Lowry Mays, the Texas broadcaster who built from scratch a company that changed the face of broadcasting and mass communications, died Monday at the age of 87. Mays founded Clear Channel Communications, which later became the largest owner of radio stations in the U.S.
Mays started in 1972 with what was then known as San Antonio Broadcasting Company, later renamed Clear Channel. In 1975 he partnered with Red Combs to buy WOAI San Antonio. After President Bill Clinton signed the Telecom Act in 1996, Clear Channel took advantage of unlimited national ownership rules to buy up hundreds of radio stations, creating a radio empire not seen before or since. By the late 1990s, the San Antonio-based company, now known as iHeartMedia, owned more than 1,200 radio stations, 41 TV stations, concert promoter Live Nation and over 750,000 billboards.
“We are saddened to hear of Lowry Mays’ passing today. He truly exemplified the Aggie core values,” Texas A&M University President M. Katherine Banks said in a statement. Mays was a 1957 graduate of Texas A&M University and is the namesake of its business school. “The Mays family has had a remarkable impact on the business school, providing countless opportunities for students and faculty, as well as on the university system through his service on the Board of Regents. Aggies are proud to carry on his legacy of leadership and service.”
Texas A&M’s school of business was endowed by Mays in 1996 with a $15 million gift and was renamed the Lowry Mays College & Graduate School of Business. The university renamed the school once more in 2002 to Mays Business School. In 2017, the Mays Family Foundation gifted an additional $25 million, the largest single commitment in the business school’s history. Both gifts were part of an overall lifetime giving of $47 million, according to the University.
When the second major gift was announced, Mays said he was “honored to help support the school’s vision to advance the world’s prosperity… (and) to develop transformational leaders and tackle the challenges of entrepreneurship and innovation.”
Mays handed the reigns of the company over to his son Mark in 2005, after suffering a stroke.
Lowry Mays was inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Radio Hall of Fame in 2004.
The Lowry Mays Excellence in Broadcasting Award salutes its namesake and is underwritten by The Mays Family Foundation. Past recipients include Ajit Pai, Bill Clark, Eddie Fritts, Cathy Hughes, Mel Karmazin, Jeff Smulyan, Dick Wiley, Gordon Smith, and others.