Gen Z Still Wants Radio, Podcasts and Actual Humans: iHeartMedia’s Lainie Fertick
NEW YORK — Gen Z may have grown up with smartphones, streaming services, social media feeds and algorithms that know what they want before they’ve finished wanting it. Apparently, they still like radio.
That’s one of the findings iHeartMedia is seeing in its research on younger listeners, according to Lainie Fertick, president of iHeart Insights at iHeartMedia, speaking with Beet.TV Editorial Director Lisa Granatstein at the IAB Podcast Upfront in New York.
iHeart Insights is the research and consumer intelligence arm of iHeartMedia. It studies how audiences use audio, what motivates their listening and how advertisers can reach them across broadcast radio, podcasts and streaming.
About half of Gen Z’s time with ad-supported audio is spent with broadcast radio, Fertick said. The rest is divided among streaming and podcasts, with each serving different needs.
“What buyers are getting wrong about how this generation actually listens is it starts with what are they listening to, and where, and why,” Fertick said.
The earbuds generation likes company
The popular image of Gen Z is a person wearing earbuds while staring into a phone, preferably while ignoring everyone within a 20-foot radius.
The reality is more complicated.
Fertick said iHeart’s research found that Gen Z is co-listening more than previous generations. Younger listeners may share radio in the car, listen around family or coworkers or use audio as common cultural ground.
“Gen Z is co-listening more than any previous generation because it’s a shared experience,” Fertick said. “Audio is this cultural experience.”
That shared experience matters because mass culture has fragmented. There was once a quaint period when millions of people watched the same television program at the same time, then discussed it the next morning. This primitive ritual was known as “having something to talk about.”
Gen Z wants some of that communal experience back, Fertick said. Radio can provide it without requiring listeners to reveal every corner of their personal taste to whoever happens to be sitting beside them.
Broadcast radio also offers something increasingly scarce: a piece of media that wasn’t individually engineered to confirm that you are the center of the universe.
Radio as the safe playlist
Fertick described Gen Z as more guarded about sharing personal tastes than earlier generations. Personal playlists can reveal quite a bit about someone, which isn’t always ideal when the audience includes parents, younger siblings or coworkers.
Radio offers neutral territory.
“No matter who you’re with, you can put on broadcast radio and sort of feel like you’re part of something,” Fertick said.
That distinction has implications for advertisers. Streaming can satisfy a listener’s highly individual preferences, while podcasts can provide depth around particular interests. Radio can fill a more communal role.
The trick for marketers is understanding why someone is listening, not simply locating an age demographic and firing an ad at it until morale improves.
AI discovers the problem with perfection
Fertick also discussed iHeartMedia’s research into consumers’ response to algorithmic media and artificial intelligence.
Its 2025 “Human Consumer” study found that people were interested in AI’s convenience but wary of losing control over it. Consumers wanted AI to remain a tool rather than something imposed on them or used to fool them. At the same time, the rise of automated media appeared to make human connection more valuable.
That finding extended to the imperfections of human speech.
iHeartMedia had previously tested technology that could clean up vocal flaws in podcasts and radio programming. The obvious assumption was that smoother speech would produce better content. Technology, after all, has spent decades heroically solving problems nobody realized they had.
Listeners disagreed.
“Anytime you remove the imperfections from content, it’s less connective,” Fertick said. “People were not feeling that emotional attachment to it.”
The ums, stumbles and occasional verbal wrong turns weren’t necessarily defects. They were signals that another person was actually there.
“Sometimes the flaws and the stuff we goof or mess up is actually what makes the content so great,” she said.
A guarantee that humans remain involved
That research helped shape what iHeartMedia calls its “guaranteed human” approach.
Fertick said the company has committed not to play AI-generated music or fake AI artists and to keep real people hosting its radio stations.
That sounds like a modest promise until one considers that the internet is rapidly becoming a place where software writes an article about software summarizing another piece of software, after which a human is asked to prove they aren’t a robot.
For iHeartMedia, the human element is increasingly part of the product.
Making broadcast look more like digital
There’s also a decidedly practical advertising component to iHeartMedia’s strategy.
Fertick said the company is making broadcast radio inventory available programmatically through its AudioGraph product. The technology is intended to let advertisers plan and measure broadcast alongside podcasts, streaming and other digital media.
That could remove one of the barriers separating traditional radio from digital ad buying. Marketers increasingly expect audience targeting, automated buying and measurement regardless of the medium.
Yet Fertick believes the bigger opportunity may be the growing premium consumers place on human connection as AI spreads.
Creators increasingly understand that they aren’t merely producing content, she said. They’re overseeing communities.
“Our job is to help you understand your audience,” Fertick said.
For an advertising business that has spent years trying to automate everything it can, the next competitive advantage may turn out to be embarrassingly old-fashioned: people actually wanting to hear from other people.
You’re watching Beet.TV coverage of the 2026 IAB Podcast Upfront. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
NEW YORK — Gen Z may have grown up with smartphones, streaming services, social media feeds and algorithms that know what they want before they’ve finished wanting it. Apparently, they still like radio.
That’s one of the findings iHeartMedia is seeing in its research on younger listeners, according to Lainie Fertick, president of iHeart Insights at iHeartMedia, speaking with Beet.TV Editorial Director Lisa Granatstein at the IAB Podcast Upfront in New York.
iHeart Insights is the research and consumer intelligence arm of iHeartMedia. It studies how audiences use audio, what motivates their listening and how advertisers can reach them across broadcast radio, podcasts and streaming.
About half of Gen Z’s time with ad-supported audio is spent with broadcast radio, Fertick said. The rest is divided among streaming and podcasts, with each serving different needs.
“What buyers are getting wrong about how this generation actually listens is it starts with what are they listening to, and where, and why,” Fertick said.
The earbuds generation likes company
The popular image of Gen Z is a person wearing earbuds while staring into a phone, preferably while ignoring everyone within a 20-foot radius.
The reality is more complicated.
Fertick said iHeart’s research found that Gen Z is co-listening more than previous generations. Younger listeners may share radio in the car, listen around family or coworkers or use audio as common cultural ground.
“Gen Z is co-listening more than any previous generation because it’s a shared experience,” Fertick said. “Audio is this cultural experience.”
That shared experience matters because mass culture has fragmented. There was once a quaint period when millions of people watched the same television program at the same time, then discussed it the next morning. This primitive ritual was known as “having something to talk about.”
Gen Z wants some of that communal experience back, Fertick said. Radio can provide it without requiring listeners to reveal every corner of their personal taste to whoever happens to be sitting beside them.
Broadcast radio also offers something increasingly scarce: a piece of media that wasn’t individually engineered to confirm that you are the center of the universe.
Radio as the safe playlist
Fertick described Gen Z as more guarded about sharing personal tastes than earlier generations. Personal playlists can reveal quite a bit about someone, which isn’t always ideal when the audience includes parents, younger siblings or coworkers.
Radio offers neutral territory.
“No matter who you’re with, you can put on broadcast radio and sort of feel like you’re part of something,” Fertick said.
That distinction has implications for advertisers. Streaming can satisfy a listener’s highly individual preferences, while podcasts can provide depth around particular interests. Radio can fill a more communal role.
The trick for marketers is understanding why someone is listening, not simply locating an age demographic and firing an ad at it until morale improves.
AI discovers the problem with perfection
Fertick also discussed iHeartMedia’s research into consumers’ response to algorithmic media and artificial intelligence.
Its 2025 “Human Consumer” study found that people were interested in AI’s convenience but wary of losing control over it. Consumers wanted AI to remain a tool rather than something imposed on them or used to fool them. At the same time, the rise of automated media appeared to make human connection more valuable.
That finding extended to the imperfections of human speech.
iHeartMedia had previously tested technology that could clean up vocal flaws in podcasts and radio programming. The obvious assumption was that smoother speech would produce better content. Technology, after all, has spent decades heroically solving problems nobody realized they had.
Listeners disagreed.
“Anytime you remove the imperfections from content, it’s less connective,” Fertick said. “People were not feeling that emotional attachment to it.”
The ums, stumbles and occasional verbal wrong turns weren’t necessarily defects. They were signals that another person was actually there.
“Sometimes the flaws and the stuff we goof or mess up is actually what makes the content so great,” she said.
A guarantee that humans remain involved
That research helped shape what iHeartMedia calls its “guaranteed human” approach.
Fertick said the company has committed not to play AI-generated music or fake AI artists and to keep real people hosting its radio stations.
That sounds like a modest promise until one considers that the internet is rapidly becoming a place where software writes an article about software summarizing another piece of software, after which a human is asked to prove they aren’t a robot.
For iHeartMedia, the human element is increasingly part of the product.
Making broadcast look more like digital
There’s also a decidedly practical advertising component to iHeartMedia’s strategy.
Fertick said the company is making broadcast radio inventory available programmatically through its AudioGraph product. The technology is intended to let advertisers plan and measure broadcast alongside podcasts, streaming and other digital media.
That could remove one of the barriers separating traditional radio from digital ad buying. Marketers increasingly expect audience targeting, automated buying and measurement regardless of the medium.
Yet Fertick believes the bigger opportunity may be the growing premium consumers place on human connection as AI spreads.
Creators increasingly understand that they aren’t merely producing content, she said. They’re overseeing communities.
“Our job is to help you understand your audience,” Fertick said.
For an advertising business that has spent years trying to automate everything it can, the next competitive advantage may turn out to be embarrassingly old-fashioned: people actually wanting to hear from other people.
You’re watching Beet.TV coverage of the 2026 IAB Podcast Upfront. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
