For decades, the most important decisions inside a radio company have generally come from the people responsible for programming, revenue, operations, and finance. Research has always played a significant role in those decisions, but rarely has the person responsible for understanding the audience been given quite the level of corporate visibility that iHeartMedia is now establishing. The company has promoted Lainie Fertick to the newly created position of Chief Insights Officer, adding her to its Strategic Communications leadership team and expanding her influence across the organization. The appointment, communicated internally by Chairman and CEO Bob Pittman and President and Chief Operating Officer Rich Bressler, may look like another executive promotion on the surface. I think it tells us considerably more about where iHeart believes the business is headed, and perhaps where the rest of the industry needs to start paying closer attention.
Fertick is hardly a newcomer to the research side of broadcasting. Her career with Critical Mass Media, iHeart’s internal research organization, began as an intern in 2004. Over the following two decades, she worked her way through the operation to become its President and General Manager, eventually taking on the additional title of President of iHeartMedia Insights in 2024. That progression is significant because it places someone with a deep understanding of the company’s programming and research history into a position that now reaches across multiple areas of its business.
She’ll continue reporting to Chief Programming Officer Tom Poleman, maintaining an important connection to the programming operation while assuming broader responsibility for how consumer intelligence is developed and used throughout iHeartMedia. Her appointment to the Strategic Communications leadership team also places research closer to the conversations that shape how the company understands its audiences and communicates its value to the marketplace.
And frankly, I think that’s an interesting move.
I’ve spent more than 30 years programming radio stations, working with research, interpreting ratings, evaluating music, and making decisions that could have a substantial impact on a station’s competitive position. I’ve seen research used brilliantly, and I’ve seen it used as a convenient way to justify decisions that management had already made before anybody asked a listener a question.
There’s a difference between having research and understanding what that research is actually telling you.
A good Program Director can look at a music test, examine audience composition, study competitive listening patterns, and use that information to make more intelligent decisions. A great programmer also understands that the numbers don’t automatically explain why somebody feels connected to a personality, why a station becomes part of a community, or why an audience might respond emotionally to something that doesn’t fit neatly into the usual measurements.
That’s why I find Fertick’s expanded responsibilities particularly relevant right now.
Radio is operating in a world where the consumer has more control over entertainment than at any other point in the medium’s history. Music discovery happens through social media, streaming services compete for listening time, podcasts have established themselves as a major source of spoken-word programming, and the connected automobile has changed the way people choose what they hear.
Meanwhile, broadcasters continue pointing to impressive reach statistics, often without spending enough time examining what those numbers say about actual listening behavior.
We know radio reaches enormous audiences. What we need to understand more clearly is why people choose particular stations, how those relationships develop, what causes listening habits to change, and how our programming can become more important to consumers who have dozens of alternatives available at any given moment.
Fertick has been working on precisely those kinds of questions.
Through Critical Mass Media and iHeartMedia Insights, she has been involved in consumer studies examining everything from generational behavior to the relationship between technology and human connection. The company’s research initiatives have included The New American Consumer, developed with author Malcolm Gladwell, The Ignored Consumer, and The Human Consumer, which explored how people are responding to an increasingly digital and artificial-intelligence-driven world.
That last study is particularly interesting because it revealed something broadcasters should be thinking about as the industry becomes more comfortable with automation and synthetic content.
In research released during October 2025, Critical Mass Media found that 82% of respondents expressed concern about the societal impact of artificial intelligence, while approximately nine in ten said it was important to know that the media they consumed was created by a real person.
The study involved more than 2,000 American adults and suggested that consumers were experiencing growing digital fatigue while continuing to place considerable value on authenticity and personal relationships.
Now think about that from the perspective of a radio programmer.
We have spent years developing technology that allows us to operate more efficiently, automate additional functions, distribute programming across multiple markets, and reduce the number of people required to keep a station on the air.
Some of those advances have made good business sense. Others have raised legitimate questions about how much of radio’s personality and local identity we’re willing to sacrifice in the name of efficiency.
And here comes consumer research suggesting that people place an extraordinary value on knowing they’re experiencing something created by an actual human being.
That ought to get our attention.
iHeart has used those findings to help develop its Guaranteed Human positioning, emphasizing the value of authentic voices and human-created experiences in its audio programming.
I find that particularly compelling because it reinforces something I’ve believed throughout my broadcasting career. Technology can make a station more efficient, but it doesn’t automatically make that station more interesting.
The best personalities don’t simply deliver information. They create relationships. They make listeners laugh, introduce them to new experiences, and become familiar voices during some of the most ordinary moments of everyday life.
You cannot measure the entire value of that relationship by counting how many songs somebody heard or how many minutes a listener spent with the station on a particular Tuesday.
Research can help us understand the relationship, but management still has to recognize why it matters.
Fertick’s work has also addressed one of the most important questions facing contemporary radio: how do we connect with younger consumers who are growing up in an environment where traditional broadcasting is only one of many available entertainment choices?
In August, iHeartMedia released Unlocking the Community-Driven Gen Z Listener, a study examining the relationship between younger audiences, social interaction, and audio.
The findings challenged some familiar assumptions about the generation’s listening habits. The company highlighted Nielsen research showing that broadcast radio continues to reach approximately 90% of teenagers between the ages of 13 and 19 each month. It also pointed to Edison Research measurements indicating that radio represented 47% of Gen Z’s advertising-supported audio listening time, compared with 31% for streaming music and 21% for podcasts.
Those are substantial numbers, although the distinction between advertising-supported listening and total audio consumption is important. Subscription services and other advertising-free options remain part of the competitive landscape even when they aren’t included in that particular comparison.
What interested me most wasn’t simply the amount of listening.
It was the explanation for why young consumers might still find radio appealing.
The research suggested that some younger listeners value radio because it offers a shared experience without the same social pressure they encounter on platforms where everything they post, share, or endorse can become subject to public judgment.
In a world where young people are constantly being asked to present themselves, explain themselves, and defend their preferences, there’s something appealing about simply turning on a station and enjoying the experience without having to make every musical choice part of a public identity.
That’s a fascinating observation, and it creates programming possibilities that go far beyond the usual discussions about how many current songs a station should play.
If younger listeners value shared experiences, community, and a sense of belonging, then our programming strategies need to reflect those interests.
That could mean stronger personality development, more meaningful connections with local communities, compelling music discovery, and digital content that encourages participation without requiring listeners to become the center of attention.
It could also mean recognizing that a station’s greatest advantage isn’t necessarily its ability to provide unlimited choice.
Sometimes people appreciate having someone they trust make the choices for them.
There’s a lesson in that for broadcasters who have spent years trying to compete with streaming services by making their stations sound more like streaming services.
I’d rather develop a station with a distinct identity and a meaningful relationship with its audience than one that simply attempts to duplicate the experience listeners can already find somewhere else.
Fertick’s research extends beyond programming into advertising, and that’s another reason this promotion deserves attention.
iHeartMedia has increasingly emphasized the relationship between broadcast audio and digital advertising, arguing that radio can help make campaigns on other platforms more effective. Research released earlier this year examined how exposure to radio advertising can influence consumer engagement with digital advertisements, online searches, and purchasing decisions.
A March 2025 Critical Mass study found that 55% of surveyed radio listeners reported being more likely to click a social media advertisement after hearing the brand promoted on the radio. Another 72% said hearing a brand advertised on radio made them more likely to notice its subsequent social advertising.
Those are self-reported consumer attitudes, not proof that every campaign will achieve comparable results. But they illustrate the kind of questions broadcasters should be examining as advertisers seek more accountability from their marketing investments.
For decades, radio sellers have made compelling arguments about reach, frequency, cost efficiency, and the relationships between personalities and listeners. Those advantages remain important, but today’s advertisers increasingly want to understand how their investment contributes to actual business outcomes.
They want to know whether campaigns generate interest, website visits, store traffic, appointments, and sales.
That’s where a more sophisticated research operation can become valuable.
A radio company capable of connecting audience behavior with advertising performance has an opportunity to offer something more meaningful than another presentation about how many people might have heard a commercial.
It can help advertisers understand how radio fits into a broader marketing strategy.
And that’s particularly important for iHeartMedia, which operates across broadcast radio, podcasting, streaming, digital advertising, live events, and other platforms.
The company is no longer simply competing with other radio broadcasters for advertising revenue. It’s competing with a much larger collection of media companies and technology platforms that have spent years developing sophisticated approaches to audience targeting and campaign measurement.
Fertick’s work also touches iHeart’s AudioGraph initiative, developed with Triton Digital, which connects audience intelligence with data-driven advertising capabilities.
Taken together, these activities help explain why iHeart would want consumer research represented more prominently in executive decision-making.
But here’s the question I’d be asking if I were sitting in one of the company’s programming offices.
Will this additional emphasis on research help local radio stations become better at serving their audiences, or will most of the benefits be realized through the company’s advertising and corporate marketing operations?
I don’t ask that as a criticism of Fertick or iHeartMedia. It’s an important distinction because research can be extraordinarily valuable without necessarily producing better programming.
I’ve seen operations with access to tremendous amounts of information that still struggled to create compelling radio. I’ve also seen talented programmers achieve remarkable results with fewer resources because they understood their markets, knew how to recognize developing trends, and had the instincts necessary to turn information into an entertaining product.
The challenge is connecting those abilities.
A station’s Program Director should have access to meaningful consumer insights, but the information needs to be relevant to the market, the format, and the audience the station is trying to serve.
What works for a major-market CHR operation doesn’t necessarily work for a Classic Hits station in a smaller market. The needs of a News/Talk audience may differ substantially from those of an Urban Contemporary audience, and the consumer behavior shaping listening in a large metropolitan area may not fully explain what’s happening in a rural community.
Research becomes most valuable when it helps programmers understand those differences rather than encouraging every station to follow the same corporate assumptions.
And the research itself has to be evaluated intelligently.
A high monthly reach figure tells us something important about exposure to radio. It doesn’t automatically tell us how much time younger listeners are spending with the medium or whether they consider a particular station essential to their daily routine.
A survey showing that consumers appreciate human-created content doesn’t establish that every live program will outperform every automated one.
And a study indicating that radio advertising can influence digital engagement doesn’t mean that every advertiser will see the same results.
The value comes from understanding what the information actually measures and applying it appropriately.
That’s where I believe Fertick’s appointment could become particularly meaningful.
If iHeart uses its expanded research leadership to help stations identify audience opportunities, understand changing consumer expectations, improve talent development, strengthen local relevance, and demonstrate advertising effectiveness, the benefits could extend throughout the organization.
If the result is primarily another collection of impressive corporate presentations without corresponding improvements in programming and market execution, then the opportunity will be considerably less significant.
I suspect Fertick understands that distinction better than most, given the amount of time she’s spent working with programmers, talent, research teams, and advertising partners.
Her career also demonstrates something I appreciate about this business when companies are willing to develop people.
She began as an intern at Critical Mass Media more than twenty years ago and has now reached an executive position created specifically to recognize the growing importance of her area of expertise.
That’s an impressive progression, and it offers a reminder that some of the most valuable people in a broadcasting organization aren’t necessarily the ones whose names appear on the morning show or whose offices are closest to the General Manager.
The research specialist who recognizes an emerging audience trend, the analyst who identifies a competitive weakness, or the person who discovers why consumers are responding differently to a particular product can have an enormous influence on the success of an operation.
But that influence becomes meaningful only when leadership is willing to listen and act on what those people discover.
From the outside, iHeartMedia’s decision suggests the company wants consumer understanding to play a more visible role in its broader strategy. The newly created Chief Insights Officer position gives Fertick responsibility that extends beyond the traditional boundaries of programming research and into the decisions shaping the company’s overall business.
Whether other major radio groups eventually adopt similar leadership structures remains to be seen, but the underlying concept deserves consideration.
Radio has spent much of its history concentrating on the audience it already possesses. The next phase of the business will require a better understanding of the people it wants to attract, the consumers whose habits are changing, and the advertisers looking for more effective ways to reach them.
That involves research, certainly.
But it also requires talented broadcasters capable of turning information into programming people actually want to hear.
I’ve always believed the best radio operations combine intelligent analysis with creative instincts. Research helps us understand where opportunities exist, while programming determines whether we can turn those opportunities into lasting audience relationships.
Neither function should operate in isolation.
And perhaps that’s the most interesting thing about this promotion.
At a time when the industry is wrestling with artificial intelligence, changing listening habits, digital advertising, staffing pressures, and questions about its long-term relevance, iHeartMedia has chosen to elevate the person responsible for helping the company understand the people on the other side of all those decisions.
That makes sense to me.
But the measure of success won’t be the creation of another executive title.
It will be whether the company’s programmers, personalities, sales teams, and local managers become better equipped to serve their audiences and advertisers.
Congratulations to Lainie Fertick on a well-earned promotion and a career that has taken her from an internship to a position of considerable corporate responsibility. Her work has already helped shape some of iHeartMedia’s most interesting conversations about consumers, technology, advertising, and the future of audio.
Now she’ll have an even greater opportunity to influence what the company does with that information.
And for those of us who have spent our careers trying to understand why people turn on the radio, why they stay, and why they sometimes go somewhere else, there’s something encouraging about seeing that responsibility recognized at this level.
The best broadcasters have always known that successful radio begins with understanding the listener.
The challenge has always been deciding what to do with that understanding.
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