Radio is maintaining its rhythm with America’s renewed commute, but is AM/FM turning post-COVID listener momentum into marketer engagement? The latest Marketer Perceptions study frames the return-to-work comeback as an advertising opportunity.
The latest installment of Cumulus Media/Westwood One’s Audio Active Group research revisits a topic the company has tracked since 2022: how hybrid work patterns are reshaping daily audio habits. The October 2025 data, drawn from Advertiser Perceptions and Quantilope studies of 303 marketers and 1,600 consumers, suggests that while Americans have largely resumed pre-pandemic commuting routines, the advertising industry itself still hasn’t caught up.
Among marketers and media agencies, 85% now say they commute to the office at least some days; up from just 63% in early 2022. 53% report being in the office “most or all days,” a 2.4x increase from the 22% who said the same three years ago. The proportion of professionals working exclusively from home dropped sharply, from 37% in April 2022 to just 15% in October 2025.
While that marks a major return to in-person work for the ad industry, the Quantilope consumer study shows that the general population is even further along. Among Americans who commuted before the pandemic, 95% are now back to working outside the home. That 10-point gap between the public and the advertising industry underscores how agency and brand employees continue to adopt flexible work models more slowly than the audiences they aim to reach.
When measured by days per week, marketers and agencies average 4.2 days in the office, compared to 4.7 days for the typical American worker. Both groups, however, share similar weekly patterns: office attendance peaks from Monday through Thursday, with Friday seeing the lightest in-person footprint.
The report found that 67% of marketers and agencies have resumed in-person vendor meetings, and 69% have returned to conferences and live events.
The commuting resurgence delivers major benefits for out-of-home media. Billboards, digital signage, and AM/FM radio are reaching audiences at full pre-pandemic levels again.
AM/FM radio dominates in-car listening with an 85% share of ad-supported audio consumption in vehicles, according to Edison Research’s Q2 2025 Share of Ear study. That figure has held steady in the mid-to-high 80s for eight years, cementing radio as “the soundtrack of the American worker.”
Digital audio platforms like Spotify, Pandora, and podcasts see less impact from the return-to-work trend.
