bob piCC now iHeart

WHAT’S IN A NAME? Another week, another surprise. This morning, Clear Channel announced that it would officially adopt the iHeartRadio coinage as the name of the entire operation. "It's not a company with a bunch of old radio stations and outdoor [billboards] anymore," CEO Bob Pittman said in an interview with CNET. "We've transformed, so let's now take a name that matters." Specifically, CC Media Holdings, the overall corporation, will be renamed iHeartMedia, and Clear Channel Communications, its major subsidiary, will become iHeartCommunications. Only the company’s billboard and outdoor-advertising division, which is publicly traded, will retain the Clear Channel name, as Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings. “When you align your brands with the way people really know you, it helps,” Pittman explained to Ben Sisario in the New York Times. “Today when we walk into an agency and say, ‘Hey, we’re here from Clear Channel. We want to talk about some innovative new marketing,’ they say, ‘You guys have been around forever.’ But when we walk in and say we’re iHeartRadio, they say, ‘I love what you’re doing. Let’s talk.’” (9/16a)