Clear Channel founder Lowry Mays has died at the age of 87.
Mays, who launched his radio company as San Antonio Broadcasting Company before renaming it Clear Channel Communications after purchasing WOAI in San Antonio, died Monday.
Mays grew the company to be the nation’s largest radio broadcaster, taking advantage of new legislation put in place under the Telecom Act of 1996. Now branded as iHeartMedia, Mays oversaw the company’s purchase of more than 1,200 radio stations, 750,000 billboards, 41 television stations, and event company Live Nation.
After entering both the Texas Business Hall of Fame and the Radio Hall of Fame, Mays stepped away from day-to-day operations of the company after suffering a stroke in 2005.
A graduate of Texas A&M University, the school re-named its business school in his honor in 1996.
