Clear Channel

Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American mass media company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. Founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and B. J. "Red" McCombs, the company was taken private by Bain Capital, LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners in a leveraged buyout in 2008. As a result, the company now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of CC Media Holdings, Inc.

Clear Channel specializes in radio broadcasting through division Clear Channel Media and Entertainment (formerly Clear Channel Radio) and subsidiary Clear Channel Broadcasting, Inc.; the company also specializes in outdoor advertising through subsidiary Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc.  Clear Channel currently owns 850 full-power AM and FM radio stations in the U.S., making it the nation's largest owner of such properties. Additionally, the company leases two channels on both Sirius and XM Satellite Radio, and has expanded its online presence through the iHeartRadio platform. Clear Channel also owned several television stations until they were sold off to Newport Television in 2008.

The term "clear channel" comes from AM broadcasting, referring to a channel (frequency) on which only one station transmits. In U.S. broadcasting history, "clear channel" (or class I-A) stations had exclusive rights to their frequencies throughout most of the continent at night, when AM signals travel very far due to skywave. WOAI in San Antonio, Clear Channel's flagship station, was such a station.