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Where Are the Moderate and Non-Political Syndicated Talk Hosts?

G

Gregg.

Once upon a time, Talk Radio wasn't all heavy conservative politics all the time. If you remember the original ABC Talk Radio line up, they had a liberal, Michael Jackson, a couple of conservatives, Ray Braen and Owen Spann, a psychologist, Dr. Toni Grant, and a liberal who mostly talked about history and science, Ira Fistel. Jackson, Braen and Spann could talk about many subjects that were apolitical.

Today, I guess thanks to the success of Rush Limbaugh, nearly all the syndicated Talk hosts discuss conservative politics non-stop. Hannity, Savage, Levin, Huckabee, Dennis Miller, Rusty Humphries, Lars Larson, Steve Deace, Andy Dean, Michael Reagan, the entire Salem line up (Bennett, Medved, Hewitt, Praeger, Gallagher, etc.). Even a few women, Laura Ingraham, Andrea Tantros, Monica Crowley. And they all do exactly the same act. Obama and the Democrats can't possibly do anything right, Conservative Republicans can't do anything wrong, unless they're not being conservative enough.

Then there's the syndicated Progressive Talkers, Ed Schultz, Thom Hartmann, Randi Rhodes, Alan Colmes, Stephanie Miller, Bill Press and Leslie Marshall. While I'd like to think they're liberal but fair, if Progressive Politics is not your cup of tea, you probably won't listen to them.

I can only think of a couple of moderates: Geraldo Rivera and Jim Bohannan. (When Geraldo is away, they replace him with a standard issue Far Right Conservaitve to fill in.) Michael Smerconish was trying to do a syndicated national Talk show from a moderate view but he left a few months ago to join Sirius/XM.

There are a few weekday shows about family finances, Clark Howard and Dave Ramsey, one psychologist still on the air, Dr. Joy Browne, and a couple of UFO/ghosts shows, George Noury and Clyde Lewis, although Lewis sometimes mixes in conservative politics.

It would be almost impossible to fill a Talk station's line up with non-political or moderate Talk hosts. I just don't understand it. No one will talk about how to get your kid into college, or what movies are coming out this week, or how to deal with aging parents. Maybe local morning shows aren't non-stop about politics (although most are). But there are almost no national offerings that a small station can tap into. It's all about Washington politics and how evil one party is. Was it supposed to be like this?
 
Great question. I guess we need to ask where are all the non political listeners.

In 2009 I tried to get through my first month on air just on medical, education, entertainment headlines, and once they found out I was a doctor, I was inundated with calls on Obamacare, Medicare, Social security etc. And here we are close to 5 years later, and if I do two three hour shows without any political content, I'm receiving emails on why I didn't mention the government shut down, or Sarin gas, or Hilary Clinton's future longevity in office, having had a blood clot, etc.

Luckily some TV opportunities may be coming my away allowing me to just do what I want, fun medical. But Talk radio doesn't allow me to do it.
 
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Talk radio was once filled with navel-gazers like Dave Ramsey and Joy Browne. It was awful.

Still there were a few hosts like Barry Farber and Bob Grant who talked about real issues.

Then Rush Limbaugh burst upon the scene and for awhile we had an excellent variety of talk shows to choose from.

Eventually the pendulum swung completely in the direction of partisan political talk.

It will swing back.

Eventually.
 
Timing does appear to be a valid question. If you had two to four talents your were confident could deliver daily talk of a non-conservative nature that had listener appeal, and you had the funding to make it happen, would you do it now... or would it be prudent to wait until public attitudes changed?

Is the audience even ready to hear something different, and would the audience recognize that it is different?

Would you start in the really big markets, or would you beging with lesser markets and fine-tune the presentation before taking on the big markets?
 
One of the lessons of the last 10-15 years is that you want to limit audience churn. So jumping from Bubba the Love Sponge to Dave Ramsey to Dr. Joy Browne to a newsy PM drive show to hockey play-by-play is probably not the recipe any PD wants to follow.

At the same time, we've seen lots of stations that try to do all-advice or all-comedy end up with tiny cumes (but sometimes high TSL)

So the few apolitical shows usually end up on the second or third talker in a market, which is looking more to fill a few hours cheaply than putting together a sensible lineup. And the hosts of those shows suffer from the reputation of the stations that carry their shows.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
And the hosts of those shows suffer from the reputation of the stations that carry their shows.
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This is what I was referring to.

If you are on talkradio, it is automatically assumed now that you are a conservative*.

The reputation of the format, in the minds of the general public, precedes it like never before. The image of talkradio has become so poisoned that I don't believe it is possible to repair it. I used to think it was possible, but not any more.

There is no indication that any broadcasting operation has any intention of doing anything but go down with the talkradio old-angry-conservative-white-guy ship, which is yet another reason why those company's shareholders should rethink their long-term investment strategies in that sector. The ongoing depreciation of those assets will be quite a thing to watch, like having a Mercedes, but never changing the oil and eventually allowing it's once valuable engine to grind to a halt.

It's a sad state of affairs.
 
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One talk host, Alan Nathan, billed himself as "the militant moderate" with a slogan of "we want the Democrats out of our wallets, the Republicans out of our bedrooms, and both away from our first and second amendment rights". Part of the middle? Maybe. Is he a household name? Not quite and I'm not sure he's still on the air--he was on WNSH Beverly MA for a time, etc.
Dennis Miller is seen as libertarian and may have some social liberal positions but it seen as a conservative on most issues.

Years ago Jerry Williams (who was on in Boston, Chicago, etc.) was seen as liberal but in his final decade or two he seemed to turn conservative. He used the term "muckraker" and went after MA gov Mike Dukakis during his 1988 run for pres. ("Unelectable.." sang one Jerry listener to the tune of "Unforgettable"). He went after "fees, fines, and taxes", MA forcing a state prison down one town's throat, mandatory seat belt laws, etc. Again he had been seen as liberal before but perhaps drifted to the right--or the Dem party
drifted to the left. In a state like MA which is overwhelmingly liberal and Dem., he was the loyal opposition. Did talk radio kind of do the same thing, drift right or the country drifted left? (Jerry also used the term "statist" to describe the Left, more than liberal,
and indeed some libertarians use the term "classical liberal" to describe themselves...)

I would be more likely to listen to conservative hosts though I don't agree with some of their social issues. I find myself more
entertained in discussions of illegal aliens, overspending, Obamacare, corruption, true crime (Howie Carr & the whole Whitey
Bulger situation), and so on, and haven't found much reason to listen to prog. talkers.
 
>>I can only think of a couple of moderates: Geraldo Rivera

Conservatives picture him as a liberal, etc. He had a few memorable smashups with Bill O'Reilly over things like illegal immigrants.

Where you are on the political spectrum colors your opinion of certain people. To many conservatives, Bill O'Reilly, John McCain,
Scott Brown, Mitt Romney etc. are "Republicans in Name Only" or even liberals. To many liberals, they are far right wackos.

>>discuss conservative politics non-stop.

It's great to break it up with non political topics though--and hopefully the entire pol. spectrum may tune in for the segments. On Howie Carr's show:
--Max Robins, TV expert
--Members of Trans Siberian Orchestra or Mannheim Steamroller; Mike Love; Lily Tomlin
--Topics like "Boston things that have disappeared", What was your first car, etc.
--Interviews with mystery novelists.
--True crime talk (Whitey Bulger trial)
--Record collector Mighty John

Of course during hot and heavy campaigns like the '12 political election, etc. even he found little time for that.
 
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They're not bothering with terrestrial radio, but are instead entirely online -- with live streams and/or downloadable podcasts.
 
Small Market Guy said:
They're out of work because wishy washy doesn't work.
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There's that dumb mischaracterization of people who are not ideologues.

Not being far left or far right doesn't mean you're wishy-washy. You can actually have very strong opinions that are passionately defended, but don't neatly fit into one, nice, neat partisan package.

As a matter of fact, the overwhelming majority of opinionated people you'll run into, DON'T adhere to some rigid ideology that mostly only paper-tiger radio talk show hosts adhere to. Radio hosts can actually be opinionated without being partisan bots. You just need a programmer/GM who has a brain.

It's very difficult, though, to make that point to those who themselves have an ideological bent and just assume everybody else is also like that---which couldn't be further from the truth.
 
Leo Laporte can be found on "The Tech Guy" (a program about technology) and Kim Komando can be found on "The Kim Komando Show" (another program about technology).
 
raccoonradio said:
One talk host, Alan Nathan, billed himself as "the militant moderate" with a slogan of "we want the Democrats out of our wallets, the Republicans out of our bedrooms, and both away from our first and second amendment rights". Part of the middle? Maybe. Is he a household name? Not quite and I'm not sure he's still on the air--he was on WNSH Beverly MA for a time, etc.
Click to expand...

His program airs delayed on WRTA weeknights from 9:00 pm until 11:00 pm.
 
Small Market Guy said:
None of what I'm saying applies to non-political hosts, of course. Dave Ramsey and guys like that are doing fine without political stuff.
Click to expand...

You're may be walking a fine line there. Ramsey sometimes gets a bit "snarky" about his thoughts on how to manage money, and though may not name politicians, and may not overtly discuss politics, he uses a logic that has people with Conservative thought patterns wanting to high-five with Ramsey, and he use a logic that has people with Liberal political thought patterns reaching to turn the radio off... or to another channel.
 
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