Yesterday, Clear Channel announced that it has changed its name to iHeartMedia. iHeartMedia’s namesake, iHeartRadio, is the company’s streaming product that delivers custom stations (à la Pandora), as well as live streaming of their 859 radio stations. The move is a telling indicator of the state of audio media and media in general. Consumption of digital content is not going away and advertisers need to continue to adjust their budgets accordingly.

Created eight years after Pandora was launched in 2000, iHeartRadio has an impressive 50 million monthly listeners, making them second only to Pandora, which has 77 million as of June 2014. The assets of the company formerly known as Clear Channel have obviously helped boost this growth, promoting the service through their many media outlets and, of course, their annual iHeartRadio Music Festival.

So how does a name change affect digital media? While the switch in and of itself won’t cause any sweeping changes, the goal seems to be for Clear Channel to continue to grow and gobble up assets, streamline and syndicate content, and increase profitability. According to Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia, “If you want to play in a big sandbox, come play with us, because we really crush everybody else in terms of total usage.” With this imagery in mind as the FCC continues to relax restrictions on media owners and give advantages to large companies, I am reminded of the op-ed written over 10 years ago by Thomas Greene in the Register where he coined the term “Clear Channelization” to describe the effects of a few “multinational conglomerates” owning the majority of the media.

I’m not saying that iHeartRadio and Clear Channel (now iHeartMedia) Radio stations are the evil empire and shouldn’t be in your mix. In fact, my local Clear Channel rep is one of the absolute best, putting together great programs that provide cost effective rating points as well as local engagement. But I’m going to guess that she, and many of her colleagues that do the same, have to cut through a lot of corporate red tape to do so. At the end of the day, the impact of iHeartMedia on advertisers, especially small local and regional ones, will be an even greater need for creativity and protection of their share of voice by choosing the right media partners.