iHeartMedia history

In 1976, the company purchased its first stations outside of San Antonio.

In 1992, the United States Congress relaxed radio ownership rules slightly, allowing the company to acquire more than 2 stations per market.

By 1995, Clear Channel owned 43 radio stations and 16 television stations.

R. Steven Hicks and Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst began Capstar Broadcasting in 1996, and a year later had become the largest owner of radio stations in the country, with 243 stations in total.

In August 1997, Capstar and Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst announced plans to acquire SFX Broadcasting, with the resulting company owning 314 stations in 79 markets and ranking as the third-largest radio group by income.

In 2000, Clear Channel acquired Robert F. X. Sillerman's SFX Entertainment, a concert promoter that had focused on consolidation of regional promoters under a national operation.

In 2005, Clear Channel spun off its entertainment and live events business as Live Nation.

On November 16, 2006, Clear Channel announced plans to go private, being bought out by two private-equity firms, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners for $26.7 billion including $8 billion in debt.

Due to the credit market crunch of 2007, Clear Channel had difficulty selling some of its radio stations.

On July 24, 2008, Clear Channel held a special shareholder meeting, during which the majority of shareholders accepted a revised $36-per-share offer from Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners.

The company announced that it would move to more centralized programming and lay off 1,500 employees, or approximately 7% of its workforce, on January 20, 2009.

In early 2010, it was announced that the company was facing the possibility of bankruptcy due to its "crippling debt". After 21 years, Mark Mays stepped down as President and CEO of Clear Channel on June 23, 2010.

On October 2, 2011, Robert W. "Bob" Pittman, who was then the company's Chairman of Media and Entertainment Platforms, was named CEO of CC Media Holdings.

In August 2013, Clear Channel sold its minority stake in Sirius XM for $135.5 million.

In September 2014, it was announced that the company would be renamed from Clear Channel Communications to iHeartMedia, alluding to its iHeartRadio platform to reflect the company's growing emphasis on digital media and internet radio.

In 2016, one of the company's directors, Julia B. Donnelly, left the board of iHeartCommunications and was replaced by Laura A. Grattan, a director at Thomas H. Lee.

On April 20, 2017, the company warned investors that it might not survive over the following 10 months.

On March 15, 2018, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and claimed that it reached an agreement to restructure $10 billion of its over $20 billion in debt.