TALK RADIO’S AMERICA

How talk radio evolved from informative discussions of local issues to a forum for outrage.

Rosenwald (Senior Fellow/Robert A. Fox Leadership Program, Univ. of Pennsylvania), the co-editor-in-chief of “Made by History,” the Washington Post’s daily history section, makes his book debut with a brisk, well-researched history of the rise and transformation of talk radio. Because FM radio, with its stereo signal, carried more music, beginning in the 1960s, AM’s share of the listener audience plummeted—and with it, ad revenue. Station owners, in financial straits, saw in the news talk format a way to build popularity. Advice shows, interviews, and caller-driven discussions of topics relevant to local listeners appealed to Americans yearning for connection and community. In talk shows, listeners found “a virtual replacement for the front stoop, through which they could discuss current affairs with people like themselves.” Although now identified with conservative political views, as recently as the 1980s, talk radio “was diverse in topics and political orientations.” The debut of Rush Limbaugh, in 1988, changed the tenor of talk shows dramatically. Like his listeners, Limbaugh was dissatisfied with the liberal stance of mainstream media. “I validate what millions of Americans already think,” he claimed. Outspoken and hard-hitting, Limbaugh, along with other hosts, “flaunted opposition to political correctness and sneered at the new norms promoted by the rights movements that inflamed conservative sensibilities.” While the hosts did not limit their guests strictly to Republicans, Democrats—Bill Clinton excepted—found talk radio “an awkward fit.” Able to simplify “even complicated, highly technical matters into something understandable and ominous,” talk radio hosts influenced voters. In the 1994 election, Republican leaders credited Limbaugh with the party’s victory. With the advent of Fox News, the “content, style, and verve of talk radio” moved to cable, creating a forum for “pugnacious,” right-wing personalities who “pushed for unfiltered, ideologically extreme candidates and a party shaped in their image.”

A vigorous analysis of contemporary politics.