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The Future Of News-Talk Radio

N

News1360

Guest
If Rush Limbugh and Dr. Laura was to ever calls it quits with talk radio, who then
will be the domniant force?
 
Dr. Laura? Dr Laura is not much of a force any more.
Rush is still the leading talk show but I don't think he can claim the kind of dominance he had a decade ago.
Your question assumes talk radio will remain unchanged and that somebody will be dominant.
Talk radio has become more fragmented since Rush's heyday.
Conservative talk.
Liberal talk.
Advice and lifestyle talk.
Fem talk.
Public radio news and information talk.
Hot talk.
FM talk.

The talk radio audience is aging and talk radio is realizing it must re-invent itself for today's money demos.

Local-live talk is poised for a comeback, at least in large and major markets. Local talk where most successful is driven by the host's personality - not ideology. In markets in which the leading or dominant talk station has embraced local talk, syndicated talkers - including Rush - are bumped to secondary outlets. Expect to see more of this.

Radio goes through phases. The phase of syndicated political talk - which Rush started - is pretty much over. RIP
 
"Radio goes through phases."

It also tends to rely heavily on imitation and station managers jumping on bandwagons.

Many, many years ago, there were about three music formats. Then the formats divided, sub-divided, and now there's an alphabet soup of acronyms for different music formats in which the differences are so subtle that only an industry insider can tell the difference.

Talk radio wil probably follow the same path. "News/Talk" will subdivide into several slightly different variations, as will "hot talk". In a decade or less there will probably be a dozen different categories on this website for each slightly different talk format.

There will be a format for "lifestyle talk", such as what Dr. Laura does. There'll be a format for political talk, divided into liberal and conservative. There'll be sports talk, subdivided into spectator sports talk, "adventure" sports talk, local sports talk, and possibly one other sports talk. There will be tabloid talk stations full of interviews with celebrities and taped segments of celebrities saying stupid things (the audio equivalent of papparazzi pictures). There will be religious talk stations, subdivided into fundamentalist/Pentacostal, Mainstream denominational, non-Christian (Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist), and New Age.

That is the probable future of news/talk radio, regardless of whether Limbaugh or Laura hang it up or not.

Each of those formats will probably develop some dominant hosts, but whoever they will be, they'll probably be people who aren't currently well known on the radio.
 
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