It’s been a year since Rush Limbaugh died. What’s changed?

This Nov. 5, 2018, file photograph reveals radio character Rush Limbaugh introducing President Donald Trump at first of a marketing campaign rally in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Limbaugh died of lung most cancers on Feb. 17, 2021.

Jeff Robertson, Related Press

Rush Limbaugh can’t get replaced, stated all of the individuals making an attempt to switch him after the undisputed king of speak radio died one 12 months in the past this week. And on one hand, they had been proper. Limbaugh was a “once-in-a-generation expertise,” famend radio marketing consultant Fred Jacobs has stated.

However somebody needed to preside over the AM airwaves throughout Limbaugh’s three-hour slot every day, and Clay Travis and Buck Sexton took over in June to largely constructive evaluations.

Nonetheless, the anniversary of Limbaugh’s dying, Feb. 17, confirmed the issue of that job when Travis and Sexton devoted their present to reminiscences of the person they changed.

In the meantime, different conservative stars, together with Megyn Kelly, Dennis Prager and Dan Bongino, have made inroads in Limbaugh’s area. And his passing may need accelerated the rise of podcasters akin to Joe Rogan and Ben Shapiro.

Whereas not a conservative within the mould of Glenn Beck or Mark Levin, it’s Rogan, greater than anybody, who has dominated headlines within the speak world prior to now 12 months. In comparison with Rogan’s huge splash on Spotify, Travis and Sexton have been however a ripple, though their syndicator is working adverts in Talkers journal touting the pair’s “explosive development” in markets like Salt Lake Metropolis, Houston and San Diego.

It’s laborious to confirm their numbers. Rankings for syndicated radio reveals usually are not made public, in accordance with commerce publication Inside Radio, which reported final month that Travis and Sexton are doing “simply superb.” That’s in accordance with their syndicator, Premiere Networks, which says the present’s viewers grew 40% between June and November within the prized demographic of 25- to 54-year-olds.

Nevertheless it’s not clear what number of stations Sexton and Travis are on. Premiere’s web site provides numbers for Sean Hannity (“greater than 630”) and Glenn Beck (“over 300”), however says solely that Travis and Sexton are on “lots of of radio stations nationwide.” That, and the truth that Premiere sees a must promote the present, suggests there’s much more room for development.

After Limbaugh’s dying, Premiere gambled on not solely a brand new format (two hosts as a substitute of 1) and males with out substantial identify recognition, however in addition they gambled on protecting the present carefully tied to Limbaugh. The choice to proceed with Limbaugh’s longtime theme music and to incessantly inject Limbaugh’s voice might have helped longtime listeners nonetheless really feel linked to the present, however they had been additionally a continuing reminder of the person who wasn’t there.

As such, some listeners grieved and moved on — to choices that weren’t out there when Limbaugh was on the air.

In July, Cumulus Media introduced that former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino’s present had been picked up by 300 stations. His tenure there was rocky, nevertheless, with a public spat with one other Cumulus host, and the corporate itself, over vaccine mandates. Now additionally a Fox Information host, Bongino was lately completely banned from YouTube.

Another choice is Dennis Prager’s present, syndicated by the Salem Radio Community, which says Prager is on almost 400 stations.

After which there’s Megyn Kelly, the previous Fox Information character, who occupies two hours of Limbaugh’s former time slot with a present on Sirius XM that can be out there as a podcast.

It's the podcast typically that means Limbaugh’s as soon as formidable viewers is splintered without end. Podcasts, one political scientist advised me final 12 months, is the place public intellectuals are gathering lately — and speak radio audiences, too, it appears.

Premiere Networks stated the Travis and Sexton podcast was downloaded 10.3 million instances in December, a file excessive for the duo. That sounds nice, till you look Rogan’s numbers, in extra of 11 million listeners per episode.

It’s unclear what, if any, long-term fallout might be from the current controversy, wherein musicians together with Neil Younger left Spotify to protest Rogan’s presence there. And Rogan, in fact, has a vastly completely different present from Limbaugh, one that's constructed round interviews and skews closely towards younger males. Rogan additionally straddles partisan strains. He's, as Matt Sienkiewicz and Nick Marx lately wrote for The Dialog, “a real outlier on this planet of latest speak media.”

As was Limbaugh 30 years in the past.