Opinion: Progressive Talk Radio’s Devolution

From Peter B. Collins for Op-Ed Truth-Out.org

Peter B Collins

Since the rise of Rush Limbaugh and the shift of hundreds of radio stations to wall-to-wall conservative talk in the 1990s, progressives have faced a decidedly uphill battle. In my experience, most station owners and managers have a strong bias to the right, and with a few exceptions, the rest just look for the easiest way to make maximum profit. 

It's no accident that Limbaugh was recruited for the heavily market-researched model that was labelled "non-guested confrontation talk radio" after Reagan's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lifted the Fairness Doctrine in 1987. Clinton's 1996 

Telecommunications Act removed ownership limits that led to rapid consolidation and the troublesome concentration of control by national operators we see today. Three companies control almost all of the talk radio stations with competitive signals in the major markets: Clear Channel, CBS and Cumulus. 

In my view, we have reached a major crisis due to right-wing bias in talk radio. This right-wing tilt has an obvious impact on our politics and culture. But President Obama, his FCC appointees and most members of Congress - including all but a handful of Democrats - are indifferent. Sadly, it seems that most listeners are indifferent, too. 

Having walked some miles in similar shoes, I know the difficult decisions facing my radio friends and colleagues and their business operations. With affiliates, audiences and revenues all declining and the muscular expansion of sports-talk by CBS, FOX, NBC SportsRadio and ESPN, the future looks pretty bleak for lib-talk. You might ask, as David Byrne once sang, "How did we get here?"

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