. By 1995, Clear Channel owned 43 radio stations and 16 television stations. When the Telecommunications Act of 1996 became law, the act deregulated media ownership, allowing a company to own more stations than previously allowed. Clear Channel went on a subsequent buying spree, purchasing more than 70 other media companies and individual stations.
In a few cases, following purchase of a competitor, Clear Channel was forced to divest some of its stations, as it was above the legal thresholds in some cities. In 2005, the courts ruled that Clear Channel must also divest itself of some "border blaster" radio stations in international border cities, such as the alternative rock radio station XETRA-FM ("91X") in Tijuana/San Diego.
In 1997, Clear Channel expanded and diversified its business, purchasing Eller Media, a billboard media company, led by Karl Eller.
In 1998, it made its first move outside of the US when it acquired the leading UK outdoor advertising company More Group plc, which was led by Roger Parry; Clear Channel went on to buy many other outdoor advertising, radio broadcasting, and live events companies around the world, which were then re-branded Clear Channel International. These included a 51% stake in Clear Media Ltd. in China. R. Steven Hicks and Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst began Capstar Broadcasting in 1996, and a year later had become the largest owner of radio stations in the country, with 243 stations in total. In August 1997, Capstar and Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst announced plans to acquire SFX Broadcasting, with the resulting company owning 314 stations in 79 markets and ranking as the third-largest radio group by income. A year later, Chancellor Media Corporation and Capstar Broadcasting Corporation announced a merger that would result in Chancellor Media owning 463 stations in 105 markets when the deal was completed in second quarter 1999. Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst owned 59 percent of Capstar, with 355 stations in 83 markets, and was the largest single owner of Chancellor (which had 108 stations in 22 markets), with 15 percent of the stock. Chancellor Media later became AMFM Inc., which was acquired by Clear Channel in a deal announced October 3, 1999, and valued at $17.4 billion. The resulting company would own 830 radio stations, 19 television stations, and over 425,000 outdoor displays in 32 countries.
In 1999, the company acquired Jacor Communications, a radio corporation based in Cincinnati. The company also made an investment in the new satellite radio service XM Satellite Radio, giving it the rights to program a selection of stations on the service (which would be drawn from some of its stations and syndicated output). On October 4, 1999, Clear Channel announced it would acquire AMFM Inc., the nation's second-largest radio company for $23.5 billion. After receiving approval from federal regulators on August 16, 2000, the acquisition was completed on August 30, 2000.
21st century
In 2000, Clear Channel acquired Robert F. X. Sillerman's SFX Entertainment, a concert promoter that had focused on consolidation of regional promoters under a national operation. In 2005, Clear Channel spun off its entertainment and live events business as Live Nation.
On November 16, 2006, Clear Channel announced plans to go private, being bought out by two private-equity firms, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners for $26.7 billion, which included their assumption of $8 billion in Clear Channel debt. This was just under a 10 percent premium above its closing price of $35.36 a share on November 16: the deal valued Clear Channel at $37.60 per share.
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In a separate transaction also announced on November 16, 2006, Clear Channel said it would seek buyers for all of its television stations and 539 of its smaller radio stations, because the private-equity buyers were not interested in owning television or small-market radio. Over a hundred stations were assigned to Aloha Station Trust, LLC upon the consummation of the merger. The television stations were sold to Newport Television, a broadcaster owned by Providence Equity Partners, on April 23, 2007.
Due to the credit market crunch of 2007, Clear Channel encountered difficulty selling some of its radio stations. Clear Channel's attempt to sell off over 100 stations to GoodRadio.TV, LLC was rejected by the equity firm backing the deal. The deal then shifted to Frequency License LLC, but took longer to resolve itself as the two parties were engaged in lawsuits. On top of that, the sale of Clear Channel's television portfolio to Newport Television had also turned uncertain, as Providence considered other options, although this transaction was ultimately completed.
On December 4, 2007, Clear Channel announced that they had extended the termination date of the buyout from December 12, 2007, to June 12, 2008. On July 24, 2008, Clear Channel held a special shareholder meeting, during which the majority of shareholders accepted a revised $36-per-share offer from Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners, revaluing the deal at $17.9 billion plus debt. Shareholders received either $36 in cash, or one share of CC Media Class A common stock for each share of Clear Channel common stock held. The company announced that it would move to more centralized programming and lay off 1,500 employees, or approximately 7% of its workforce, on January 20, 2009. The reasoning was bleak economic conditions and debt from its transition to a private company. By the completion of the restructuring in May 2009, a total of 2,440 positions were eliminated.
In early 2010, it was announced that the company was facing the possibility of bankruptcy due to its "crippling debt". After 21 years, Mark Mays stepped down as president and CEO of Clear Channel on June 23, 2010. Mays remained as chairman of the board. Later that year, MTV co-founder Robert W. "Bob" Pittman joined the company and would eventually become CEO of CC Media Holdings.
In August 2013, Clear Channel sold its minority stake in SiriusXM for $135.5 million. This also resulted in the removal of most Clear Channel-programmed stations on the service, besides simulcasts of WHTZ and KIIS-FM.
On January 6, 2014, Clear Channel announced a marketing partnership with Robert F. X. Sillerman's SFX Entertainment (a second incarnation of a live events company that had been sold to Clear Channel, which spun off to form Live Nation), to collaborate on electronic dance music content for its digital and terrestrial radio outlets, including a Beatport top 20 countdown show. The partnership expanded upon the company's existing EDM-oriented outlets, including Evolution. Staff, including John Sykes, believed that the deal would help provide a higher level of national exposure to current and up and coming EDM artists.
In September 2014, it was announced that the company would rename Clear Channel Communications to iHeartMedia, alluding to its iHeartRadio platform to reflect the company's growing emphasis on digital media and internet radio. The previous name "Clear Channel" came from AM broadcasting, referring to a channel (frequency) on which only one station transmits. In the U.S., clear-channel stations have exclusive rights to their frequencies throughout most of the continent at night, when AM signals travel far due to skywave. CEO Bob Pittman said that the company had been "doing progressive stuff", yet were still "named after AM radio stations".
Beginning in 2008, iHeartMedia struggled to pay down more than $20 billion in debt the company assumed from its leveraged buyout. Various media outlets, including Bloomberg News, Reuters, Radio Ink, and iHeartMedia's hometown newspaper the San Antonio Express-News, claimed that either bankruptcy or a major restructuring was likely. On April 20, 2017, the company warned investors that it might not survive over the following 10 months.
In 2016, one of the company's directors, Julia B. Donnelly, left the board of iHeartCommunications and was replaced by Laura A. Grattan, a director at Thomas H. Lee. Grattan was named to the board of managers of iHeartMedia Capital I, LLC, the direct parent of iHeartCommunications, as well as the board of directors of iHeartMedia, Inc., the indirect parent of iHeartCommunications.
On November 30, 2017, it was reported that a group of creditors had rejected iHeartMedia's latest debt restructuring proposal, instead bringing out a deal where the company might file for bankruptcy. On March 15, 2018, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and claimed that it reached an agreement to restructure $10 billion of its over $20 billion in debt.
In September 2018, iHeartMedia acquired HowStuffWorks' podcast network Stuff Media for $55 million. On November 19, 2018, iHeartMedia announced its intent to acquire Jelli, the provider of a programmatic advertising platform for radio stations.
In January 2019, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas approved a creditor-supported plan for iHeartMedia to exit bankruptcy, which would reduce the company's debt from $16.1 billion to $5.75 billion. The plan included the spin-out of iHeartMedia's 89.1% stake in its out-of-home advertising division Clear Channel Outdoor. In April 2019, the company also filed a proposed initial public offering.
iHeartMedia emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2019, with a new board of directors and the spin-out of Clear Channel Outdoor, but maintaining its existing leadership of CEO Bob Pittman and President Rich Bressler. Rather than pursue its IPO (which was estimated to potentially be valued at $1.1 billion), iHeartMedia instead received approval for a direct listing on the Nasdaq.
On January 14, 2020, iHeartMedia announced a major restructuring, as part of an effort to "modernize our company to take advantage of the significant investments we have made in new technology and aligning our operating structure to match the technology-powered businesses we are now in." This included the restructuring of its Markets Group into three divisions: the Regions division for its largest markets, the Metropolitan division for other major cities, and the Communities division for smaller markets and added a multi-market partnerships unit, and announced the development of centers of excellence that would use technology investments to "provide a better experience for listeners and business partners and a more efficient process for all of its employees".
The restructuring was accompanied by a major round of layoffs and displacements, with a large number of staff members and on-air personalities impacted.
On April 24, 2026, The New York Times reported that SiriusXM was in early talks to merge with IHeartMedia. iHeart previously had a stake in the company until August 2013. However, on May 29, 2026, it was reported that merger talks were stalled.
On June 18, 2026, iHeartMedia announced the "Audiograph", which is designed as "a suite of advertising capabilities that, for the first time, will bring digital-like targeting, identity-based planning and measurement, and outcome-based attribution to broadcast radio at scale."
In June 2026, iHeartMedia announced another major restructuring, as part of an effort to "expand and deepen our support for our communities, markets and sales teams", "fully leverage our technology to deliver an even stronger product for listeners wherever they live", "move faster and operate with greater precision across markets", and "position us not just to adapt to the future, but to lead it." The reorganization resulted in mass layoffs by the company, in which was considered the biggest staff purge in radio history. Markets like Atlantic City, New Jersey, Spokane, Washington, Fort Collins, Colorado, Sussex County, New Jersey and Erie, Pennsylvania have lost all of their remaining local on-air talents, including rhythmic contemporary radio station KGGI in Riverside, California.
As well, during this time, iHeartMedia made nationalization changes across many of its stations, in which they moved to the company's "national" custom music logs. Among the stations affected was KZIS in Sacramento, California was affected by this as it shifted from a 90s/2000s hits-based format to hot adult contemporary, which began to utilize iHeartMedia's "Today's Mix" log.
Black Information Network
On June 30, 2020, iHeartMedia announced a new all-news radio brand, the Black Information Network (BIN), which is targeted towards African Americans. BIN is heard on iHeartMedia stations in dozens of cities. WBIN Atlanta is considered the flagship station.
From Wikipedia’s article on IHeartMedia, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7