When one of the largest US radio groups says “we’re going digital-first,” that’s not marketing spin. That’s a signal.
A strong one.
Beasley Media Group – 55 stations, 20 million weekly listeners, a top 10 US broadcaster – just announced a full digital-first pivot.
Translation: FM is no longer the center of gravity.
And Beasley isn’t talking about sprinkling in a podcast here, or posting a few more clips on TikTok. Their plan is deeper:
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Expand revenue beyond FM
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Create content designed for on-demand and social
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Reorganize teams so digital sits at the core of programming, sales, and operations
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Develop data, product, and audience-growth capabilities more common in tech companies than in radio groups
This matters because too many broadcasters still treat digital as a side project, something bolted on, often underfunded, often seen as a cost center.
Beasley is flipping the model. Digital is not a support act. It is the business.
Why is this bigger than Beasley?
When a legacy player with 55 stations and decades of FM dominance restructures around digital, it sets a precedent. It removes the last excuse for smaller, nimbler stations that claim they’re too constrained to transform.
The truth is: digital isn’t waiting. Audiences already live in a digital-first world. Their habits, platforms, and expectations are all shaped outside of radio.
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Listeners compare your app not to another station’s app, but to Spotify, Netflix, or WhatsApp.
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Advertisers benchmark your targeting and attribution against what they see from Google or Meta.
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Audiences expect personalization, seamless interfaces, and on-demand choice as the default.
If you don’t meet those expectations, someone else will.
From “digital strategy” to strategy for a digital world
As I wrote in Radio’s Digital Transformation Playbook, the challenge is not to build a “digital strategy” as an add-on. The challenge is to rethink your entire strategy for a digital-first environment.
That means restructuring: how teams are organized, how success is measured, how content is produced, and how revenue is captured. It means developing skills in data, experimentation, product, and audience acquisition, not just in programming and sales.
No more excuses
If Beasley can move, so can you.
The question every broadcaster should be asking themselves is: What stops us from doing the same?
Because the longer you treat digital as “extra,” the faster you train your future audience to live without you.
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