Sound has always been the first storyteller. Long before screens got smart, radio learned how to guide attention with a music bed, create suspense with a pause, and seal a moment with a short sting. That craft didn’t fade when media moved to phones and dashboards; it spread. Podcasts adopted radio’s pacing and intimacy. Games use sonic feedback to signal progress and risk. Even short-form video borrows the discipline of clean intros, clear beats, and quick resets that radio perfected for the drive-time listener.

For iHeart’s audience, this matters because sound is now the layer that ties our multitasking day together. We listen while we drive, cook, text, and scroll. Formats that succeed in these moments follow radio’s rules: simple cues, repeatable structures, and voices that paint pictures you can “see” with your ears. As new platforms rise—voice assistants, connected cars, spatial audio—those rules are becoming the common language across media. The lesson from the radio isn’t nostalgia. It’s a working playbook for how to hold attention when eyes are busy but ears are open.

Why gaming industry learned radio’s tricks

In a modern video poker casino, sound carries the story of each hand. A crisp “deal” tone sets tempo. Soft ticks track holds. A brighter chord marks a win, while a brief rising arpeggio turns the draw into a cliffhanger. These are not random effects; they’re structured like radio imaging. Short, repeatable motifs define segments (deal, decide, reveal), just as top-of-hour tones and sweepers define radio blocks. The loop length, pitch range, and silence between cues all shape pace and tension.

This logic extends across video poker casino platforms and online gaming more broadly. Sonic cues compress complex states—credits, volatility, multipliers—into feelings you can recognize in a split second. In slots games, low-frequency hits signal “weight” when big reels land, while higher chimes make near-misses feel like they are almost connected. Radio learned long ago that repeatable signifiers teach listeners a show’s rhythm; these games use the same principle so players don’t need to read a manual. Your ear knows where you are in the experience.

Audio also adds continuity. When cards, reels, and menus change skins, the sonic palette anchors identity and teaches rules. Simple instrumentation—short synth plucks, filtered drums, and warm pads—keeps fatigue low over long sessions. And, as on radio, the pause is a tool. A breath of silence before the reveal heightens reward, just like the beat before a punchline lands. None of this is coercive; it’s design literacy shaped by a century of audio storytelling. The video poker casino learned from radio how to keep a story moving in tiny, clear steps, even when the screen is dense.

When Players Ask for Music

But beyond the strategy of such platforms, the inclusion of music is kind of a demand from players, which means the feature is truly effective and, most importantly, pleasant as a part of the entertainment. Even when you look through the comments under social media posts by digital gaming sites, people mention music as an important feature.

Audio’s reach by the numbers today

The average American spent nearly one-fifth of daily media time with audio in late 2024, which Nielsen translates to three hours and fifty-four minutes. In 2025, a study by Edison found that more than half of people in the United States (about 158 million) listened to a podcast in the last month. A podcast is like a radio show you can play anytime on your phone or computer, and it can be sound only or a video show.

About 35% of Americans have a smart speaker at home (like an Alexa or Google speaker), and that number is not really growing anymore. So, new ideas are now more about making better apps and ways to listen, not about making new speakers.

What comes next: voice, cars, and the new “audio screen”

The strategy lesson is simple: build for moments, not modes. Commuters and cooks don’t have hands or eyes free, so shows, streams, and games that speak in clean chapters win. That’s where radio’s discipline continues to guide format design—tight intros, clear transitions, and memorable motifs. The monetization runway is there too. Industry analysts project podcast ad revenue to grow about 12% in 2024 and approach $2.6 billion by 2026 as video versions, programmatic buying, and live events expand the pie.

When listening behaves like a screen

Cars intensify the shift. With phone-integrated dashboards and robust voice controls, the cabin behaves like a new kind of “audio screen.” In-car data shows strong, simultaneous demand for broadcast, streaming, and podcasts, which rewards producers who package content that can be entered mid-stream and understood by ear alone. Edison’s latest view underscores this blend of habits, and the day-part logic radio honed still maps to the ways people listen on the road.

One line captures the moment: “Audio accounted for nearly 20% of American’s daily media time in the fourth-quarter of 2024.” That’s Nielsen’s framing for why audio deserves first-class placement in every media plan—and why sound design remains a core product feature, not an afterthought.