| |
 |
|
|
Science Forum Index » Philosophy Forum » Talk radio in the United States...
Page 1 of 1
|
| Author |
Message |
| turtoni... |
 Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 9:55 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
In the United States, talk radio is largely made up of conservative
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 Mark Levin, Bill O'Reilly, Jim Quinn, Bill Cunningham,
Melanie Morgan, Mike Gallagher and Laura Ingraham. Other top-rated,
conservative, less-political commentators include Laura Schlessinger (whose
show, Dr. Laura, features personal & interpersonal advice), and Bruce
Williams, (whose show focuses on banking, business, and personal finances).
Notably, Bruce Williams started broadcasting in 1975 and has had the longest
lasting, regularly broadcasted program in the world[citation needed].
[edit] Politically oriented talk radio
The United States saw dramatic growth in the popularity of talk radio during
the 1990s. The repeal of the FCC "fairness doctrine" in 1987-which had
required that stations provide free air time for responses to any
controversial opinions that were broadcast-provided an opportunity for a
kind of partisan programming that had not previously existed. 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.[1]
The most successful pioneer in the 1990s talk radio movement was the
politically conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh's success
demonstrated that there was a nation-wide market for passionately-delivered
conservative (and in many cases, Republican) commentary on contemporary
news, events, and social trends. Other radio talk show hosts (who describe
themselves as either conservative or libertarian) have also had success as
nationally-syndicated hosts, including Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Laura
Ingraham, Neal Boortz, Michael Savage, Bill O'Reilly, and Glenn Beck. The
Salem Radio Network syndicates a group of religiously-oriented Republican
activists, including evangelical Christian Hugh Hewitt and Jewish
conservatives Dennis Prager and Michael Medved; these are mostly distributed
in a 24-hour network format among Salem's own stations, and they generally
earn ratings much less than their syndicated counterparts.
In the Summer of 2007, conservative talk show hosts mobilized public
opposition to the McCain-Kennedy immigration reform bill, which eventually
failed.[2] Conservative hosts Limbaugh, Ingraham, Bennett, Prager, Hannity,
Beck, Levin and Hewitt coalesced around endorsing former Massachusetts
governor Mitt Romney for president at the end of January 2008 (after Fred
Thompson, the described favorite of some of the hosts, dropped out), in an
effort to oppose the nomination of Sen. John McCain [3] ; however, Romney
suspended his campaign in February of the same year, and endorsed McCain.
Since that time, Limbaugh in particular has endorsed a plan to do whatever
it takes to prolong the Democrats' nomination by crossing over to the
Democrats and voting for the trailing candidate, a plan he calls "Operation
Chaos."
Libertarians such as Jon Arthur, Host Of Jon Arthur Live! (based in
Florida), Free Talk Live (based in New Hampshire), Penn Jillette (based in
Las Vegas), Jay Severin (based in Boston, Massachusetts), and Mark Davis
(based in Ft. Worth and Dallas, Texas) have also achieved some success. Many
of these hosts also publish books, write newspaper columns, appear on
television, and give public lectures (Limbaugh, again, was a pioneer of this
model of multi-media punditry).
There had been some precursors for talk radio, such as the Los Angeles-area
controversialist Joe Pyne, who would attack callers on his program in the
early 1960s - one of his famous insults was "gargle with razor blades!"; the
similar Bob Grant in New York City; and Wally George in Southern
California.[4] Grant remains on the air to this day.
Politically liberal talk radio aimed at a national audience has also
emerged, although its ratings remain a fraction of conservative talk radio.
Air America Radio, a network featuring The Al Franken Show, was founded in
2004; it billed itself as a "progressive alternative" to the conservative
talk radio shows. Some prominent examples of liberal talk radio shows
currently in national syndication include: Jones Radio Networks talk show
hosts Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller, and Bill Press; Fox News host Alan
Colmes, Air America Radio hosts Lionel, Thom Hartmann, and Rachel Maddow,
and Nova M Radio's Mike Malloy and Randi Rhodes. In some markets, local
liberal hosts have existed for years, such as the British talk host Michael
Jackson (who was on the air at KABC in Los Angeles beginning in 1968 and is
currently at KGIL); Bernie Ward in San Francisco; Jack Ellery in New Jersey
and Tampa; Dave Ross in Seattle, and Marc Germain in Los Angeles. A few
earlier syndicated programs were hosted by prominent Democrats who were not
experienced broadcasters, such as Jim Hightower, Jerry Brown, Mario Cuomo
and Alan Dershowitz; these met with limited success, and Air America has
been faced with various legal and financial problems.
Air America was sold to a new owner in March of 2007, hired well known
programmer David Bernstein, and began its 're-birth'. Bernstein subsequently
left in early 2008, but the struggling network remained on the air with a
revamped line-up.
Liberal opinion radio has long existed on the Pacifica network, though only
available in a small number of cities, and in formats that more often act as
a volunteer-run community forum than as a platform for charismatic hosts who
would be likely to attract a large audience. Conservative critics have long
complained that the long-format news programming on National Public Radio
(NPR) shows a liberal bias, although the network denies any partisan agenda.
Clear Channel Communications, with nearly 1,300 radio stations under its
ownership - along with other owners - has in recent years added more liberal
talk stations to their portfolio. These have primarily come from the
conversion of AM facilities, most of which formerly had adult standards
formats. Many complaints (all radio stations are required by the FCC to
maintain, in their public files, copies of all correspondence from the
public relating to station operations - for a period of three years from
receipt) have been received from fans of this musical genre (Tony Bennett,
Frank Sinatra, big band music," etc.) - but the left-leaning talk
programming leans toward a much younger demographic, a group that
advertisers covet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk_radio |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| |
|
Page 1 of 1
All times are GMT - 5 Hours
The time now is Thu Jan 08, 2009 3:06 am
|
|