More Choices Haven’t Replaced the Dashboard Habit
The connected car has given drivers more ways to listen than ever, but AM/FM radio remains the clear leader in the in-car audio environment.
According to Edison Research’s Q1 2026 Share of Ear study, radio captures 55% of all audio time spent in the car - more than half of every minute drivers spend listening. That’s more than three times the share of streaming services (16%) and nearly twice the combined share of podcasts, YouTube, SiriusXM and owned audio. That's not based on nostalgia. It’s based on consumer behavior.
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WHY CONSUMERS STILL CHOOSE RADIO BROADCAST
What keeps radio relevant isn’t simply familiarity. It’s utility. Radio delivers something many other audio options don’t: live, local, immediate entertainment that requires virtually no effort from the listener. A statistic from this year's Jacobs Media Tech Survey (2026) shares that 66% of radio listeners state that radio is the easiest to listen to in the car.
Consumers aren’t necessarily choosing radio instead of everything else. They’re choosing it when it does the job better. They turn to broadcast when they want something:
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Immediate — no searching, downloading or waiting.
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Local — traffic, weather, news, personalities and information relevant to where they are.
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Live — from breaking news to sports, to weather to traffic, radio keeps pace with the moment.
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Effortless — press a button and there’s something to hear.
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Universal — a friction-free choice when multiple people are in the car.
That helps explain why AM/FM remains such a powerful part of the modern dashboard. Consumers don’t appear to be loyal to a particular audio technology. They’re loyal to experiences that work.
THE DASHBOARD ISN'T EITHER/OR
The rise of connected-car technology hasn’t created an either/or choice between broadcast and digital audio. It has created an ecosystem where each option serves a different need. Recent research reinforces that point. While four in 10 drivers say connecting their phone via Bluetooth or Apple CarPlay/Android Auto is the first thing they do when getting into a vehicle, one in four still turns to AM/FM radio first (per In Car Radio Study conducted by Nielsen in partnership with iHeart, May 2026).
That coexistence is important. The future of in-car audio isn’t necessarily about replacing one platform with another. It’s about giving consumers access to the options they want and preserving the ones they continue to use. Radio remains at the center of the mix.
The lesson for automakers is straightforward: innovation doesn’t have to mean subtraction. The most connected dashboard may be the one that gives consumers more choices without taking away the choice they already know works. Even as the dashboard gets smarter, drivers still want something simple, immediate and familiar.
