Local All-News Radio Emerges As ‘Last Neutral Ground’ For Political Ads.

While the content on cable news networks, syndicated conservative talk radio and late-night network talk shows may lean heavily in the direction of one or another political party, there’s still one place where the news is just the news: local all-news radio, where composition of Republican and Democrat listeners is nearly balanced, making for a neutral and therefore trusted environment for political advertising.

In an Audacy Insights report titled “The Last Neutral Ground: Why Local All-News Radio is the Secret to Winning Elections,” Audacy SVP Research and Insights Ray Borelli notes that “while national news helps people make sense of politics, local news helps people navigate daily life. People who disagree about national politics are still living in the same neighborhoods, driving the same roads, dealing with the same weather, and paying the same taxes. At the local level, we don’t have ‘Blue weather’ or ‘Red traffic.’ We just have the facts. And no one reports the facts better than the 24/7 all-news radio stations that are the heartbeat of major U.S. markets.”

Research backs this up, with 84% of respondents in an Alter Agents survey saying they place their confidence in all-news radio for local news and information — outpacing both broadcast TV and social media — while a Morning Consult study shows over-the-air radio maintaining the highest credibility of any U.S. news source, and 85% of U.S. adults rating radio as “very trustworthy” or “trustworthy” in a Katz Radio Group study.

Audacy knows a bit about this level of trust in local news radio, given its major market presence with all-news powerhouses such as WINS-AM/FM New York, KNX Los Angeles, WBBM Chicago, KCBS San Francisco and KYW Philadelphia. “They aren’t just media outlets; they are civic landmarks that provide life-saving emergency information and local accountability,” Borelli says. “This trust wasn’t built overnight; it has been earned over generations.”

A comparison between the audience composition of WINS and Fox News, MSNOW and CNN shows WINS listeners’ party affiliation nearly equal when indexed to total adults 18+, vs. heavy leaning red for Fox News and blue for MSNOW and CNN. “Local news radio remains remarkably balanced,” Borelli says. “This isn’t because listeners have suddenly found political common ground; it’s because local news serves a different, more essential function.”

How does this benefit political advertisers, especially during this midterm election year? “Candidates need to reach voters, not bases,” Borelli says. “While most national news platforms reach consumers who already lean one way or another, all-news radio’s neutrality makes listeners more willing to hear a message — even from a candidate they might initially distrust.”

Audacy’s Alter Agents study also found that more than three-quarters (77%) of listeners considered all-news advertisers to be “trustworthy” simply by running adjacent to the content. “Advertising on radio can be the difference between winning and losing an election,” Borelli says. Indeed, according to Nielsen, radio ad spend made the difference during the 2022 midterms for Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman and Georgia’s Raphael Warnock, both Democrats winning Senate seats in close races.

“National news is a battleground, but local news is a neighborhood — and that is exactly where elections are won,” Borelli says. “All-news radio is the most credible, most trusted and least biased source of local news, [with] a ‘trust halo’ [that] extends to radio advertisers.”