Why It Matters: DTS AutoStage is not just delivering radio more data – it’s unlocking a deeper understanding of how audiences listen in the car.

Through the AutoStage portal, stations gain access to station-level listening including time spent, share, tuning occasions, cume, geography, and hourly usage. This level of visibility offers a more complete look at in-car listening.

And when you step back from the dashboard, a new pattern begins to take shape. The stations finding success in the AutoStage environment are consistently winning on three fronts:

Top of Mind Awareness

In a dashboard filled with choices, availability alone isn’t enough. If a listener has to think too hard about what to listen to, you are at-risk of losing the occasion. The stations that win are the ones that come to mind first with heavy listeners – the ones with the most listening occasions to give.

Multiple Tune-Ins Per Day – Daily Cume

One of the biggest implications of AutoStage’s tuning occasions and cume data is that stations can clearly see the impact of repeat usage. Winning is not just about capturing one long listening span – it is about creating multiple occasions across the day: the drive to work, the lunch run, the school pickup, the trip to practice, the ride home.

Winning the Seatbelt Test

This may be the most important insight of all. Top of mind awareness is about memory. Daily cume is about repeat behavior. But the Seatbelt Test is about the moment where those two things collide in real life. When the listener gets in the car, buckles up and reaches for audio, do they pick you first? That is the ultimate test.

In our August End Result, we described this test as getting heavy listeners to pick you “First & Most” each time they have an occasion to give. AutoStage offers broadcasters a new way to see the outcome on a daily basis.

This new visibility into listening behavior is giving us new ways to strategically deploy station marketing. The job is not simply for the station to be known or even to generate a single tune-in. It is to be the brand that wins the occasion at the Moment of Truth over and over again.

The formula looks like this: Top of mind awareness gets you into consideration. Daily Cume proves you are generating repeat occasions. Winning the Seatbelt Test means you are converting both into a habitual first choice.

And importantly, these are not just AutoStage fundamentals. They are audience fundamentals.

The same dynamics that help stations win in-car listening also drive success with Nielsen. It’s a race without a finish line, which is why market leading stations across PPM and diary markets work with DMR/Interactive to win more listening occasions and turn them into revenue.

Go Deeper: Watch the new AutoStage session at CRS.

On behalf of Catherine Jung, Tony Bannon, Jen Clayborn, Mike Landis, and everyone at DMR/Interactive, thank you for driving radio forward.

Onward,

Andrew Curran
President and CEO
DMR/Interactive

Why It Matters: Spotify’s latest earnings call wasn’t really about AI. It was about relationships and applying this core principle: Personalization drives engagement. Engagement drives retention. Retention drives revenue.

Spotify executives made it clear – their AI strategy isn’t focused on automating content creation or eliminating jobs. It’s about making the platform more interactive and more personalized. Gustav Söderström described Spotify’s evolution toward becoming “the world’s most intelligent” media platform. Not smarter for the sake of technology – smarter in how it serves each user.

AI leads to better personalization. Better personalization leads to more engagement. More engagement leads to more retention. More retention leads to lifetime value. This is the growth engine.

Here’s what radio must understand: none of this is new.

Personalization driving engagement and retention isn’t a Silicon Valley breakthrough. It’s relationship marketing. And it has been our north star at DMR/Interactive since the beginning – long before “AI” became a boardroom talking point. We build data-driven strategies that consistently help our clients increase time spent, protect retention, and expand cume by focusing on the listeners who matter most.

Radio’s advantage has always been connection. But connection today requires intelligence. It requires understanding who your most valuable listeners are, how they behave, when they engage, and when they start to drift. It requires using data not to replace talent or programming instincts, but to strengthen the bond. That’s not a tech mindset. That’s a relationship mindset.

The stations that win won’t be chasing every new platform feature. They’ll be the ones identifying their most valuable listeners and consistently reinforcing that relationship through smart data, targeted activation, and meaningful touchpoints.

Radio already owns the emotional connection. When it pairs that with disciplined, data-driven relationship marketing, it strengthens time spent, protects retention, expands cume, and grows lifetime value.

The difference isn’t capability. It’s commitment.

The stations that understand this will grow. The ones that don’t will drift.

Go deeper on the power of personalization. Email DMR/Interactive to receive 3 additional insights from this earnings call – and we’ll help you drive engagement, daily cume, retention, and lifetime value.

On behalf of Catherine Jung, Tony Bannon, Jen Clayborn, Mike Landis, and everyone at DMR/Interactive, thank you for driving radio forward.

Onward,

Andrew Curran
President and CEO
DMR/Interactive

Why it matters: Radio’s reach is larger than digital platforms – including Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube, but stations need to increase mindshare with heavy listeners and key advertisers.

In advance of the Patriots vs. Seahawks game on Sunday, we asked industry executives a question: “If the radio industry bought a $10 million ad during the big game, what would the message be?”

The results identify a striking paradox: while radio reaches more people than any other medium, radio needs to do a better job demonstrating its essential and ubiquitous nature to audiences and advertisers.

According to Andrew Curran, President and CEO of DMR/Interactive, the results underscore a challenge that’s unique to radio. “Radio leads through invisible dominance. It reaches more people than any other media platform, but because it’s always there – free, local, and easy – it often doesn’t get full credit for its impact. Reach is a fact, but relevance is shaped by perception. Changing that perception starts by leveraging our heavy listeners. They love radio, engage deeply with it, and consistently drive massive ROI for advertisers.”

As survey responses were analyzed, three clear messaging strategies emerged for a commercial highlighting radio’s strengths:

• Free & Everywhere (38%) – Radio’s unmatched accessibility across devices and environments
• Fun & Companionship (32%) – The emotional connection and human presence of local radio personalities
• Advertisers & Reach (30%) – Radio’s unrivaled weekly reach and marketing effectiveness

Notably, many respondents blended multiple themes, reinforcing the idea that radio’s true strength lies at the intersection of reach, relevance, and emotional connection. Here are some insights in their own words.

• Radio connects listeners, advertisers, and communities and is essential.
• Immediate, local, and ubiquitous.
• You only spend $10m if the creative is bigger than life and can be amplified by audio-only spots on radio stations and radio streaming in the months to come

The survey also revealed a powerful insight that could anchor a memorable message – one that would resonate with radio’s P1s and prompt skeptics to verify the claim: “Tomorrow, more people will get up and listen to the radio than are watching the game tonight.”

Additional survey results, including insights into messaging strategies for your heavy listeners and key advertisers, are available from DMR/Interactive. Reach out to Tony Bannon, VP of Marketing Strategy: win@dmrinteractive.com.

On behalf of Catherine Jung, Tony Bannon, Jen Clayborn, Mike Landis, and everyone at DMR/Interactive, thank you for driving radio forward.

Onward,

Andrew Curran
President and CEO
DMR/Interactive