Clear Channel is now iHeartMedia

Clear Channel Radio which became known corporately as Clear Channel Media + Entertainment has become iHeartMedia, Inc. A new corporate stock symbol will hit the markets on Wednesday. Clear Channel Outdoor billboard advertising corporate name will not change.

From WSJ - The name-change is “a reflection of fact that company has changed radically over last several years,” said Clear Channel Chief Executive Robert Pittman, who came out of retirement to take the helm in 2011. In addition to adding the digital radio service and creating a host of live, televised events during his tenure, the company has amassed a “huge social presence” using the iHeartRadio moniker on social media channels, he added.

But Mr. Pittman said he realized about a month ago that the company needed a name that made more sense.

“When I say I work at Clear Channel people say, ‘Huh? What’s that?’ ” said Mr. Pittman. The term “clear channel” refers to a category of AM radio stations with high protection from interference from other stations, and such a reference now seems “way out of place,” he said.

Mr. Pittman said he’d seen first-hand how a corporate name change can open doors. When his former employer, the Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Company, switched its name  to MTV Networks, the division that Mr. Pittman had founded, Mr. Pittman said advertisers suddenly became much friendlier, saying “Oh, great, we know your products, come on in.”

Read more in the WSJ Business section 'Clear Channel Gets a New Name.'


Here's the full press release from Clear Channel/iHeartMedia here.