Clear Channel changes name: iHeartMedia

[Colorado Media Newsroom]

From The Denver Post:



In an effort to find a handle more in tune with the times, corporate giant Clear Channel is changing its name. The nation’s largest owner of radio stations will now be known as iHeartMedia Inc., a nod to the company’s three-year-old digital radio service, iHeartRadio.

The old name reflected the company’s radio roots, specifically a category of stations on the AM dial with no interference. The new name, first applied to the website founded in 2008, is familiar to many — the online radio site has some 50 million registered users.

The name-change is “a reflection of fact that company has changed radically over last several years,” Clear Channel Chief Executive Robert Pittman said in a statement.

By any name, the conglomerate owns Denver radio stations KBCO, KTCL, KRFX, KPTT, KBPI, KHOW, KKZN and KOA.
Per the company’s website:

The newly named company includes a wide range of advertising-supported, consumer-focused media businesses, including 859 radio stations in over 150 markets, with more than 245 million listeners a month — the largest reach of any radio or television outlet in America; iHeartMedia Digital, with its more than 90 million digital monthly uniques; Premiere Networks, which syndicates 90 radio programs and services to more than 5,500 radio affiliates; the Total Traffic and Weather Network, reaching almost all U.S. commuters; 20,000 live music events, all of which generate massive consumer engagement on social media platforms and the largest of which are even televised; its related companies, including Katz Media Group; as well as Clear Channel Outdoor, one of the world’s largest outdoor advertising companies.



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