stevensonair said:
The format can't evolve until the audience evolves. As I said, the audience has become polarized. You can't program rap music to a country fan, and the minute a talk station starts talking anything off the conservative agenda, the audience goes away. Fix that, and then things will change. There was a thread someplace else about top of the hour national news. One talk station dropped its ABC News affiliation when they covered a story that didn't fit the conservative agenda. So the station picked up Salem News or Fox News.
Try talking mixed politics at a family affair. See how long you last. That's just a micro-example of the problems radio stations face. If you think it's limited as a listener, you should try working in the business. This is why there isn't any growth now in the talk format, and really won't be until this whole thing cools down.
Getting back to the OP, it's a reason why stations see no upside in doing editorials. They always distance themselves with the disclaimer that the views of the host don't reflect that of the station ownership or management. If they were to do editorials, that would remove all doubt, and open the station for advertisers pulling out.
