Lowry Mays, who is now one of the wealthiest men in the business, started with a struggling radio station and turned it into one of the world's largest media empires. Through risk-taking, mergers, and acquisitions he is now operating in 34 nations around the world, with a group of stations that represents the most extensive critical mass of broadcasting companies in the world. Mays, not only the chairman and CEO of Clear Channel Communications and but also a namesake of Texas A&M's business school.
             Mays, graduated Texas A&M in1957, in 1972 borrowed $125,000 to purchase failing KEEZ-FM in San Antonio. In 1984, when restrictions got more lenient he started buying up all these little companies around him. Today, the $50 billion company owns 1,100 radio and TV stations and 550,000 billboards worldwide. What was once a poorly performing station was transposed by Mays, in his opinion, It was performing poorly because it was an FM station and in those days, radio was dominated by AM. The FM band was a new thing and that was something not many wish to dabble in but Mays sensed profit and this is where the idea of growth began.
             In the 1980s, Mays expanded Clear Channel to include television stations and later began acquiring outdoor advertising companies. He credits the move into television and billboards with enabling his company to survive that decade's economic downturn and position it for phenomenal expansion in the '90s. Clear Channel has grown an average of 67.5 percent annually over the past five years, with corresponding revenue growth of more than 28 percent a year. This is not just because of one venture. It's an entrepreneurial mindset; Mays just keeps expanding, never settling, always wants a bigger more successful company. He saw something that nobody else saw. He saw a profitable connection between radio and billboards and used that as a selling point for his advertisers. Even as he sits atop his empire as the king of hi...