For the last year, industry publication Inside Radio reports that News/Talk radio formats still reign as the top media outlet for radio listeners and even younger audiences. The trend may continue into 2025.
“Our all-news and news/talk stations are seeing significant increases in the number of total listening hours and number of streaming starts, some by more than double digits year over year,” said Drew Anderssen, VP of News/Talk Format for Audacy.
Talk radio stations across Florida and throughout the United States reported an increase in listeners following a series of significant events. These events included an assassination attempt on then-candidate Donald Trump last summer and President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 election, which led to Vice President Kamala Harris replacing him as the Democratic nominee.
Roger Henderson, co-host of the WBOB Talk Radio (WBOB.COM) morning drive from, 6-9 am out of Jacksonville, FL concurred with those two events as driving new listeners to the radio station and talk radio.
“We thought COVID was a strange election year, 2024 was even stranger,” said Henderson.
Henderson also says another driving force of people tuning into talk radio has been the weather especially with the three storms that hit the state last summer and the fall.
Jon Jopling, general manager for Magic broadcasting in Florida, says with a new president coming into 2025, the Trump administration has proven it can be ratings gold for talk stations.
Christian radio is another format that continues to thrive. According to radio ratings company Nielsen, contemporary Christian stations have seen consistent growth since 2022, with an increase of up to 26% in key demographics. Additionally, both contemporary Christian and religious/teaching formats have added 41 and 35 new stations, respectively, in 2024.
Christopher Gould, Senior VP of Salem Media Group says one thing Christian radio has going for it is its consistency and resilience.
“The interesting thing about the format is that it’s not up or down with elections or even the economy,” Gould said. “It’s been very consistent over the years because we want to bring the Christian message of hope to our community. And oftentimes, when the economy gets tough, advertising goes down in the market in general, but our Christian formats tend to be more resilient.”
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