With midterm spending poised to hit record highs, candidates wanting to win the audio war have a clear answer: AM/FM radio. Its share of ad-supported audio time among registered voters exceeds Spotify, Pandora, SiriusXM, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music combined.
New Edison Research Share of Ear data covering Q1–Q4 2025, compiled by the Cumulus Media/Westwood One Audio Active Group, shows AM/FM commanding 64% of all ad-supported audio time among registered voters 18+. The next closest competitor, podcasts, sits at 21%.
Zoom out further, and the picture stays strong. Registered voters spend 53% of their total daily audio time with ad-supported media. Ad-free platforms account for the other 47%, meaning more than half of all audio consumption by this audience remains open to advertiser messaging, and radio captures nearly two-thirds of it.
Previous forecasts have estimated that 2026 political ad spending will rise above $10.1 billion, driven by 33 Senate races, 36 gubernatorial contests, 435 House seats, and more than 6,000 state and local battles. That would top the $8.75 billion spent in 2022 and nearly triple the $3.8 billion recorded in 2018.
The platform breakdown leaves little room for debate. Ad-supported Pandora and Spotify each register 5% of the ad-supported audio pie among registered voters. Ad-supported SiriusXM trails at 3%. Ad-supported YouTube Music lands at 1%. Ad-supported Amazon Music barely registers at 0.5%.
What makes the data especially compelling for political advertisers is its consistency across the partisan divide. Traditional radio draws a three-point spread across three distinct voter segments: 65% of ad-supported audio time among Republicans, 64% among Democrats, and 62% among Independents. Podcasts hold steady at 21% for both Republicans and Democrats, creeping up to 23% among Independents.
No other platform moves the needle enough to change the competitive order regardless of which voter segment an advertiser targets.
Despite much clamor in 2024 about the “podcast election” carrying the GOP to victory, the medium’s reach tells a similar nonpartisan story. Daily reach for podcasts lands at exactly 24% across Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike. Time-spent shares run between 11% and 12% across all three groups. Podcasts have carved out a real and consistent audience among politically engaged listeners, but the data shows that audience is additive to radio, not a replacement for it.
