The man behind US radio giant Clear Channel is hoping to take advantage of the government’s communications bill and move into the UK radio market. Lowry Mays paid $125,000 for his first radio station in San Antonio, Texas and is now the world's biggest radio owner with 1,225 stations across America. The company has also become a massive media and entertainment company with marketing businesses, over 30 television stations, hundreds of key venues and tens of thousands of live shows and events around the world. With the government's communications bill proposing to lift the current ban on foreign companies owning domestic media assets Mays hopes he can add radio to Clear Channel’s media sales, venue and live entertainment concerns in the UK. "If the regulations and the economics allow,” he told the Radio Festival in Cambridge, “nothing would give me more pleasure than to be able to bring one of the leading UK radio groups into the Clear Channel family.” This probably means he has his eye on one of the UK’s radio players - Capital, Emap or GWR.
Jul 5, 2002
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1 min read
Clear Channel set to take over UK radio
Clear Channel founder Lowry Mays hopes to move into UK radio if the government's communications bill allows foreign ownership of domestic media assets.