And I really think that there was the realization that the "Clear Channel" brand name had become poisoned (in their view) by too many press and Internet message board references to voice-tracking, syndicated programming, alleged homogenized playlists and mass firings--At the turn of the millennium, Clear Channel stations were saying "A Clear Channel Worldwide station" in their legal IDs and then stopped doing it (ever since
iheartradio.com went live, they now say "An IHeartRadio station" in their legal IDs).
Of course, despite the fact that CC/IHM has always been a media whipping boy, their stations--or at least some of their stations--are among the most successful in their markets. I personally don't care for most of their stations, but I tend to have that problem with most radio today anyway and it could be because I'm out of the demo. And it wasn't Lowry Mays or Randy Michaels who first misinterpreted Bill Drake and thought that muzzling DJ personality and cutting playlists farther to the bone than Drake's Boss 30 was implementing his philosophy. People have been bitching about radio for decades. The only difference is now instead of just being the highbrows complaining about overcommercialism or the "free form" rock types, it's anyone who actually wants to listen to radio stations instead of leave them on in the background. The truth is that except for public radio or almost any talk format, radio is a background medium--and that includes the streamers like Pandora.