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Is Clear Channel Changing Their Name To iHeartRadio?

DToTheJ

DToTheJ

This morning, I heard Q104.3 do their legal ID as "WAXQ, New York... An iheartRadio station."

It's as if Clear Channel is preparing to change the name of their company to iHeartRadio -at least that's the impression I get.

In a related story, yesterday, I heard WABC ID as "A Cumulus station" in their TOH legal ID.
 
It could be possible. Probably as a "split off" to whatever else CC does (such as highway advertising). Kinda like what Netflix is doing to their mail out service (now known as "Kwikster") Wouldn't be shocked on this.
 
I noticed that on other CC stations in New England the same weekend as the IHeartRadio Music Festival... which was also around the same time all of the Citadel stations rebranded their legals with "A Cumulus Station..."

I took it to be a branding tool. That's just one more mention per hour of the I Heart Radio service, which can't hurt. If people enjoy IHeartRadio, they'll know that station is related to a service they enjoy.
 
CC stations are required to identify themselves as an iHeartradio station once per hour for another month. It's part of keeping the momentum from the iHeartradio Festival and new version going.
 
johnarbuckle said:
CC stations are required to identify themselves as an iHeartradio station once per hour for another month. It's part of keeping the momentum from the iHeartradio Festival and new version going.
Click to expand...

And it seems to me that CC stations stopped mentioning the parent company in the legal ID years ago simply because of all of the bad publicity in the consumer press that they've received. Branding the stations as "IHeartRadio" gives the station a national identity without the baggage of censoring songs and everything else they've been attacked on by the consumer press and their competition.
 
The CC name drop probably went away slowly with the addition of HD-2 and HD-3 signals. The more you have to jam into the ID, the longer it gets. I also notice "50,000 watts" has been dropped out of alot of ID's. Several CC stations still mention Clear Channel in the Legal ID.
 
I think this shows the increasing power that former WNBC-AM PD and MTV founder Bob Pittman is having at CC. IHeartRadio is his baby. He came in saying digital is the future, and he wants to use OTA radio as a way to get listeners to use digital. He also sees IHeartRadio as the way to compete with Pandora, Spotify, SiriusXM, and everything else. It's the growth area for CC. After the success of the IHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas, the company wants to build on that positive buzz.
 
My guess is the TOH branding will stay around on most stations longer than a month... By saying "we are a iHeartRadio" station that means an instant plug for their webstreaming app.. And we all know that these companies like Clear Channel and even CBS ONLY want you to listen to their streaming audio via their website plugins or smart phone apps!
 
For the first time CC has a radio programmer running it instead of a banker or MBA. That could be good or very bad. It's been good having someone like Dan Mason running CBS. He loves radio and also recognizes the need for new technologies. Same with Pittman.
 
Based on what Dan Mason's done with CBS Radio, I would say CC's appointment of Bob Pittman to CEO is very good. Dan Mason made Joel Hollander look like a failed MBA, by comparison.
 
They are doing it here in South Florida as well.... WHYI Fort Lauderdale Miami - Y100 an IHeartRadio station. 939 MIA same thing.
 
Whenever CCR does anything it impacts the business. Case in point: When they gave up on smooth jazz the entire format collapsed. In the case of IHeart I suspect it will send a message that they are deemphasizing terrestrial radio and that eventually they will fold all the local stations (or those they want to fold--others will just fold) into a portal with a menu of stations available to those with mobile phones or online some other way if they log into IHeart.

Say Goodnight, Gracie!
 
Do people with web access really listen to iHeart stations with 30% commercial time with all the internet-only networks out there?
Forget about Pandora and Rhapsody, what about the simplest of the simple with limited commercial interruptions: AOL Radio, AccuRadio, Yahoo Radio, Sky.FM, I think even MS has one.
 
ai4i said:
Do people with web access really listen to iHeart stations with 30% commercial time with all the internet-only networks out there?
Click to expand...

According to the ratings information, the answer is yes. CC streams are #3 behind Pandora and CBS. They may move to #2 soon.
 
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