For the first time in the history of the Share of Ear report, the Edison Research offering detailing just how audio content is consumed, the smartphone has taken the wheel over AM/FM inside the car — at least among the youngest listeners.
The new Edison Research data show Americans 13-34 now spend more in-car time on a mobile device than a radio receiver.
Mobile devices account for 46% of in-car audio time among that age group, compared with 43% for radio receivers. That’s according to Q2 data, capping a decade-long trend.
In 2015, radio held a 47-point lead over mobile devices in the car, 66% to 19%. That gap narrowed every year through the following decade, with radio’s share sliding to 58% by 2018 and 46% by 2021, while mobile climbed steadily to 38% that same year. The two lines crossed in 2025, when mobile edged ahead 44% to 43%, and the gap has since widened slightly in mobile’s favor.
Edison notes the device data measures what young listeners are listening on, not what they’re listening to. Some of that mobile listening is to AM/FM stations streamed through an app, meaning radio content still reaches these listeners even as the physical receiver loses ground as their primary in-car device. AM/FM still commands 70% of ad-supported in-car listening time among the same 13-34 age group, more than six times the share of its nearest competitor, when measured by platform rather than device.
iHeartMedia’s own research on Gen Z suggests part of why. 84% say they turn on the radio specifically when riding with others, and 85% feel less judged playing radio in a group than picking a personal playlist, a social dynamic that may be propping up radio’s in-car share even as personal device use climbs.
The device and distribution shifts both land as automakers weigh radio’s place in the dashboard.
Dodge and Chrysler’s CEO raised the prospect of building entry-level vehicles without radios earlier this year, following Tesla’s removal of radios from its Model 3 and Model Y Standard trims and EV startup Slate Auto’s plan to ship its debut model without one. Congress moved the other direction on September 16, when the House passed the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, which would require automakers to keep AM radio as standard equipment in new vehicles.
