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The business of radio talk shows is, of course, based on attracting a crowd large enough to result in a substantial audience rating. Owing more to P.T. Barnum-style hucksterism than the exploration of ideas, they operate on the principle that the best way to draw a crowd is to create an emotionally stirring spectacle. Think the World Wrestling Federation or Ringling Brothers Circus as the business model. If it was just about truth or accuracy, most talk radio shows would be unsuccessfully brief!
Current talk radio does seem to provide immediacy and a high degree of emotionalism that is rare on television or in magazines. Pew researchers found in 2004 that 17% of the public regularly listens to talk radio. This audience is mostly male, middle-aged and conservative. Among those who regularly listen to talk radio, 41% are Republican and 28% are Democrats. Furthermore, 45% describe themselves as conservatives, compared with 18% who say they are liberal. In the United States, talk radio is dominated by right-leaning political commentators; according to A.C. Nielsen, the top five programs are those of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Neal Boortz, and Glenn Beck. Others include: Bill O'Reilly, Jim Quinn, Bill Cunningham, Mark Levin, Melanie Morgan, and Laura Ingraham.
Let me say that I’ve worked in broadcasting (both radio and TV) all of my adult life and I must confess that outside of religion and size of government issues, the real difference between conservatives and liberals still eludes me. On talk radio there are lots of references to one group or the other not caring about our country or being on the wrong side of the important issues. Rule number one for current talk radio success seems to be to demonize a person, his or her belief system, or a political party. If you want to create a heated spectacle, have someone passionately articulate a position opposite the feelings of most of the people in the room, then pass the microphone around.
When I first heard Limbaugh in the days when his ratings were at their peak, Bill Clinton was president and it was easy to see that he supplied wonderful grist for the Limbaugh talk radio mill. My innate sense of Libra fairness was offended and I’d usually punch another radio button after a few minutes of the bombast. Even today, references to Bill Clinton are frequent, perhaps even more so than talk about President George W. Bush on the Limbaugh program. Remember, it is a business built on entertainment and showmanship where you must have a good foil as the object of your wit and partisanship.
When we elected a Republican president and congress, I wondered who would become the “Whipping Boy” or girl for the conservative talk hosts. The approval ratings for the current President Bush indicate that his administration is generally being judged as a failure which probably presents a strange new challenge to people who ruled the talk show roost. Exactly who is wearing the white hats and who is consigned to wearing the black fedoras?
By the spring of 2005 ratings for Mr. Limbaugh and Sean Hannity were sliding from their levels of the previous year in some markets. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s pursuit of the Democratic Party nomination is giving the top talkers a much needed platform for a new crusade.
My theories about those ratings declines are simple. Americans are passionate about many things, but most people have some sense of fairness and eventually distance themselves from anyone who indulges in what seems to be an unfair fight every day on public airwaves. Another thought is that the rise of Internet Radio has siphoned off some listeners who didn’t have that option five years ago. Also there are now some stations that carry programming that is categorized with the liberal label from Air America. That network hasn’t achieved anywhere near the success of the top conservative hosts. I think it’s because when you are talking to people who agree with you there are no fireworks in the town square to draw a crowd. We are facing some monumental issues as a country and people are beginning to recognize that real solutions lie beyond traditional politics in the realm of right and wrong, good and bad. The eventual fate of the unwieldy immigration reform legislation is an example. It is neither liberals nor conservatives that carry the only key to our salvation.
The Fairness Doctrine is probably not destined to return anytime soon and the talkers will continue to bluster on behalf of one camp or the other. The hosts, their syndications and the station owners are after all in “the business of show,” not the business of finding the best practices for public discourse in America.
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