Remembering Lowry Mays
• UPDATED: Texas businessman and philanthropist L. Lowry Mays, described by the San Antonio Express-News as “the accidental owner of a San Antonio radio station that he grew into Clear Channel Communications,” has died at the age of 87.
Mays attended Texas A&M University and studied petroleum engineering. As the Express-News story relates, Mays worked as an oil field roughneck during summers while at A&M, and landed a job a petroleum engineer. He later served in the Air Force, stationed at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, where he met his future wife, Peggy. Mays served as base petroleum officer, and, in exchange program with the Nationalist Chinese government, the Air Force assigned Mays to take charge of construction of a pipeline in Taiwan. Upon his return to the U.S., Mays was accepted into Harvard Business School, where he earned his MBA. He and Peggy moved back to San Antonio, where Mays went to work for investment bank Russ & Co. Mays formed his own investment banking company in 1970 and his foray into radio began in 1972.
Some Express-News archive stories suggest Mays’ entry into radio began when a group of investors asked Mays about purchasing a radio station. He wasn’t interested but agreed to co-sign a bank loan. He forgot about the deal until the bank called and informed him the owner had defaulted on the loan and he now owned the station. Other accounts state Mays was advising on the deal to buy the station. When it fell through, he convinced his friend and fellow Texas businessman B.J. “Red” McCombs to buy it with him. “We both thought FM radio had a high-growth potential,” Mays said in a 1992 interview.
Mays continued buying radio stations and changed the company’s name from San Antonio Broadcasting Co. to Clear Channel Communications. The company went public in 1984 and Mays began buying television stations in 1988. He also acquired other radio and billboard advertising companies, including Jacor Communications and Eller Media. After deregulation, Clear Channel went on a buying spree, eventually growing to some 1,200 radio stations. In 2008 two private equity firms purchased Clear Channel in a $24 billion leveraged buyout and the Mays family divested their interests at that time. The company is now iHeartMedia.
Lowry and Peggy Mays created the Mays Family Foundation in 1994. In 1996, Mays donated $15 million to his alma mater and Texas A&M named its business school after him. He contributed another $25 million from his foundation in 2017, the largest gift in the university’s history. Mays’s name also graces the Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio.
“A really big tree fell in the Aggie forest today,” said A&M Chancellor John Sharp. “We will never forget what he did for Aggieland.” In a statement, Red McCombs said Mays “was a great business partner, but more importantly, he was a special friend to Charline and me and to our family. He was an extremely talented guy and was the driving force behind the growth of Clear Channel Communications, and I loved every minute of that ride with him. We have lost a great man, and I have lost a great friend.”
On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Broadcasters Foundation of America, its Chairman, Scott Herman, has issued the following statement: “The Broadcasters Foundation of America mourns the loss of one its longtime supporters, Lowry Mays. One of radio’s most prominent leaders, Mays established the Lowry Mays Excellence in Broadcasting Award, which is bestowed annually at the Broadcasters Foundation breakfast to an individual whose work in broadcasting exemplifies innovation, community service, advocacy, and entrepreneurship. We send our condolences to the Mays family.”
In a statement, NAB President & CEO Curtis LeGeyt said, “NAB is saddened by the passing of Lowry Mays, a trailblazing icon whose historic career revolutionized and reshaped the broadcasting industry. He founded and built one of the foremost media companies in the world through bold and innovative thinking, while his philanthropic and generous spirit helped countless people during his lifetime of service. We extend our deepest condolences to the Mays family and the iHeartMedia community.” [Photo: Texas A&M Today]
