iHeart Moves To Modernize Radio Buying With AudioGraph Platform.

As marketers shift overwhelmingly toward automated buying, iHeartMedia is positioning broadcast radio as the biggest piece of audio still left out of the programmatic marketplace — and a major opportunity to unlock. Chief Business Officer Lisa Coffey says the mismatch between listening behavior and ad buying has become impossible to ignore.

The company first introduced AudioGraph at CES in January. The platform connects an identity spine, enriched audience attributes, and predictive listening models so broadcast can be planned alongside digital and verified with exposure, lift, and sales attribution.

“Today, only 30% of audio is available to be transacted programmatically,” Coffey said. “What is available programmatically are podcasts and streaming. But there’s 70% of audio inventory that is not available to programmatic buyers.” Speaking on CEO Bob Pittman’s “Math & Magic” podcast, she said addressing that has become critical for broadcasters and advertisers alike, since by some estimates, as much as 90% of all advertising dollars are being spent programmatically.

Bridging the gap between how consumers listen and how advertisers buy is the foundation for iHeartMedia’s AudioGraph. The platform is designed to bring AM/FM into the same performance-driven ecosystem that has fueled growth in digital media, while aligning with marketers’ increasing demand for accountability and outcomes.

“It makes broadcast radio addressable, measurable and programmatically transactable,” Coffey said. AudioGraph also materially expands what buyers can access. “We're going to increase audio inventory in the programmatic ecosystem by 400%,” Coffey predicted.

Broadcast radio presents unique measurement challenges. But iHeartMedia says its AudioGraph system — a name the company has trademarked — will be able to combine identity signals and post-campaign measurement to mirror digital ad capabilities. Coffee said it will rely on data pulled from sources like the iHeartRadio app and TransUnion data to be to measure the outcome of radio ad impressions. AudioGraph is currently in closed beta and with broad availability expected later in 2026.

Coffey said buyers have been receptive as they come to understand that the vast majority of audio inventory isn’t accessible programmatically. She frames the effort as less about reinventing radio than making it compatible with how the ad market already operates.

“When we're out talking about it in the marketplace, it really starts to resonate with advertisers,” Coffee said. “This is the continued evolution of the industry. Advertising is certainly not sitting still, and this is the next frontier of innovation.”

But the broader strategy goes beyond access. iHeartMedia has been positioning its inventory around the idea that human connection — not synthetic personalities — is what ultimately drives results, even as buying becomes more automated.

The company’s “Guaranteed Human” initiative emphasizes that “real creators, real communities and live connection win,” and urges marketers to “make it measurable” by adding addressable broadcast into the mix. In that context, AudioGraph becomes the mechanism that allows those two ideas — scale and trust — to coexist.

Coffey, who joined iHeart last August, says consumers are increasingly leery of AI, especially when it comes to news, and that has opened an opportunity for radio to capitalize on decades of connection to local communities.

“The amplification of radio is unrivaled,” she said. “It's not just the scale, but it's the “Guaranteed Human’ promise that really makes it rise to the top.”

Even as much of legacy media has struggled to maintain audience levels, radio continues to defy expectations. Pittman noted more people listen today than 10 or 20 years ago.

“It turns out, unlike TV, that was just a delivery system for programs that consumers like, they think about radio a different way. It's a companion,” Pittman said. “Whereas the average person watches probably 40 TV networks in a month, they only listen to two or three radio stations.”