Thank you for checking out The Industry According To. Every Tuesday we speak with a different expert or leader from somewhere in the vast music industry — label executives, artist managers, programmers, talent, artists, consultants, and beyond. To appear as a future guest, email me at keithblackboxgroup@gmail.com.
Today we sit down with one of streaming’s key content leaders, Kevin Straley. He’s spent 15 years at TuneIn, where he serves as Chief Content Officer, overseeing content acquisition, strategy, and partnerships for the global streaming platform. Before TuneIn, Kevin was SVP of News/Talk/Sports at SiriusXM, PD at WRKO in Boston, and ran his own consultancy, KMS Media Partners.
So, let’s dive in.
*Editor’s Note: Answers have been edited for clarity and length.*
The Gig at TuneIn
Keith: Every day is different at a platform your size. What does a typical day look like for you — what occupies most of your time as Chief Content Officer?
Kevin: Each day begins with reviewing the previous day’s meeting notes and my weekly to-do list, which I keep organized on my reMarkable tablet. When I’m not traveling to meet with partners or attend conferences, I have a relatively short, 30-minute commute that I use to explore the TuneIn app, listen to content, and evaluate the user experience.
Once I arrive at the office, a typical day consists of a mix of partner meetings, internal meetings, and strategic planning. Because I am based on the East Coast, my mornings are focused on connecting with partners in Europe as well as domestic partners in the Eastern Time Zone. Most of the TuneIn content team is based on the West Coast, so around noon I begin checking in with team members on active projects and new opportunities. We’re working with partners every day to drive the most engagement for their content and drive incremental revenue to their stations. There’s a lot of variety, which makes the job a lot of fun.
What Does Success Look Like
Keith: A label VP is judged on sales or roster growth, a radio PD on Nielsen ratings — what does success look like for you? What benchmarks or KPIs define a win at TuneIn?
Kevin: Our core KPIs are increasing the number of unique platform users, growing listening hours, and driving revenue growth. It requires our team to constantly evaluate what’s performing, what isn’t, and where we need to invest next.
The Streaming Challenge
Keith: Radio’s challenges get talked about daily — streaming, attention spans, younger demos, revenue shifts. What about streaming? What’s keeping you up at night, and what are the immediate challenges TuneIn has to overcome?
Kevin: TuneIn offers listeners a wide range of content options with more than 100,000 radio stations, millions of podcasts, and more. Returning listeners typically come to the platform knowing exactly which stations they want to hear. For new users, however, the depth and breadth of our content library can be overwhelming, so our primary goal is to help them find a station as quickly as possible. Guiding new listeners to the content they are searching for — or introducing them to content they are likely to enjoy — continues to be a challenge with such a deep content offering. However, our teams have made significant progress in creating a more intuitive discovery experience that helps new TuneIn listeners find relevant content more quickly. For example, we introduced TuneIn Explorer, an interactive map that helps listeners easily discover content from around the globe.
Your World of Data
Keith: Having a radio background, you know the focus is on Share, Rating, TSL, Cume, etc. Now you have far deeper listener data. Which data points matter most to you — what tells you if something is headed in the right direction or needs a new strategy?
Kevin: I have had the opportunity to hold three platform leadership roles throughout my career: Program Director of WRKO/Boston, a top-format station in a top-10 market; Head of News, Talk, and Sports Content at XM Satellite Radio; and Chief Content Officer at TuneIn. Throughout that journey, the technology used to deliver content has evolved from terrestrial broadcast towers in Boston to satellite distribution with a repeater network across the United States and Canada at XM, and now to the leading global streaming aggregation platform at TuneIn.
The scale of the content offerings has also expanded at each stop — from approximately 40 stations in Boston, to 170 channels at XM, to more than 100,000 stations on TuneIn. Despite these dramatic changes in technology and scale, one thing has remained consistent: success in audio is measured by audience engagement and by comparing your content against the best in its genre.
The most successful audio content builds a loyal, habitual audience that returns regardless of the song, topic, or guest. It creates lasting relationships with listeners through entertainment, companionship, and relevance, while staying closely connected to what its audience is thinking and feeling.
When Lift is Needed
Keith: When you were programming radio, a ratings lift might come from tweaking clocks, adjusting a daypart, or getting some funding for marketing and contests. When TuneIn needs a lift, where do you look — new partnership, product, marketing, content strategy?
Kevin: Typically, when we have seen sizable growth at TuneIn, it comes from new content partners, device partners, or user features. Some of our biggest growth moments have come from expanding where listeners can access TuneIn. Every time we launch with a new automotive partner, like Nissan or BYD, we’re putting TuneIn and our partners’ stations in front of an entirely new audience in one of the most important listening environments.
At the same time, we see growth from recent content partnership launches, like Apple Music Radio, NBC Sports, Stingray Music, and ABC 20/20 True Crime 24/7, along with new product features like TuneIn Explorer and the new broadcaster portal.
Are Stars Just Stars
Keith: You hear podcast stars and radio stars each day — is there actually a difference between a radio star and a streaming star from your vantage point?
Kevin: No. In terms of having the talent and ability to be entertaining and deeply engage an audience, that is a unique skill set that separates the stars from the run-of-the-mill “wind ’em up and let ’em talk” hosts.
I do think the frequency of the content being created, the length of each show, and the demands of delivering live versus on-demand programming require unique skills that don’t always translate across formats. A carefully crafted, highly edited, on-demand show can be exceptional, especially when the format allows for more variety in the audio than simply the host’s polished monologue.
Whether it’s a radio star or a streaming star, there’s something very special about creating 20 to 25 hours of live content each week. Interacting with your audience in real time and allowing the conversation to evolve based on audience feedback is a skill that remains incredibly difficult to replicate in other forms of media.
Is It the Talent or the Pipeline
Keith: Look ahead 10 years — does audio become talent-first or platform-first? Who ultimately has the leverage: the talent needing the pipeline, or the pipeline needing the talent?
Kevin: Content is always king. Without compelling content, an audio streaming platform has nothing for users to engage with. We don’t view this in terms of leverage on one side or the other. Instead, we focus on building cohesive partnerships that create value for both the station or content creator and the platform.
Radio’s Secret Weapon
Keith: You’re in a unique spot: TuneIn partners with thousands of radio stations, but you also compete with them for listening. What’s radio’s secret weapon — the one it should lean on most?
Kevin: Radio’s biggest advantage is live and local. When something important happens in a community, people turn to local radio.
The one-to-one connection that great radio talent has with listeners is unique to our industry. When I travel, listening to outstanding local stations in my market, like WMVY in Martha’s Vineyard, gives me a connection to home that I can’t get from any other form of media.
TuneIn exists to help make audio content available to listeners wherever they are. By making stations accessible across our platform and through our numerous device partnerships, we’re helping broadcasters reach more listeners, not compete for them.
Who Has the Leverage
Keith: It’s like a marriage: TuneIn wants AM/FM streams, AM/FM wants streaming distribution. But if transmitters went away tomorrow — does the leverage shift — and does that trigger a new era of distribution deals?
Kevin: It’s an unlikely scenario. Nothing changes from our perspective. Our role is to make radio more accessible and help our partners reach listeners across every platform.
Why TuneIn?
Keith: TuneIn is strategically aligned with iHeartMedia, so it’s not an adversarial, competitive relationship, but there are countless ways for people to stream content of all types. Why TuneIn? Why should a brand or talent choose TuneIn instead of somewhere else?
Kevin: I don’t see this as an either-or scenario. I think broadcasters that want to be widely distributed should have a strong native streaming strategy and then choose to work with the platforms that best align with their goals.
From a TuneIn perspective, we serve as both a distribution and growth platform for broadcast partners, extending their reach to listeners across more than 250 connected devices, including smart speakers, voice assistants, connected TVs, mobile devices, and automotive dashboard integrations. Beyond expanding audience access, TuneIn creates new revenue opportunities through advertising revenue-sharing across the platform’s ad inventory. Broadcasters also gain access to detailed analytics that provide insight into listener behavior and engagement, helping them better understand and grow their audiences.
To support content promotion, TuneIn works with partners on marketing and in-app prominence opportunities that showcase special programming, live events, and new content launches. Partners also have access to a self-service portal that allows them to manage station URLs, metadata, programming schedules, and logos, ensuring their content is always current and accurately represented across the platform. In addition, TuneIn provides embeddable desktop and mobile players that broadcasters can integrate into their own websites and mobile apps, creating a consistent listening experience for audiences wherever they choose to engage with the station.
What’s Missing
Keith: Over 100,000 streams on TuneIn — what’s missing? Anything? Is it a concept, a brand you don’t have? What’s on your hit list to get up and active on TuneIn that isn’t there already?
Kevin: TuneIn has a diverse and robust content portfolio with more than 100,000 streams. Currently, radio, music, sports, news, podcasts, and audiobooks drive the most engagement and listening on our platform. We are continuously exploring emerging content trends, new formats, and incremental content opportunities that further engage listeners and encourage them to spend more time on TuneIn.
The Big Dogs
Keith: TuneIn offers everything from music to live news, true crime, podcasts, sports, you name it. What are the top three categories that drive the most consistent listening? And can you share what the #1 stream is?
Kevin: At a high level, radio is where we see the highest engagement and listening on TuneIn. While we don’t share data for individual partners, the genres that consistently drive the most listening are music, sports, and news.
What’s Your Version of Airchecking
Keith: As a programmer, you used to be able to just walk into the studio and talk to the talent about something you heard that needs a tweak. As more of a distributor, how do you put your fingerprints on what comes out of the speakers? What’s your version of airchecking?
Kevin: I regularly explore the TuneIn platform from the perspective of our three most important constituents: listeners, broadcasters, and device partners. Feedback from each of these groups plays a critical role in shaping our product roadmap and improving the overall platform experience. My version of “airchecking” is spinning the TuneIn dial, experiencing the platform as our users do, and identifying features, workflows, and content experiences that are working well or could be improved.
With Stingray’s acquisition of TuneIn, announced late last year, we now have the added benefit of one of Canada’s largest radio groups serving not only as a content partner but also as a valuable source of real-time feedback and strategic guidance from the front lines of the radio industry.
Steve Jones and his team at Stingray Radio have become an invaluable sounding board for new ideas and initiatives we want to share with our broadcast partners to drive listening engagement and revenue. They also identify opportunities we may not have otherwise considered, helping TuneIn better serve our broadcast partners. That collaboration has been especially valuable throughout 2026.
The Blank Slate
Keith: Last question, everyone gets a shot. Blank slate — say anything you want to any sector of the audio industry. What do you want them to hear?
Kevin: I have never been more bullish about audio and its future. Across radio, podcasts, streaming audio services, and audiobooks, each category continues to attract a growing audience for best-in-class content while creating new opportunities to become part of listeners’ daily habits across both established and emerging platforms.
With the continued growth of video podcasts, I am excited to see radio have its own moment by embracing visual engagement for leading shows and stations in 2027 and beyond. The opportunity to extend radio’s reach through compelling visual content has never been greater.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.
