She Had To Remain Neutral....

[Radio Wreck]

Diane Raymond was a talk show host on WWDB back in the 80's and early 90's. I remember her name and caught her show from time to time but honestly don't remember much about her. That said, there is a video floating around online from 1990 in which one of her shows was televised live from the WWDB studios via C-SPAN. During this particular show, she had former Philadelphia district attorney Ron Castille live in the studio. I watched a few minutes of it and was stunned when she told him that she had supported him during his campaign but had to "remain neutral" until after the election.

I actually rewound the clip to make sure I heard her correctly. Now I find myself trying to think back to that time period and compare talk radio from 30 years ago to talk radio today. I don't remember talk radio being particularly neutral back then but I also don't remember hosts coming across as opinionated as they do today. Perhaps many people back then didn't wish to divulge all of their politics in polite company. What I do remember is that by the late 90's, WWDB believed that their audience was aging out of their target demo. They tried to correct this by attempting to appeal to a younger audience with more of a "hot talk" approach. It's no secret that this was a dismal failure.

Today there are mainly two types of talk radio; NPR and right wing. There isn't much in between.

With all of this in mind would there be room for a WWDB of 30 years ago now? Did WWDB jump the gun by switching to hot talk or should they have stayed the course? I'm inclined to believe that type of talk radio isn't viable today but almost everyone I know listens to at least one spoken work podcast and many of them aren't exclusively political.

Thoughts?

 

[TheBigA]

What I do remember is that by the late 90's, WWDB believed that their audience was aging out of their target demo.

They were right then, and that hasn't changed. The talk radio demo, both in commercial radio and NPR, is over 55. That's just the reality.

So in answer to your question. would there be room? Sure. Who would pay for it? No one. So it won't happen.

There are better ways to pay for that kind of radio than by advertising. So what people do is they start podcasts, ask people to subscribe, and then it can happen. No pesky commercial breaks, no infomercials, and no concern about aging demos.

 

[Mikey Radio]

With all of this in mind would there be room for a WWDB of 30 years ago now? Did WWDB jump the gun by switching to hot talk or should they have stayed the course? I'm inclined to believe that type of talk radio isn't viable today but almost everyone I know listens to at least one spoken work podcast and many of them aren't exclusively political.

This general topic was discussed to good extent a few months ago when long-time talk host Michael Jackson passed. His situation was similar to the one you describe, where he was very gentlemanly on the air, he didn't always show his hand or political views and was beloved by his audience at the time. However, once Limbaugh and those like him came along who were much more fiery, much more opinionated, really struck a nerve and tapped into what their listening audience was perhaps thinking but felt no one was openly saying, hosts like Jackson lost mightily in the ratings and almost became a relic. To quote one of our moderators, when he was training newer talk hosts, he had them listen to Michael Jackson (and probably those Diane Raymond shows from the 80s) as an example of what they should no longer be doing on the air.

 

[frankberry]

I've deleted a number of political posts in this thread. There are places for politics on this site. This isn't one of them.