On August 19, 2026, the American company iHeartMedia presented research called The Guarded Generation. Its results emphasize the social value of radio for Generation Z. The research was conducted by Critical Mass Media in June 2026 among 1,090 American radio listeners aged 18 to 64. The results for the young group therefore describe the attitudes of people who already listen to radio; they cannot be automatically applied to the entire generation.
Nevertheless, it is a substantial contribution to the debate about the future of radio. It offers station operators a reason to actively engage young audiences. At the same time, it helps to formulate the question they should be asking more precisely: in what situations can radio offer a young person such a pleasant experience that they voluntarily choose it?
Specific results show how significantly radio is used in the company of other people:
Indicator among Gen Z respondents | Result |
|---|---|
When driving with others, they usually choose radio | 84 % |
When listening to radio together, they feel less judged by others | 85 % |
They consider radio a less risky choice for a group | 77 % |
They listen to radio with others often or almost always | 63 % |
Same frequency of shared listening in the entire sample of listeners | 42 % |
The difference between the last two values is 21 percentage points, relatively 50%. Shared listening has a significantly stronger position among young respondents.
From a programming strategy perspective, this difference is particularly interesting because it draws attention to the environment in which broadcasting is listened to. When creating a program, stations don't just have to think about an individual with headphones. They can also imagine a group of friends on their way to entertainment or a young household preparing dinner. In such situations, the value of the program can depend on whether it suits the shared mood and can maintain it.
A more detailed analysis by iHeartMedia offers a psychological explanation. 96% of young respondents associate music or content selection with their own identity, and approximately seven out of ten are concerned about how others will judge their choice. Leaving music dramaturgy to the station alleviates this pressure. Radio allows sharing music without anyone having to defend every song from their playlist.
For Czech music stations, a practical hypothesis can be drawn from this: consistent dramaturgy can be a standalone service for young listeners. Listeners learn what to expect from the station and can rely on it for a specific occasion. Such predictability does not necessarily mean musical monotony. It can mean a well-managed balance of familiar songs, new releases, energy, and spoken word.
Therefore, when considering rejuvenating the audience, it would be useful to test the entire listening experience. Simply including a few current hits may not change how young people perceive the station. The moderating style, broadcast pace, length of commercial breaks, or the moderator's ability to speak naturally about topics that truly concern their audience can also be decisive.
Further results highlight what happens after shared listening. 91% of young respondents state that radio provides topics for conversation, 90% say that content heard together sparks subsequent conversation, and 86% associate radio with shared moments and memories. According to the same analysis, nine out of ten use radio and their own music collections for different purposes in different situations.
For radio brands, this is an encouraging finding. It suggests room for coexistence with the music services that young people already use. A station can build its own significance in their daily routine without needing to take over every minute of their listening. From a business perspective, regular presence in a certain situation can be more valuable than an uncertain attempt to offer everything to everyone.
The broader context is supplemented by a press release with data from other surveys: according to the cited Nielsen, radio reaches 90% of American teenagers aged 13-19 monthly. Edison Share of Ear attributes 47% of Gen Z's time spent on ad-supported audio to radio, compared to 31% for music streaming and 21% for podcasts. The second comparison does not include all listening to paid ad-free music services.
The distinction between reach, listening time, and relationship to the station is crucial for interpretation. Monthly contact with radio does not yet mean daily loyalty to a specific program. A positive attitude, in itself, does not determine the size of advertising revenues. Together, however, these different perspectives provide a reason not to overlook young audiences when planning the future of radio.
The transfer to the Czech environment must remain an analytical outlook. American research did not measure Czech listeners or DAB+ usage. Furthermore, the published methodology does not state the separate size of the Generation Z subsample. To prove growth over time, comparable repeated measurements would be necessary. A positive relationship found in one survey therefore cannot be mistaken for evidence that youth listening is automatically increasing. However, this does not diminish the usefulness of the results as a basis for specific Czech experiments.
Czech digital distribution provides a space where new programming approaches can be tried. As early as March 2025, České Radiokomunikace announced that their commercial network B had reached 83.4% of the population via 31 transmitters. This refers to the then-current state of a specific network, not the aggregated current coverage of all Czech multiplexes. The operator also mentioned the possibility of broadcasting different content in individual regions.
Development continues in 2026. In August, Czech Radio reported on adjustments to RTI cz broadcasting from Klínovec, which improved program availability in the Ústí nad Labem and Karlovy Vary regions. The described networks combine public service, commercial, and thematic stations, including music formats. The digital environment thus practically offers space for different listener preferences.
For appealing to younger people, a wider selection could be important. However, each new station should be able to explain why it should be listened to. Opportunities could include contemporary dance music, connecting local creation with international novelties, or a program that consistently focuses on a specific music scene. These are possible directions to be verified by Czech research, not formats whose success would be guaranteed by the American study.
A well-defined station should also have a sufficiently broad repertoire of situations in which it can be used. Too narrow a selection can captivate individuals but make shared listening difficult. Operators therefore need to find a balance between a distinctive identity and acceptability for a wider circle of friends or household members. Testing group listening could yield different insights than the usual individual song evaluations.
The car represents a very specific opportunity. DAB+ allows receiving common free-to-air stations without logging into an app, internet data plan, or service subscription. WorldDAB also emphasized these features at the Automotive 2026 conference and at the same time highlighted the importance of easily finding radio in in-car systems.
From a business and programming perspective, it would therefore make sense to combine the promotion of a new station with simple tuning instructions and a specific listening moment. A campaign, for example, could show the way to a festival or an afternoon return home. The potential listener would then have a reason to try the station precisely when it can offer the appropriate atmosphere.
A prerequisite is truly comfortable reception on commonly used routes. For an operator's decision, the mere percentage of the population on a coverage map is not enough. They need to know the experience in a moving car, availability in their target region, and whether the listener can easily save the station. Technical investment gains commercial significance when it enables repeated, reliable contact with the program.
Similarly, thinking about advertising could change. If a station wants to leverage the potential of shared listening, it can prepare campaigns suitable for joint decision-making: visiting a concert, a trip, a sporting event, or local gastronomy. The spot should be understandable on first listen and offer an easily memorable reason to act.
However, it would be a mistake to automatically multiply ad reach by the presumed number of people in the car. Such an increase would have to be supported by measurement. A reasonable approach is a pilot campaign with predetermined indicators: brand recall, traffic to a specific page, offer utilization, or change in advertiser awareness. A positive relationship with radio creates an opportunity whose value needs to be proven by results.
For regional stations, proximity to local life can also be beneficial. A program that connects music with events, local personalities, and leisure activities could gain a reason to listen beyond individual songs. For example, a new show could be linked to the local music scene and observe whether its listeners return and participate in related events. Such an approach allows building community gradually and with cost control.
Digital distribution should be part of the brand's wider availability. DAB+ can serve listening in the car or on a receiver, internet streams for other situations, and social networks can help discover programs. The operator should monitor whether people actually move between these environments. A large number of views of a short video has limited significance for broadcasting if it does not lead to station awareness or regular listening.
Thus, the positive impact on Czech DAB+ may primarily lie in better utilizing its programming potential. American insights give broadcasters an impetus to invest in younger audiences, test new formats, and more precisely explain the value of radio to advertisers. The foreign study alone will not change Czech listenership. But it can change the decisions of people who prepare local broadcasting.
This impetus will be most promising for stations that can connect an available signal with distinctive programming and continuously verify why young people return to them. For the Czech radio market, this is an optimistic, yet concrete possibility: to give Generation Z more opportunities to discover radio they will want to listen to, even together.