With the midterms approaching, campaigns chasing voters through audio have one clear option. AM/FM captures 63% of the ad-supported audio time registered voters spend in a typical day, nearly three times its nearest competitor, and the lead holds across party lines.
The figures come from Edison Research’s Share of Ear study, fielded for SSRS between the third quarter of 2025 and the second quarter of 2026 among persons age 18 and older, and released by the Cumulus Media/Westwood One Audio Active Group. It’s the latest wave of data Radio Ink has tracked showing AM/FM polling high among registered voters.
Among all audio consumption, not just ad-supported listening, registered voters spend 53% of their time with ad-supported media overall, split between AM/FM radio at 34%, other ad-supported platforms at 19%, and ad-free platforms such as SiriusXM’s music tier and ad-free streaming music at 47%. Narrowed to ad-supported audio alone, AM/FM radio’s lead widens considerably.
Podcasts placed second at 21%, with ad-supported Spotify, Pandora, and SiriusXM tied for third at 5% each, ad-supported YouTube Music fourth at 2%, and ad-supported Amazon Music fifth at 0.4%.
The partisan breakdown shows radio drawing its strongest share from Republican voters, at 69%, compared to 61% among Democrats and 59% among Independents. Podcasts run the inverse pattern, pulling 25% of ad-supported time among Independents, 24% among Democrats, and 16% among Republicans. The remaining platforms cluster tightly regardless of party, with Spotify, Pandora, SiriusXM, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music each drawing single-digit shares across all three groups.
A separate breakout on podcast listening found reach relatively even across party lines, with 24% of Democrats, 22% of Independents, and 21% of Republicans listening to podcasts on a typical day. Time spent tells a different story. Independents devote 13% of their daily audio time to podcasts, compared to 11% among Democrats and 9% among Republicans, meaning podcast listeners who identify as Independent spend disproportionately more time with the format than their same-party counterparts who merely sample it.
