Traditional Radio Receiver Still Dominates AM/FM Listening.

For all that has changes in the media landscape during the past decade, there remains at least one constant. The traditional receiver retains the largest portion of AM/FM listening, even with new options like smart speakers and mobile devices to dial in a local station.

The latest Share of Ear data from Edison Research finds that 87% of broadcast listening time is on a traditional speaker among Americans age 13 and older. While that is down six points from a decade ago, the resilience of easy-to-use combination of AM/FM radio and a speaker that doesn’t require much more than an “on” button remains strong.

“The radio receiver remains the dominant device,” Edison says in a blog post. “Broadcast radio companies have made efforts to embrace digital platforms and technologies, but the traditional radio receiver continues to dramatically outperform all other devices for radio listening.”

Edison says a “very large portion” time spent with AM/FM radio comes in the car, and in that environment is almost entirely all of the listening is done on a traditional receiver. It also points out that during the past decade, mobile devices and smart speaker have made been chipping away at the radio receiver’s share. But both remain distant also-rans.

Edison says the share of listening on mobile devices doubled between 2015 and 2025 but remains small — totaling 6%.

The first smart speaker, the Amazon Echo, was released in November 2014, but it didn’t generally become available to the public until June 2015. When Edison first measured its impact a decade ago, the numbers were negligible. Today, it says 3% of AM/FM listening is done via smart speakers. That is the same share that listening through a computer.

The area to watch in the next decade is arguably smart TVs. They are increasingly becoming media hubs in the home. Today, 1% of listening to AM/FM comes through smart TVs. But some industry executives think that is sure to climb. TuneIn CEO Rich Stern told Inside Radio this week that smart TVs are the devices where he sees the biggest opportunity for radio stations in the next three to five years.

“The question is, you know, is there a large audience that want to listen to music from their connected TVs? The answer is absolutely yes,” Stern said. “Every manufacturer around the world wants to incorporate music, and also podcasting, and audiobooks. The appetite for audio content on CTV continues to grow, and that puts us in a great position.”