Red Maccombs: Last News

Lowry Mays, the founder of Clear Channel Communications, which is now known as iHeartMedia, has died. He was 87. It was Mays’ alma mater, Texas A&M University, that announced the businessman had died on Monday but did not reveal the cause of death.

Roy Trakin Lowry Mays, the San Antonio entrepreneur who turned Clear Channel Communications, the predecessor to iHeartMedia, into the largest broadcasting conglomerate of the post-consolidation era, died on Monday (Sept. 12) at 87 in his hometown. Said iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman: “We built this company on the foundation and vision created by Lowry Mays. He started it all from a single station in San Antonio — and look at iHeart today.” Mays was an investment banker sporting a Harvard MBA when he founded the San Antonio Broadcasting Company in 1972 with local car dealership owner Red McCombs (who went on to own stakes in the San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Vikings), acquiring a single station, KEEZ, and adding WOAI in 1975. The latter was dubbed a “clear channel” station because no other operated on its frequency and its 50,000-watt signal could be heard thousands of miles away on a “clear” night.