I HATE iheart radio if only because of the ads, I love a lot of the content but I would take the full force of the monkey's paw to the face to get rid of them
I agree on the podcast front, and what makes it worse it's for their own podcasts which aren't generating them any revenue so why have 5 minutes of ads 3 x per show for your own stuff. Not unless the other podcasts generate revenue through ads, but I doubt it, just getting you used to it for when it becomes a Black Mirror episode and you must watch your ads as prescribed by the government (aka business).
I listened to a couple IHR podcasts, got supremely sick of the ads and deleted both of them. Now I watch to see the source of new subs and don't bother if it's IHeart.
It's fascinating to me that this looks like half a dozen or so radio stations I've been in. It's especially fun at 1am in the morning.. (*)
Only one station I've been at looks completely different, ABC Radio in Perth, but that was purpose built 20 years ago and it's also a TV station.
(*) I have scared the crap out of myself and others on more than one occasion because radio studios are sparsely populated and sound dampening is essential.