Talkradio's "evolution"

[jerry367]

With the passage of healthcare reform, we are once again reminded that talkradio has become an echo chamnber that is not representative of the average American, nor is it anything more than a predictable and increasingly unengaging vehicle to promote politically based and biased hysteria.

Talkradio used to be interesting. It's now crack for reactionaries.

I was first attracted to talk in my mid-teens, due to it's diverse opinions and varied subject matter. Politics was only part of it. Sure I listened to mostly FM music in my teens and into my 20's, but always checked in to see what talk was doing. As I got older, I listened a lot more to talk. Fast forward 15 years: Now, while in the heart of talk's prime demo, I'M SICK OF IT.

Boring, predictable and unenlightening, to say the least. Not because I hear some conservative talk(as there are many things conservatives say that I agree with), but because ALL I HEAR is conservative talk. How anyone can listen to the same opinions stated every which way, is beyond me---and for that matter, beyond anyone capable of critical thought.

Talkradio had a chance to save itself much moreso than musicradio as the technological future unfolds. It's future however, in my opinion, has been squandered by shortsighted owners and lazy programmers.

How ironic that I listened more to talkradio in my 20s than I do now while in my late 40s.

That fact should scare the crap out of talk station managers and the banks that own their stations.

 

[ericdxx]

Was Rush Limbaughs show any different in the early 90s?

 

[Signal_Faded]

That fact should scare the crap out of talk station managers and the banks that own their stations.

I don't think it will and I believe you will see the biggest books for NT stations in the summer and fall that we have seen in a long time. While the conservatives were unable to use the platform of talk radio to win the health care battle that had nothing to do with public opinion...it had to do with (without getting too political) do with one party not listening to the people and the polls and doing what they thought was right. Only time will tell whether it was...for the sake of our country I pray that it was.

 

[jerry367]

Was Rush Limbaughs show any different in the early 90s?

No, but the rest of talkradio has changed....for the worse.

In the early 90s there was a lot more variety....before programmers systematically hired Rush clone after Rush clone after Rush clone. Limbaugh was more unique back then. Now he is just the puppet master giving cues to his legion of talk host immitators/followers.

These hosts go so far as to adopt his lingo after he invents a new word. It's pathetic, boring and worst of all, unoriginal.

 

[jerry367]

That fact should scare the crap out of talk station managers and the banks that own their stations.

that had nothing to do with public opinion...it had to do with (without getting too political) do with one party not listening to the people and the polls and doing what they thought was right. Only time will tell whether it was...for the sake of our country I pray that it was.

Review your history.

Civil rights legislation met the same, if not more, resistance. And not as many are against this reform as you have been led to believe. You get the impression nobody really wants this. That is incorrect. Many people want it.

Ironically, many of those Limbaugh followers who are wringing their hands today will benefit from it, but the super rich, like Hannity, Limbaugh and Beck, have ulterior motives, as do most people who have massive wealth to protect. The three I just mentioned live in a different world than 99.9% of their audience., yet their audience believes they have the same concerns. Laughable.

 

[blue67ccm]

So who were all these innovative national hosts in 1991, 92, 93? Other than Rush?

 

[jhguthlac]

Rush became so successful in the early 90's because he was the one and only. AM radio stations big and small picked him up to, basically, save the station. And he succeeded. I seriously doubt there would be more than a handfull of AM radio stations making it today if Rush had not come along to keep listeners on that band.

The success of Rush brought us Hannity, Beck, Levin, etc. Before that, talk radio was local. The few talk networks in existance in the early 90's offered poor program choices. Dr. Joy Brown and Alan Colmes on one network gave my station some listeners, but not many. It took Rush and then his clones to make talk radio work nation-wide.

 

[ericdxx]

I actually agree that the problem with talk radio is that it's all Limbaugh clones. But it is what it is. It's the entertainment industry.


Just to compare with tv: All the late night shows on tv are based on the same formula, there are already 3 Daily shows(Stewart, Colbert, Olbermann), there are too many crime dramas to count.