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Instant Demographics Articles by Dr. Gary Crossland
How Old are Christian Radio Listeners?
You would think that any radio format would have an audience age curve with a bulge somewhere in the middle. In the case of younger formats, that bubble is skewed toward the left (younger age brackets). Conversely, an older format would have a bulge that is skewed toward the right (older age brackets).
Christian radio is a curiosity, because as both a general format, and in its various sub-formats, it appears to have two bubbles. Christian radio is also an interesting study from the standpoint of who the format doesn't appear to attract.
To begin, as most people would suspect, Christian radio does not do well with the 18-24 crowd. No surprise there. Where the numbers start to pick up is with the 25-34 group. Then there is slight depression in the numbers between 35-44. At this point, the format roars back, and dominates the market with 45-59 year-olds. In fact, Christian radio ranks fifth among all 17 major radio formats for reaching 45-59 year-olds.
At age 60 the Christian radio audience falls off considerably. According to Simmons, Christian radio listeners are 36% lower than the national average for being 60+ years-old. Gone is the stereotypical notion that the Christian radio audience is dominated by prime-timers. The reality is that Christian radio listeners are firmly entrenched in today's most lucrative buying demos.
Many advertisers still think of 25-54 as being the prime buying age, and if your marketing hasn't been refined to a finer science, this is still a good rule of thumb. Christian radio performs well in this bracket, ranking 8% above the national average for playing to an audience that is 25-54. All things considered, Christian radio is firmly entrenched in America's mainstream, reaching audiences that are in the center of almost every advertiser's target market.
