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Content is King

A three-part series on radio, fragmentation and the audio economy.

By Peter Don, BPR

Part 1:

Gen Z is Still Listening to Radio

New US research on why younger audiences switch on, and why the reasons would surprise their parents.

Newsprint has become a curiosity. News hasn’t. It reaches more people, more often, on more screens than on paper, and the appetite for information is still healthy.  What’s changed is the messenger. The newspaper industry spent fifteen years working out that the container was where its money lived.

Radio is travelling in the same direction, although more slowly; this could be mistaken for immunity. The communal experience that market-dominant stations once delivered, anchored by their personalities, is being undermined. Not by one competitor, which would at least be a target you could aim at, but by economic rationalisation, driven by fragmentation of time and attention across everything. The audience is still there. It arrives in smaller pieces, more often, and with different motivations.

Most versions of this discussion open with the revenue line and work backwards. So, let’s start with the audience data.

The audience is still there

RAJAR’s Q1 2026 figures have UK radio reaching 50.6 million people a week, 87% of the population, delivering 1.007 billion listening hours. Digital delivery has hit a record 76% of all radio listening. Analogue is down to 24%. Smart speakers on their own account for 14.9% of hours.

Three quarters of radio listening now arrives by a route that has no transmitter anywhere in it.

The migration the industry has spent two decades bracing for has, for the most part, already happened. It happened without much drama, and without the commercial model being rebuilt around it, and that second omission is the one worth losing sleep over.

Youth numbers

New iHeartMedia research, run through Critical Mass Media in June among 1,090 US radio listeners aged 18 to 64, highlights the assumption that younger audiences have walked away from broadcast media. Nielsen data cited in the study puts broadcast radio’s monthly reach among 13 to 19 year-olds at 90%, against 75% for YouTube, 58% for TikTok and 26% for ad-supported Spotify. Edison’s Share of Ear gives radio 47% of Gen Z’s ad-supported audio time, against 31% for streaming music and 21% for podcasts.

iHeart’s survey is broadcaster-commissioned research and should be read that way. The qualitative material underneath the headline is the interesting part.

85% of Gen Z respondents said they feel less likely to be judged when listening to radio with other people, and 77% said radio feels safer to play in a group. Those answers make sense next to another finding: 96% agreed that their music choices say something about who they are, and seven in ten worry about being judged for what they play, roughly twice the rate of listeners over 35.

The behaviour matches the sentiment. 63% listen with other people frequently or nearly always, against 42% of all radio listeners. 84% default to radio in a car with other people in it.

Personalisation, reconsidered

For fifteen years the industry has treated personalisation as the thing radio lacks and streaming supplies. The data points towards the opposite argument. In an environment where personal taste is on trial, the algorithmic playlist becomes a public statement about its owner. Play it in a car full of friends and you are being appraised. Radio, by contrast, is nobody’s fault.

Radio has become the low-risk medium by accident. And the shared experience that fragmentation was supposed to have killed off turns out to be among the things younger listeners value most: 80% said they like talking to other people about what they hear, and 91% said radio gives their social circles something to talk about.

Radio’s strength here is social as much as it is editorial. That is an asset, and it is one no recommendation engine has worked out how to manufacture.

Be aware, however, this is US data; there is no equivalent for the UK or Australia, so be careful about assuming this is universal.

Even discounting these factors,  this leaves the awkward question. If the audience is still here, and still values something radio does better than the alternatives, the commercial picture ought to look healthier than it does.

Sources. RAJAR quarterly listening figures, Q1 2026. Edison Research, Share of Ear (US), 2020 and 2026 waves. iHeartMedia research conducted by Critical Mass Media, June 2026 (n=1,090 US listeners aged 18 to 64), including Nielsen reach data cited within it. IAB US advertising revenue forecasts, 2026. Commercial Radio & Audio (Australia) quarterly revenue release, Q1 2026. Podcast category and consumption-mode figures are drawn from published industry aggregations and are indicative only.

In this series:

Part One: Gen Z Is Still Listening to Radio

Part Two: Same Listeners, Different Routes

Part Three: Turning Content into Income

Coda: Five Places to Start

Part two is about what changed underneath the listening.