Nielsen: Radio Reaches Most Daily Ad-Supported Audio Listeners

Radio and podcasts accounted for 83% of daily ad-supported audio listening in the third quarter of 2026, according to Nielsen’s latest “The Record,” which draws on data from Nielsen and Edison Research.

U.S. consumers spent an average of 3 hours and 55 minutes a day listening to audio, the report said. Streaming music services made up 15% of ad-supported listening time. The analysis excludes music and music videos watched on YouTube.

Radio reached more than 242 million U.S. adults monthly, or 92%, ahead of TV-connected devices at 90%, smartphones at 87% and live and time-shifted television at 85%, according to the report. Radio reached 92% of Black adults, 93% of Hispanic adults and 87% of adults ages 18 to 34.

About 65% of adult radio listening took place away from home, primarily in vehicles. That share rose to 73% during weekday drive times. AM/FM radio accounted for more than 80% of ad-supported audio listening in cars.

➤Share of daily time spent with ad supported audio among U.S. audiences

Listeners 18+

Listeners 35+

➤Radio Listening By Format:

The Big Winner Election Night: Steve Kornacki

Steve Kornacki’s “Kornacki Cam” was the most-watched election livestream on YouTube on election night, drawing more than 6 million views and peaking at more than 300,000 concurrent viewers during his 10.5-hour stream, according to NBCUniversal.

Across all platforms, the NBC News feed recorded 29 million views. It also circulated widely among political influencers, making it a frequent choice for secondary coverage. The stream stood out among the various election-night digital experiments by broadcast and cable networks, which are expanding online offerings amid declines in traditional linear audiences while seeking to retain control of viewers rather than fully ceding them to platforms such as YouTube.

The Election Was Also A Good Night For Skydance

Fox News drew the largest prime-time audience among cable news networks during Tuesday’s midterm election coverage, with 4.66 million viewers across its flagship channel and a simulcast on Fox Business Network, according to finalized Nielsen data.

Fox News averaged 4.315 million viewers from 8 to 11 p.m. Eastern, while the Fox Business simulcast drew 346,000. The combined audience ranked third among broadcast and cable networks, behind NBC News, with 6.7 million viewers, and ABC News, with 5.2 million. CNN drew 4.1 million, MS NOW 3.749 million and CBS News 2.8 million.

Skydance had the largest combined audience among media companies, with 6.9 million viewers across CNN and CBS News. The networks operate separately under the same owner: CNN is part of Warner Bros. Discovery, and CBS News is part of Paramount.

TV Ratings: Meet the Press Scores With Key Demos

Meet the Press with Kristen Welker is the #1 Sunday public affairs among the key A25-54 and A18-49 demo viewers this past Sunday, November 1, according to Nielsen.

Meet the Press averaged 405,000 A25-54 viewers, leading ABC by +73,000 (+22%) and CBS by +37,000 (+10%).

Graphic Courtesy of RoadMN

 Additionally, Meet the Press averaged 300,000 A18-49 viewers, leading ABC by +43,000 (+17%) and CBS by +34,000 (+13%). Compared to last year, Meet the Press more than doubled its A18-49 lead vs. CBS.

Meet the Press also averaged 2.632 million total viewers this Sunday. Meet the Press was the #1 Sunday public affairs show for the 2025-2026 season and the 2024-2025 broadcast season. Meet the Press has never lost a month in the Washington, D.C. market among total viewers.

Cutbacks Underway At Mets RSN SNY

SNY cancels “Baseball Night in New York” and “SportsNite,” shuts down website, and lays off much of its editorial staff.

The Athletic reports the regional sports network that serves as the primary television home of the New York Mets made the cuts on Friday, with the changes taking effect immediately, sources told The Athletic. SNY declined to comment.

Fox Closes On Roku Streaming

Fox Corp. said Friday it completed its acquisition of Roku, adding the streaming platform to a portfolio that includes Tubi and FOX One.

The companies said the deal combines Fox’s live sports, news and local programming with Roku’s connected-TV platform, which reaches more than 100 million households. The combination is expected to create new opportunities to serve viewers, advertisers and partners, they said.

Fox expects to achieve about $400 million in annualized cost savings within two years of closing, with potential for additional revenue. The company also expects the deal to increase free cash flow per share by its second full year after closing.

Miami Radio: Newsmax To Acquire Two Radio Stations

Newsmax is acquiring two Spanish-language news-talk stations in Miami from Latino Media Network, marking the conservative news network’s first move into radio ownership.

Newsmax Radio will pay $1.26 million for WAQI-AM, 710, and $540,000 for WQBA-AM, 1140. Latino Media Network acquired the stations in 2022, as part of a $60 million purchase of 18 stations from TelevisaUnivision.

WQBA recently carried mostly “Radio Martí,” a service of the U.S. government’s Office of Cuba Broadcasting. WAQI had been scheduled to drop its Spanish-language conservative talk programming in December but retained some of it.

Protecting Your Brand: 5 Crisis Lessons

Last weekend, Martha Stewart faced backlash after posting a Halloween photo portraying a homeless person while promoting her QVC candles. Critics called it insensitive amid economic hardship. After initially saying she meant to raise awareness, Stewart apologized, acknowledging the costume was hurtful and a mistake. The controversy highlights how leaders’ personal actions can affect their brands and the importance of considering public perception.

Edward Segal’s article in Forbes this week argues that Martha Stewart’s Halloween costume controversy shows how a seemingly well-intentioned act can become a reputational crisis—especially when audiences see it as mocking people facing homelessness and hunger, rather than raising awareness. The promotional mention of her products added to the perceived insensitivity. Her later apology accepted responsibility, but several initial statements prolonged the story before she fully acknowledged the harm.

Wave of Exits At The DOJ

Eisenberg, Blacnhe

Attorney General Todd Blanche forced out the Justice Department’s top national security official after the two clashed over the pace of White House-directed media leak investigations, according to news media reports citing senior administration officials.

Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division John Eisenberg was ordered to resign following a rocky tenure in which he quickly fell out of favor with department leadership, the officials said. He is one of three Senate-confirmed Justice Department leaders to depart this week after Democrats swept the midterm elections.

Eisenberg frustrated Blanche by trying to slow President Donald Trump’s demands to compel grand jury testimony from reporters about their sources in stories critical of the administration, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Blanche and his aides pressed Eisenberg to approve the unusual step of subpoenaing reporters to identify sources of sensitive information, including New York Times journalists who reported on security concerns involving a jet donated by Qatar.

Radio History: Nov 7

➦In 1922..WNAX 570 AM in Yankton, South Dakota, signed-on. The station is now owned by Saga Communications and airs News/Talk.

WNAX broadcasts at 5,000 watts around the clock from a tower in eastern Yankton. Due to its location near the bottom of the AM dial, transmitter power, and South Dakota's flat land (with near-perfect ground conductivity) the station's 5,000-watt signal provides at least secondary coverage during the day to most of the eastern half of South Dakota, much of western Iowa, and most of the densely populated portion of Nebraska. 

WNAX was first licensed on November 7, 1922, to the Dakota Radio Apparatus company, and is the oldest surviving radio station in the state of South Dakota. The call-letters came from a sequentially assigned list, and WNAX was the last station in the state to receive a callsign starting with a W instead of K (other than sister station WNAX-FM), as additional stations in the state were established after the January 1923 shift that moved the K/W call letter boundary from the western border of South Dakota to the Mississippi River.  (H/T David Ocar)

'Buck Rogers'

➦In 1932..."Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" was first broadcast on the CBS Radio Network.

➤In 1935...Broadcasting Magazine Flashback...

➦In 1937…"The Vaseline Program," aka "Dr. Christian's Office" and later simply "Dr. Christian," sbegan a run on CBS Radio. Jean Hersholt played the part of the kindly, elderly Dr. Christian who practiced on the air until 1954. Laureen Tuttle, Kathleen Fitz, Helen Kleeb and Rosemary De Camp played his nurse, Judy.  Sponsors of the show included Vaseline (petroleum jelly, hair tonic and lip ice).

➦In 1938...Radio station "W9XZY" broadcasted a facsimile of the St Louis Post-Dispatch by radio.

➦In 1938...the first broadcast of “This Day is Ours” was heard on CBS radio. Eleanor McDonald, played by Joan Banks and later by Templeton Fox, had all kinds of problems. Her child was kidnapped, she lost her memory, helped a friend find a killer, etc. The soap opera ran for two years.

➦In 1940..WBZ-FM Boston first signed-on-air.

Bradshaw On MNF Feud: Not As Nasty As Reported

Terry Bradshaw

Terry Bradshaw says the reported feud between longtime “Monday Night Football” partners Troy Aikman and Joe Buck is not as nasty as media accounts suggest, and he does not believe it centers on money.⁠

Bradshaw, who worked alongside both men at Fox Sports from 2002 to 2022, made the comments during an appearance on FOX News Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show.” He said he had texted Buck to express skepticism about the public reports and emphasized his personal relationships with both broadcasters.