Ep 45: Bob Pittman of iHeartMedia on Combining The Math And The Magic

'The Math and Magic Man'.

Bob Pittman has lived several lives in the course of this one. 

At 27 he gave birth to MTV. Then turned Nickelodeon into a lasting success and launched VH-1 and Nick at Night.

He was at the center of the creation of Time Warner, ran Six Flags theme parks and then Century 21 real estate before becoming CEO of AOL. He did all of that before the Millennium.

In this century he has been the COO of AOL-Time Warner and co-founded, Pilot, LLC an investment group with a remarkably diverse portfolio, before joining Clear Channel Media and Entertainment.

From 2011-14 he was named the most powerful man in radio.

In 2014, the company was re-named and Bob became Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia.

He has also been the chairman of the Robin Hood Foundation, fighting poverty in NYC, the Chairman of New York Public Theater, and served on the boards of an extraordinary number of companies and not for profits.

Along the way, he’s found time to spend 6,000 hours behind the controls of a plane, and learned to fly helicopters too.

He is a human being of diverse interests. He is a man of intention and intense action.

We talked about the science and showmanship of leading creativity, about tortured geniuses and what he thinks about his failures and his legacy.

This an action packed thirty minutes. A reflection of the man.

I hope you enjoy it.