AdLarge Media
AdLarge Media is an independent audio advertising sales company based in New York City. Founded in 2011 by Cathy Csukas and Gary Schonfeld, the company connects audio publishers, brands and audiences across broadcast radio, podcasting, streaming and on-demand audio. Rather than owning stations or producing most of the programming it sells, AdLarge works as a sales and content partner: it represents networks, stations and podcast publishers to national advertisers and agencies, and packages that inventory into campaigns intended to deliver a measurable return on investment. Company descriptions put the reach of its diverse audio portfolio at more than 200 million listeners globally, across thousands of radio stations and tens of millions of monthly podcast downloads.
That position — an independent intermediary in a market dominated by large broadcast groups and platform owners — is the defining feature of AdLarge. Its history tracks the wider migration of audio advertising itself, from network radio spot sales in its early years, through a dedicated podcast and digital audio division called cabana, to the launch in 2024 of the fwd. network, a female-focused podcast network. Along the way the company has been recognised in trade rankings, maintained a top-ranked position in Nielsen's RADAR network ratings since entering them in 2013, and published an annual Podcast Buying Guide that became a reference point for advertisers entering the medium.
Founding and Founders
AdLarge was launched in 2011 by Cathy Csukas and Gary Schonfeld, who serve as its co-founders and co-chief executives. The two had worked together for years before starting the company, at MediaAmerica, Jones MediaAmerica and Westwood One, and Radio Ink reported that they sketched out their business plan together before launching. That shared background in network radio sales shaped the new company's first business: representing radio programming and networks to national advertisers.
Both founders have received sustained trade recognition. Csukas and Schonfeld were named among the "Top 20 Leaders in Radio" in 2021 and 2022, and Csukas has consistently been named one of the "Most Influential Women in Radio" by Radio Ink. More recently Csukas has been described as chief executive of both AdLarge and the fwd. network, reflecting the company's shift toward podcasting and female audiences.
What the Company Sells
AdLarge describes itself as an audio ad sales and content company specialising in lifestyle-driven audio environments across podcasts, streaming, AM/FM radio and on-demand platforms. In practical terms, it builds national campaigns for advertisers ranging from Fortune 500 companies to emerging direct-to-consumer brands, placing them inside programming supplied by its publisher and network partners. Company materials have described a portfolio reaching 207 million weekly listeners across 5,000 radio stations and generating over 45 million downloads per month across digital platforms.
The company's sales pitch rests on customisation and service rather than raw scale alone. Its team is presented as a group of specialists in podcasting, radio and streaming who develop campaigns targeted at consumers in specific content environments. That emphasis on customer service has been a recurring theme in trade coverage of the company since its early years, when it employed around 35 people while already providing programming and services to more than 5,000 radio stations.
Network Radio Roots
AdLarge entered Nielsen's RADAR network radio ratings in 2013 and, by its own account, has maintained a top-ranked position there since. RADAR measures audiences for commercial networks aired by radio stations across the United States, so a presence in those rankings placed the young company alongside established network radio operators.
Partnerships from this period show how the radio side of the business worked. In 2015, Local Radio Networks formed an exclusive partnership with AdLarge for its 24/7 format radio network, which supplied round-the-clock programming to small and medium-market stations. AdLarge also worked with the software company Marketron on a programmatic venture for radio, intended to bring the efficiency, immediacy and data of programmatic buying to network radio through Marketron's Mediascape marketplace. Csukas said at the time that the initiative would deliver an end-to-end network radio solution to stations and advertisers.
cabana and the Move Into Podcasting
AdLarge moved into digital audio early, and in 2017 it restructured the team behind cabana, its digital division, creating new roles in digital sales strategy, digital content, marketing and client solutions, and ad operations. Schonfeld said the company had been in the digital audio space since it launched in 2011, and described the restructuring as a logical evolution in building out that business.
Under the cabana name, AdLarge represented podcasts and streaming audio to advertisers at a moment when many brands were encountering podcast advertising for the first time. The division partnered with podcast technology and hosting platforms and promoted formats ranging from host-read endorsements, which it argued benefited from the trust between hosts and listeners, to dynamically inserted advertising that could be targeted and updated after an episode was published.
The Podcast Buying Guide
One of cabana's most visible products was not inventory but education. Its Podcast Buying Guide, released annually, was an in-depth analysis of current insights, research and expert advice on the podcast market, intended to demystify the medium for advertisers. The first edition was an eight-page guide covering the marketing value of podcasts, research on listeners, a glossary, and tutorials on budgeting, campaign planning, programme selection and measurement, drawing on sources including Edison Research, Nielsen and eMarketer.
Later editions grew more technical. A subsequent guide organised the material around dynamic insertion, attribution and measurement, included a section answering common questions from advertising operations specialists, and by its third annual edition covered how to navigate a market of a million podcasts, how host-read advertising affected purchase and recommendation intent, and how attribution tools were changing campaign measurement, including a question-and-answer section with the podcast advertising intelligence company Podsights. Trade publication RAIN News praised the guides for clarity, and AdLarge continues to receive industry recognition for the series.
Crime Junkie and True Crime
cabana's best-known podcast relationship was with Crime Junkie, the true crime show hosted by Ashley Flowers. cabana took on the show early in its life, when, according to AdLarge, it was averaging around 40,000 downloads per episode. The relationship later expanded into an exclusive ad sales partnership, by which point the podcast had passed 18 million downloads.
Csukas described the show's growth as entirely organic, driven by Flowers's storytelling and by fans discovering and sharing it, while Flowers credited cabana with taking a chance on the programme while it was still growing. The partnership illustrated cabana's model at its most effective: identifying a fast-growing independent show before it reached its peak and supplying the national advertising operation the show lacked. Crime Junkie's ad sales later moved to SiriusXM's SXM Media, which took exclusive global rights for the show and its Audiochuck network — a transition that underlined how valuable the audience cabana had helped monetise had become.
The fwd. network
On 28 February 2024, AdLarge unveiled the fwd. network, a female podcast network designed to bring advertisers and female creators together and to champion stories, perspectives and voices the company said had long been underrepresented in audio. The launch was paired with a partnership with Consumable, an audio technology platform, to expand the reach of audio advertising to female consumers at scale. Trade coverage of the launch cited access to 250 million monthly exclusive audio impressions and audience curation using contextual data segments.
Csukas said the network's focus was to serve female podcasters and their listeners by helping them build sustainable businesses while amplifying their voices and communities. The network has continued to add shows since launch, including the history podcast Right Answers Mostly and, in September 2025, The First Degree, a true crime podcast hosted by journalist Alexis Linkletter and Jac Vanek that was then in its eighth year, with more than 500 episodes and tens of millions of downloads. It has also launched original programming such as Talk Fifty to Me, hosted by Heidi Clements and Constance Zimmer, exploring life in one's fifties.
Offices and Organisation
AdLarge is headquartered in New York; Advertising Week listed its headquarters at 295 Madison Avenue. Company descriptions over the years have listed additional offices in cities including Chicago, Detroit, Denver and Los Angeles, reflecting a sales organisation positioned near major advertising markets and agency centres. Its team has been described as around 35 employees in its earlier years, composed of specialists across radio, podcasting and streaming sales, ad operations, marketing and client solutions.
Position in the Audio Market
AdLarge occupies a distinctive niche: it is an independent sales house in an industry where much inventory is sold by the large groups that own it. Its longevity rests on adapting that model as listening shifted — from RADAR-rated network radio, to streaming and podcast representation through cabana, to curated networks such as fwd. built around a defined audience. For publishers, it offers a national sales force without building one; for advertisers, a single point of access to radio stations, streams and podcasts reaching, by the company's account, more than 200 million listeners. Its official website is adlarge.com.
