Advertisers have no shortage of places to spend their money, but the data keeps pointing them back to AM/FM. That’s the clear message in a new Audio Planning Guide from Cumulus Media and Westwood One, built under Chief Insights Officer Pierre Bouvard.
The report draws on Nielsen, Edison Research, and MRI-Simmons to reset assumptions about reach, dayparts, and the role of audio in amplifying other media.
At the center of the guide: AM/FM radio continues to outrank television as the nation’s top mass-reach platform. Nielsen shows radio reaching 87% of U.S. adults weekly, compared to 72% for live and time-shifted TV. For the 18–49 demographic, TV’s weekly reach has dropped 28% since 2018, while time spent has declined by two-thirds. Radio, by contrast, has maintained consistent listening levels.
The guide also challenges long-held assumptions about dayparts. While advertisers often assume drive times dominate, 58% of AM/FM listening occurs outside of morning and afternoon commutes. Middays are in fact the single strongest period for audience delivery, followed closely by weekends.
In the broader audio market, AM/FM radio holds 68% of all ad-supported listening among adults, with podcasts in second place at 20%. Even among younger listeners, AM/FM leads at 50% share, far ahead of Spotify’s 10% and Pandora’s 6%. The dominance is even more pronounced in multicultural segments: radio captures 80% of ad-supported audio among African American listeners and 56% among Hispanics, both placing podcasts as the clear number two option.
Another key finding is how effectively radio complements other media. Shifting just 20% of a TV and digital campaign into AM/FM radio can generate between 40% and 75% incremental reach, according to Nielsen. The guide also highlights that reach—not hyper-targeting—is the primary driver of sales lift, responsible for nearly half of campaign effectiveness.
Cost comparisons further strengthen radio’s case. The cost-per-point of the top six local AM/FM spot markets is equal to the CPP of reaching the entire country via national network radio, underscoring the efficiency of scaling through network buys.
The full Audio Planning Guide is now available via the Audio Active Group.
