As 2025 looms, audio agency Oxford Road gathered a roundtable to forecast unvarnished takes on radio’s profitability and CPMs, podcast ad overload, and the uneasy alliance between AI innovation and the timeless art of authentic storytelling.

During The Media Roundtable podcast, Oxford Road CEO Dan Granger was joined by Amplifi Media CEO Steven Goldstein, Sounds Profitable Partner Tom Webster, and Podscribe CEO Peter Birsinger to discuss trends in advertising and content creation. One key takeaway: AM/FM radio’s advertising CPM rates are expected to continue declining due to excess inventory and low advertiser demand.

The panel emphasized that radio must innovate to remain competitive, leveraging its unique advantages, such as its hands-free, multitasking capability.

Granger emphasized the need to focus on personalization, arguing that direct, authentic storytelling by talent remains one of the most effective ways to engage audiences. The opportunity lies in unlocking the inefficiency of human storytelling, in contrast with the increasing reliance on AI.

As for generative AI’s role in the year to come, the technology is expected to create efficiencies in ad creation, audience targeting, and content recommendation, but its role in audio production remains contentious. There remains skepticism among the listening public about AI-generated content replacing authentic, human-driven podcasting.

The recommendation stands for those in audio using AI to enhance operational tasks, such as improving recommendation algorithms and enabling faster creative refreshes.

Podcast consumption is expected to continue rising, but much of that growth will be driven by video integration. Platforms like YouTube are now dominating podcast discovery because of their superior user experience, including intuitive interfaces and seamless content discovery.

Simulcast campaigns – where podcasts are offered in both audio and video formats – are likely to further expand, with YouTube continuing to command the majority of impressions. For advertising in the medium, Webster and Birsinger both called for improved spot quality and creative services. With growing competition for listener attention, they noted that poorly executed ads risk diminishing overall effectiveness.

The roundtable also referenced an August study by Oxford Road and Podscribe that found rising podcast ad loads risk undermining listener engagement and ad effectiveness. Top-ranked podcasts now average a 10.2% ad load, with some reaching up to 25%, aligning with traditional commercial radio and TV norms. That spot load could prove damaging for audience retention in 2025.

The full roundtable is available here.