Marketers Are Misreading What Gen Z Listens To On Radio.

Marketers may think they know what young radio listeners want, but new iHeartMedia research suggests some of their assumptions about Gen Z are badly out of sync with what the generation is actually listening to.

Asked which radio formats they expect teens to listen to, 54% of marketers named hip-hop/R&B, making it easily their top choice. CHR (Pop/Top 40) followed at 40%, alternative at 27%, while country and R&B/throwbacks were each named by 26%.

Actual listening looks considerably different.

Nielsen data presented by iHeartMedia Insights President Lainie Fertick at the IAB Podcast Upfront shows country is the No. 1 format among listeners age 12-24, accounting for 15% of national radio listening. Pop/Top 40 ranks second at 12%, followed by adult contemporary at 8%. Hip-Hop/R&B, the format marketers were most likely to associate with young listeners, accounts for 7%.

Perhaps the biggest disconnect involves contemporary Christian.

“Zero marketers actually told us that they thought young people were listening to contemporary Christian radio, but it accounts for 6% of all listening,” said Fertick. Nielsen puts contemporary Christian at a 6% share among listeners 12-24, tied with hot AC and ahead of several formats that marketers were more likely to associate with teens.

Fertick said it raises several critical questions for marketers, including “Do we have the mix right? Are we understanding what is really moving these folks and their culture?”

The format disconnect is part of what iHeartMedia says is a broader gap between marketers’ perceptions of Gen Z and how younger consumers actually use radio. The research project grew out of a question from the new CMO of a major automotive company. During a meeting in Detroit, he asked what percentage of 13- to 19-year-olds use radio. The answer was eye-opening.

Broadcast radio’s monthly reach among ages 13-19 was at 90%. That compared with 75% for YouTube, 58% for TikTok and 26% for ad-supported Spotify.

Fertick said part of the answer requires understanding a generation that grew up surrounded by personalized feeds, social media and virtually unlimited control over what it consumes. The research finds music and content choices have become closely connected to Gen Z’s identity — but that personalization also creates pressure.

Seven in 10 worry other people might judge them based on the music or content they choose, and Fertick said that helps explain something that initially appears counterintuitive: radio’s lack of personalization can be part of its appeal.

With a playlist, the listener owns the choice. With radio, somebody else made it. “Broadcast radio has become this safe option for co-listening,” Fertick said.

That is particularly important because Gen Z is doing more shared radio listening than older generations. Fertick said 63% of Gen Z listeners report listening to radio with others frequently to almost every time they listen, compared with 42% of radio listeners overall. Friends and parents are the most common listening companions.

She tied some of that behavior to changes in Gen Z’s everyday life. Younger consumers are getting driver’s licenses later, leaving more of them riding with parents, siblings and friends. But practicality alone doesn’t explain it.

“Radio gives them that shared, meaningful experience that they’ve been seeking with those friends, family members, and coworkers,” Fertick said.

That doesn’t mean Gen Z is adopting the radio habits of its parents. Fertick said iHeartMedia sees a different daily rhythm, with less emphasis on morning shows and more shared listening later in the day. “We see them going to broadcast radio, just not as much at start of the day, that’s so popular with other ages,” she said.

Instead, late afternoon becomes important as students leave school and drive around with friends, with additional listening during midday breaks and evenings when they are heading to activities. Very early morning and late night, meanwhile, tend to be reserved for more personal media choices.

That distinction also helps explain how Fertick sees radio fitting alongside streaming and podcasts rather than competing with them. Nine in 10 Gen Zers say they use their personal music collections and radio at different times for different reasons.

“This is a generation who has a very clear idea of when do I use a podcast, when do I stream a song,” she said. Radio, she argues, increasingly fills the shared part of that equation.

Fertick said something else happens when a song that has lived inside a young listener’s personal feed suddenly turns up on radio. “They feel validated,” she said.

That is where Fertick sees the opportunity for advertisers. Rather than treating every young listener as an isolated consumer reached through a personalized feed, she said marketers should recognize that some radio listening is happening as a group experience.

“Understand that when you do show up in those judgment-free spaces, that you're speaking to a group,” Fertick said. “You’re not speaking to one person. You’re trying to stoke a conversation.”