iHeartMedia Shares Spike as Meme-Stock Fever Hits IHRT
| RADIO ONLINE | Thursday, December 11, 2025 | 4:12pm CT |
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 iHeartMedia |
iHeartMedia became the latest radio broadcaster to be swept into a wave of social-media-fueled trading on Thursday, with shares jumping as much as 11.5% in afternoon trading amid heavy attention from online investor groups.
According to TradingView, iHeartMedia (IHRT) saw a sharp burst of volume as traders in Discord chat rooms and on X encouraged coordinated buying of the stock -- behavior mirroring the meme-stock surge that lifted industry peer Beasley Media Group just one day earlier. The chatter pushed the price higher throughout the session, with IHRT ultimately touching a new 52-week high of $5.24. The company's shares are now up 159% since the start of the year.
The surge adds to a string of unusually volatile sessions for the broadcaster. iHeartMedia has recorded 68 daily moves of 5% or more over the past year, but swings of this magnitude remain rare. Wednesday's trading brought a 5% gain on continued momentum from the prior session, when the stock climbed more than 13% on elevated volume despite no apparent corporate news or fundamentals driving the move.
The pattern reflects a broader meme-stock dynamic emerging in the radio sector. As Beasley Broadcast Group (BBGI) demonstrated this week -- soaring more than 250% intraday and triggering repeated NASDAQ volatility halts -- low-float broadcasters are increasingly becoming targets for online speculation. Social media posts hyping Beasley as a "buyout lottery ticket" and Discord servers pushing coordinated trades sent that stock skyrocketing despite ongoing financial headwinds.
A similar playbook now appears to be unfolding with iHeartMedia, where retail traders are amplifying one another's posts and algorithms are accelerating the trend. While the online excitement has pushed IHRT dramatically higher, long-term investors have faced a different reality: A $1,000 investment in iHeartMedia five years ago would be worth just $426.65 today.
Still, with meme-driven volatility dominating trading screens this week, radio stocks remain in the spotlight -- even as the underlying businesses show no corresponding shift in fundamentals.
