More than four years after a big rebrand and substantial effort to draw audience and advertisers to its exclusive podcasts and streaming audio, Audacy Inc. is breaking the silo and has agreed to place its content on an app other than its own.
It’s a monumental move for the company no longer led by a member of the Field family, one that sends the message that its digital ambitions could be shifting in a significant way under its current ownership scheme.
On Monday (6/30), iHeartMedia announced that it has reached a content distribution partnership with Audacy. It all but ends a friendly battle between Audacy and the purveyor of the iHeartRadio app for ad revenue and audience growth supremacy, as it brings Audacy’s more-than 240 radio brands and on-demand audio offerings to the iHeartRadio platform.
With “all-in-one” radio platforms still a vexing consumer promise in the U.S., compared to nations such as Canada and the UK, iHeartMedia’s agreement with Audacy brings the nation’s leading audio content company closer to achieving that goal.
For those using the iHeartRadio app, stations including WFAN and WINS in New York and KROQ and KRTH in Los Angeles can now be accessed alongside stations including WLTW and KFI.
Additionally, across the iHeartRadio app, Audacy content will be available on more than 500 additional platforms and over 2,000 additional devices, including smart speakers, digital auto dashes, tablets, wearables, smartphones, virtual assistants, televisions and gaming consoles.
“This is an exciting day for our industry as the addition of Audacy’s stations to iHeartRadio maximizes radio’s presence across the country as the most listened to and trusted medium for audiences and consumers,” said Michael Biondo, President of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at iHeartMedia. “This move gives our listeners even more opportunities to connect with the stations and content most relevant to them, aligning with our mission to always meet our audiences where they are and enhance their experience.”
As Audacy Chief Business Officer Chris Oliviero sees it, “We believe in the power of being everywhere, and this partnership is a meaningful step in our strategy to ensure our iconic stations, talent and programming are available wherever and however audio is consumed,” said
The Audacy app began as Radio.com under CBS Radio ownership and would evolve from that brand to Audacy following the November 2017 tax-free merger of CBS’s audio content creation and distribution entity with the company formerly known as Entercom.
For Audacy Inc., which changed its name in March 2021, a wholesale relaunch of the Radio.com platform saw the company silo its content and aggressively seek to woo audience and advertisers to its station streams and podcasts. By October 11, 2021, Tim Clarke had been brought on as SVP of Digital Audio Content, reporting to J.D. Crowley, Chief Digital Officer at Audacy.
By the start of 2024, Audacy’s finances were so fragile that a bankruptcy transpired. Ultimately, President/CEO David Field and CFO Rich Schmaeling exited, as did the majority of the company’s top executive leadership. Today, Audacy is controlled by Soros Fund Management and led by CEO Kelli Turner.
