Wait, so radio is not dead? Hmm. Color me shocked. Not.
As Barrett Media reported this week, a new National Radio Listening Survey revealed that 84% of adults aged 25–64 listen to radio weekly. That figure has remained steady in recent years, falling from 86% in 2024 to 85% in 2025.
And if you think this may be unique to smaller markets or more rural areas, you’d be wrong. The data remains consistent when split between those living in the top 30 markets and those in markets 31 and up. Both demographics reported weekly usage of 84%.
As always, radio has a story to tell and sell. Can it do it effectively? That remains to be seen. But the story is there. That’s on all of us in programming, management, sales, and promotions. Being strategic with how we deploy activation events, making sure we set clients up for success with radio, and driving great, unique content that moves the needle on air and on social channels will continue to give the medium an upper hand that some perceive it doesn’t currently have.
Now, that said, this data doesn’t mean we can take our foot off the pedal when it comes to expanding our brand across various digital platforms.
There was data to support this in the study as well. Of the 84% who listen to AM/FM radio weekly, two-thirds said they do so via a terrestrial radio signal. 16% said they listened to an AM/FM station’s stream, while 11% said their primary point of listening to those brands was via a mobile app.
That alone is reason enough to remind everyone on the programming side of the value of driving audience to our streams and mobile app options in real time. And clearly, market size is largely irrelevant to this strategy. We all live on our phones, whether it’s Market No. 1 or No. 100.
The silver lining in all of this is that, regardless of age, technology has taken us to a point where radio listeners are — by and large — also on smartphones much of the time, and the idea of a stream, mobile app, or podcast is not foreign to them.
This also means that YouTube channels, QR codes, X, and Instagram are part of their vocabulary. But one thing we can all do better is think about why we are trying to drive listeners to these platforms.
I hear stations with liners saying, “Follow our Instagram account.” And my immediate reaction is, “Why?” Even if I’m a super fan, give me a reason to follow it. Tease a great piece of content. Tell me what I’m getting.
It’s just like a great over-the-air tease. While it may not be as easy in a 10-second liner, we can all do this more effectively as we try to grow our platforms. We are the original media teasers — keeping our audience coming back for more is our bread and butter. We just need to remember that the concept can be expanded well beyond our over-the-air product.
The growth opportunities never end for our brands across all platforms. It’s a never-ending learning curve for all of us, with not enough time in the day to accomplish everything we want to in the 18 hours we spend awake. And while that work needs to continue as our brands grow, it’s also a chance to remind ourselves that the sky is not falling. When you get good data, don’t apologize for it — but don’t let it make you rest on your laurels, either. That would be a death sentence for any platform competing in today’s media landscape.
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