Talk Radio as we know it is approaching Alzheimers. When Rush Limbaugh started national syndication, he was 37 years old, younger than any of the top 25 today in talk radio.
Look at who is in talk radio and how old it is grown:
| Host Name | SRGuide Ranking | Born | Age |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rush Limbaugh | 1 | 1951 | 60 |
| Glenn Beck | 2 | 1964 | 47 |
| Laura Ingraham | 3 | 1964 | 47 |
| Michael Savage | 4 | 1942 | 69 |
| Dennis Miller | 5 | 1953 | 58 |
| Sean Hannity | 6 | 1961 | 50 |
| Mark Levin | 7 | 1957 | 54 |
| Neal Boortz | 8 | 1945 | 66 |
| Jim Quinn | 9 | 1943 | 68 |
| George Noory | 10 | 1960 | 51 |
| Jim Rome | 11 | 1964 | 47 |
| Michael Medved | 12 | 1948 | 63 |
| Bill Bennett | 13 | 1943 | 68 |
| Jerry Doyle | 14 | 1956 | 55 |
| Dennis Prager | 15 | 1948 | 63 |
| John Gibson | 16 | 1946 | 65 |
| Dave Ramsey | 17 | 1960 | 51 |
| John Batchelor | 18 | 1948 | 63 |
| Hugh Hewitt | 19 | 1956 | 55 |
| Kim Komando | 20 | 1967 | 44 |
| Lou Dobbs | 21 | 1945 | 66 |
| Monica Crowley | 22 | 1968 | 43 |
| Bill Cunningham | 23 | 1947 | 64 |
| Phil Hendrie | 24 | 1952 | 59 |
| Brian Kilmeade | 25 | 1964 | 47 |
I guess that’s why it resonates with the “over 34” demographic
I guess it really speaks to the fact that they really haven’t cultivated any young talent in the radio industry for several years now. The last big boom was the post-9/11 boom when we got a whole bunch of 30-somethings (best examples being Hannity, Ingraham and Beck) getting national shows. With traditional radio jobs going down you can only expect this trend to continue.
It doesn’t exactly help that you have a certain “dumbing down” of the culture these days. Just tune into ESPN– it’s cringe inducing. When that’s the media environment the younger kids are raised in, there’s no way you’re going to get a lot of that generation to be able to adjust to a serious, issues-oriented talk show.