There are a lot tough questions in life, some of which may never be answered… Which is the path to true happiness? Is there life after death? Should I cut a fringe? And perhaps the most pressing of all*: how do I know it’s time to make the switch to adult radio?
Recently I learnt that the target age of my favourite music radio station is people 18-24, yet the adult talk station I would progress to is broadly aimed at those aged 40+. This leaves me floating in some kind of radio-station-limbo-land… much like an unused tampon, lost in a handbag.
Becoming an ‘adult’ is signposted by a variety of moments: turning 21; moving out of home; graduating university; getting hitched; having a baby; owning your own home. Generally these are marked on a specific day and celebrated with cake. But if the process to becoming an adult radio listener is a gradual one – and there’s no cake to celebrate the change – how do you know when you’re ready?
In order to clear this issue up I’ve compiled a checklist for anyone unsure if it’s time they switched to AM. If you agree with all or most of these, maybe you should reconsider the position of your dial…
- You think the ‘the youth of today’ has terrible taste in music
- You refer to ‘the youth of today’
- You no longer go to any of the gigs they discuss on the radio because “it’ll be too crowded and difficult to find a park”
- You mow your own lawn
- You wouldn’t feel the irrepressible urge to knock on this window after reading this sign…
- You’re old enough to have fathered/mothered majority of the presenters
- You regularly go to Bunnings on a Saturday (for more than just the sausage sizzle)
- You eat majority/all of your meals at a table
- When you hear a song by an artist called ‘Frank’ you’ll think it’s by this Frank…
rather than this Frank… 
- You live in a residence that never runs out of toilet paper
- You tuck any shirt, no matter what, into your shorts
- You own ‘good china’, serviette holders and a rake
Or you could completely disregard my list and get back to listening to that new track from CHVCHES, Bonjah or Andy Bull while you tell those kids to get off your lawn.
*Not really.
What are your thoughts? How did you know? Or are you defying the target market boundaries and going your own way?
the blank notebook 
I actually started listening to talk radio regularly over the last year. It’s hard to describe when the actual moment struck me. I guess I just gradually started becoming more interested in what was going on around me, locally and nationwide. I love hearing the weather report, and the guest correspondent discussing current interest rates and all of those little things that can have a huge impact on my finances. I’m under 40 (not by much), but I am truly a grown-up now. I pay my own mortgage and all the other bills, have to organize food for myself, and go to work everyday. It just seems like talk radio makes sense to me now, and I appreciate it more that I ever thought I would. At times, I do hop over to the music station that I used to flip over, and it’s cool to hear what’s new out there and to get a good laugh when the show hosts do their morning jokes and pranks, but I always flip back over to “talk”. I feel more informed and that does bring me a little peace of mind. Love your post!