Radio Political Dollars Surge, With Post-Labor Day Rush Coming
Political ad spending on radio has climbed 22% in the past month to $124 million, and the biggest wave may still be coming. AdImpact now pegs total 2026 political advertising at $6.1 billion across all platforms, with radio pacing against a $273 million forecast for the cycle. Historically the money accelerates sharply after Labor Day and peaks in October, so with radio already 45% of the way to its projected total, current pacing leaves room for an above-forecast finish. For podcasting, the surge is a reminder of how much political money still flows to audio and how competitive that inventory gets heading into the fall.
IAB Says Radio’s Attribution Gap With Digital Is Quickly Closing
Audio spent years lagging digital media on attribution, but a new IAB white paper argues that gap is closing fast. The organization credits pixel-based attribution, dynamic ad insertion, and identity resolution with giving radio “digital-like precision,” pointing to tools like iHeartMedia’s AudioGraph and its partnerships with Amazon Ads and Magellan AI. The IAB adds that industry perceptions of audio measurement still reflect the last decade more than today’s capabilities. For broadcasters and podcasters alike, that reshapes the sales pitch from proving how many people heard an ad to showing what happened after they did.
Where Podcasting Fits at Spotify by Steven Goldstein
Spotify’s new Skip Ahead button, which lets listeners tap past ads, set off alarm across podcasting, but Steven Goldstein argues the feature simply reveals where the format sits in Spotify’s business. Podcast advertising accounts for roughly 4% of Spotify’s revenue while premium subscriptions drive about 89%, so the company can comfortably prioritize listener retention over publisher monetization. As Goldstein frames it, Spotify may be huge in podcasting, but podcasting is not huge to Spotify. His takeaway for creators is to stop overestimating their leverage and invest in diversified distribution and direct listener relationships rather than any single platform’s economics.
TikTok Boxing and the Death of Media Categories by Kirby Grines
When TikTok streamed Amanda Serrano’s championship fight alongside dance clips and creator videos, Kirby Grines argues it exposed how meaningless traditional media categories have become. The same recommendation engine that serves short-form entertainment delivered live championship boxing, and his point is that social, streaming, creator, gaming, and TV now compete for one scarce resource, audience time and attention. Measurement, rights deals, and ad structures have not caught up to that convergence. Podcasting sits squarely in this blended viewing stack, competing for the same attention as everything else on the feed.
…as for the rest of the news:
- Podnews covers this week’s development with Podbean, as a new tool meant to filter out AI and crawler-related traffic accidentally flagged every single Apple Podcasts download as invalid.
- MediaBuilt unpacks the Disney and YouTube standoff and what it means when a title can be both exclusive and widely available at the same time.
- New Oxford Road studies for Westwood One find heavy audio listeners over-index on AI awareness and usage, making AM/FM radio and podcasting prime channels for AI brands to build recognition and drive sales.
- Crooked Media announced Still Counting, a new weekly podcast hosted by Nate Silver, Clare Malone, and Galen Druke.
- Amplitude Media Partners announced an exclusive sales partnership with the hit true crime podcast Criminology.
