Is Conservative Talk Radio On the Way Out?
After nearly 30 years of rapid growth that saved the sagging AM radio format the question is being seriously asked: is conservative talk radio as we know it on the way out?
According to reports, conservative talk titan Rush Limbaugh has lost 141 advertisers due to his three-day, bordering-on-slander verbal assault on Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke. The company distributing his show has suspended his national advertising for two weeks.
John Cole, The Scranton Times-Tribune
Various analysts note that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is launching a radio show April 2 in direct competition with Limbaugh. There are rumblings that some stations might decide to replace Limbaugh with Huckabee. Why? Huckabee has shown wide appeal in his Fox News show where he comes across as a thoughtful conservative who prefers discussing issues to polarizing polemics.
Meanwhile, The Daily Beast’s John Avlon points to a list that Premier Networks, which distributes Limbaugh and various other conservative talkers, put out containing 98 companies that don’t want their ads on controversial political radio shows anymore.
This comes, Avlon writes, “at a particularly difficult time for right-wing talk radio. They are playing to a (sometimes literally) dying demographic. Rush & Co. rate best among old, white males. They have been steadily losing women and young listeners, who are alienated by the angry, negative, obsessive approach to political conservations. Add to that the fact that women ages 24—55 are the prize advertising demographic, and you have a perfect storm emerging after Limbaugh’s Sandra Fluke comments.”
The bottom line: conservative political talk may be outdated business model.
Talk to many young people and you’ll find most dismayed or amused by the anger and rage talk show hosts direct at those with whom they disagree. This is partly generational. Some top talk show hosts are baby boomers. I’ve always said American politics will be better off when all of the baby boomers (except me) die off. Many baby boomers seem frozen in polarization stemming from the 1960s’ great war/anti-war divide.
Much of talk radio IS hate radio. Republicans hate Democrats. Democrats hate Republicans. Conservatives hate liberals. Liberals hate conservatives. And they all hate moderates. When the liberal talk network Air America bombed big-time one reason was that its talkers tried copying the Limbaugh talk show model and offered strident liberal talk shows that tried to do to conservatives what Rush does to liberals. One tiny problem: Limbaugh has broadcasting talent and they didn’t.
Today’s conservative talk is now experiencing entertainment’s traditional cyclical nature. The genre could eventually go the way of TV variety shows and soap operas. Plus, with heightened competition from the Internet, social media, and an increasing number of Americans unwilling to continue accepting demonizing or demeaning polemics without a strong push-back, the old formula is frayed.
The lingering question: Exactly when did we make the shift where it was considered “entertainment” to listen to a radio talk show host for three hours a day five days a week demonize another political party and anyone who sympathized with it? When did negatively politically defining talk become so much “fun” for millions and why? One reason: a charismatic talk show host becomes a listener’s trusted friend whose viewpoint is believed — and absorbed.
Market forces propelled talk radio and now market forces seem poised to force its evolution. And what have been its key impacts? Greater citizen involvement, increased interest in politics — and promoting the notions that compromise is a filthy word, big umbrella coalitions are for the weak, and that demonization and denigration of opponents can be fun and profitable in terms of revenue and in getting out the partisan vote.
It makes sense that it’s time for an adaption or shift: after years of the “dumbing down” of American politics, it’s time for a smartening up — which is apparently what’s happening now with some of talk radio’s potential listeners who seem to crave hosts who have open minds versus perpetually open mouths.
Copyright 2012 Joe Gandelman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.
To read more discussion on this column GO HERE.
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Good discussion, Joe.
However, when saying “his three-day, bordering-on-slander verbal assault on Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke,” you are being too kind.
Calling Limbaugh’s factual — and legal — slander, defamation of a woman’s character solely because he disagrees with her political or social views “bordering on slander” is is like saying that someone is bordering-on-pregnant.
Oh, dear. Whatever shall the radical Republicans do if Mr. Limbaugh and his dittoheads are no longer able to guide them? Thank goodness the Tea Party showed up just in time. And they like Mike Huckabee (and he likes them). The king is dead, long live the king.
They’ve gotten what the wanted the whole time they’ve been on the air – an exclusive audience.
When you’re aiming for an older audience composed almost entirely of whites whose percentage of the population is shrinking, it’s a self-defeating proposition from the beginning.
Conservative talk radio may see a slight reduction in prominence, but its not going away. Sad to say, there are millions and millions of Americans who love to hear their own preconceived ideas reinforced on a daily basis by talk radio “reporting” and commentary that is free from any kind of fact checking or points of reference. If you think that all mexicans sneak across to get SS and medical care for free without contributing, that blacks are all on welfare and happy about it, that Democrats and especially Democrat presidents can do no right, that lower taxes is always a good thing, that the government should stay completely out of the way of the “Free Market”, and that our foreign policy should consist of everyone doing what we say because we can blow the crap out of them if we don’t, that America is a white christian nation by law and not just demographics, then you will never lack for an audience.
“Talk to many young people and you’ll find most dismayed or amused by the anger and rage talk show hosts direct at those with whom they disagree.”
This is why so many young moderates to conservatives support Ron Paul, He presents ideas, he does not attack the other candidates to distroy them, he does not talk down one most people and he is building a movement in the hopes of making the republican party more inclusive an acceptible to those that beleive in individual freedoms, no matter if they are fiscal or social in nature.
I won’t debate the quality of their air product — but they didn’t vilify their opposites in the hate-filled personal terms that I hear on WABC on a daily basis.
I have moderate impulses myself, but it is important to realize that we do not a right-left split in this country, but a moderate right-of-center faction (note that Obama’s health plan is the one introduced by Nixon in the 70s — not a liberal) and a network of bile-filled hate groups.
I agree with this site that we need more dialogue, but first we need two rational groups to have that dialogue.
this comment has been edited in keeping with TMV commenters’ rules. Ed. cpe
please read the commenters rules KerrLock > They are on the masthead. Keep to the topic, not the writer or other commenters and all will be well. Thanks…
archangel/dr.e
That type of talk radio will continue with its wings deservedly clipped, for now.
I hope Huck does well, I don’t wish to be in any way connected to a Rush or a Maher, and he is a great alternative.
Guys like R and M, sometimes do stumble across the truth, but the rest drowns out their good points.
The number of people watching cable tabloid news is also down. FOX still has market share but actual viewers are way down. Perhaps it’s true – the consumers of this nonsense are slowly dieing off.
I’m not a Rush fan and so his fate isn’t really that big a deal to me.
However I do have an issue with the undertones on some other web sites, which seems to be “we don’t like conservative viewpoints so they should not be allowed on radio/TV/etc”
And of course it is equally troubling when the same attitudes go against the left.
I think that is the undercurrent we should worry about
However I do have an issue with the undertones on some other web sites, which seems to be “we don’t like conservative viewpoints so they should not be allowed on radio/TV/etc”
Please supply a few links to back up your claim.