Who Owns the Media: iHeartMedia

iHeartMedia, Inc. 🐔🐔

Capitulation Rank: Compromising
Category: Broadcasting & Entertainment
Market Cap: $244.9 million

On its corporate website iHeartMedia claims to have a “greater reach than any other media company in the U.S.” It’s a boast that’s hard to dispute: With a radio station network of some 860 outlets, the conglomerate has the broadcast ability to reach 9  out of 10 Americans.

Many media-industry watchers know iHeartMedia by its former name, Clear Channel Communications, a network built by conservative businessman Lowry Mays, who famously said the company was “not in the business of providing news and information. … We’re simply in the business of selling our customers’ products.” Under Chairman and CEO Bob Pittman those “products” include several right-wing talk-radio programs like “The Sean Hannity Show,” “The Glenn Beck Program” and “Verdict with Ted Cruz,” which are rife with the sort of disinformation that fuels President Trump’s frequent social-media rants. iHeartMedia also has partnered with Fox News Radio, to air the conservative news outlet’s spin across more than a hundred stations.

In 2025, iHeartMedia’s trade organization — the National Association of Broadcasters — is aggressively lobbying the Trump-era Federal Communications Commission to eliminate ownership caps that prevent monopolies among large broadcast groups. In Trump’s transactional world, gaining such policy favors from government regulators comes with political conditions.

What It Owns:

iHeartMedia owns and operates a wide variety of audio-related outlets, primarily focusing on radio broadcasting and digital audio platforms. These include some 860 AM/FM radio stations across 160 markets in the United States, as well as the digital platform iHeartRadio, which offers on-demand music, podcasts, and live streaming. It also operates several national radio networks —  including 24/7 News Source, Black Information Network, iHeart Radio News Network, Premiere Networks, Fan Radio Network and Total Traffic & Weather Network — sells outdoor advertising and organizes and promotes live music events and concerts across the country.

Money & Influence Game:

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, iHeartMedia paid lobbyists $4,470,000 in 2024 and made $1,083,997 in contributions to political candidates (2024 cycle). In 2022 one of its program hosts, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, was investigated for receiving from the broadcaster an in-kind marketing and promotion “gift potentially worth millions of dollars.” Cruz’s SuperPAC also received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from the radio giant.