Audacy: Hometown Voices Drive Sports Audio Growth

RADIO ONLINE | Tuesday, August 25, 2026 | 3:01pm CT

Audacy Insights

Sports fans have more ways than ever to follow their favorite teams, but Audacy says the growing accessibility of local radio play-by-play is giving the traditional "hometown voice" a renewed role in how audiences experience live sports.

In a new Audacy Insights report, the company points to changing media habits and technology as factors helping sports audio reach listeners beyond traditional radios. Fans increasingly follow games while commuting, exercising, cooking or doing other activities rather than committing several hours to a television screen.

According to Edison Research data cited by Audacy, the share of sports radio listening taking place on mobile devices has tripled since 2022. Smartphones, wireless headphones and streaming have also made it easier for fans to follow hometown broadcasts while traveling or living outside their team's market.

Audacy says audio is also increasingly complementing television rather than competing with it. Its research found 36% of Major League Baseball fans have paired radio play-by-play with a live television broadcast, allowing them to watch the game while hearing their preferred local announcers. Apple TV offers viewers the option of selecting local radio audio during live baseball telecasts.

That combination is moving into stadiums as well. At Citi Field, Audacy and SportsBug offer synchronized New York Mets radio play-by-play that fans can hear through their phones and earbuds while watching the game. Through the first 50 games of the season, fans had initiated more than 17,000 streams and consumed more than 3,800 hours of the in-stadium audio.

Chicago Cubs radio announcer Pat Hughes, who has called more than 7,000 MLB games during his career, said baseball remains particularly well suited to the medium.

"No sport is better suited for radio than baseball," Hughes said, noting the constant communication between announcers and their audience. Hughes said listeners frequently tell him his voice accompanies them in the car, during dinner or while doing chores, summarizing the relationship by saying, "We're part of people's lives."

Audacy argues that streaming has effectively removed the geographic limits once associated with local sports radio. Fans can now hear their hometown announcers while traveling, living across the country, watching television or even sitting inside the stadium.

The result, the company says, is a sports audio experience increasingly defined not by where listeners are, but by how they choose to follow the game.