[BC] Talk Radio losing influence?

[Donna Halper]

>it was suggested--
>
>You may have seen the article in today's *Inside Radio* -- a study be The
>Benchmark Company found that 86% of listeners to talk radio said that it has
>no influence on them.  I don't have any info on what it used to be in the
>past, but I would suggest that most people prefer to make up their own minds
>on things, and would object to being called "sheeple."  Thus, maybe it's not
>that "conservative talk radio has lost it's power over listeners," maybe it
>didn't have much in the first place.

Surveys and studies from the early and mid 1990s showed that talk 
radio had an enormous influence.  It also created a "right wing echo 
chamber" that repeated Republican talking points over and over.  With 
Limbaugh on close to 700 stations, and no meaningful competition from 
the left, the conservatives had the talk radio field all to 
themselves, and they used it to advance right wing policies and 
create outrage over certain issues.  And they absolutely influenced 
congress, as Newt Gingrich and others would later acknowledge.  It 
was no accident that Rush Limbaugh used to be invited to speak at all 
major Republican functions; he even trained new Republican 
legislators in how to deal with the media, and was frequently thanked 
for his help by party officials.  To this day, when there is a "Radio 
Day" on Capitol Hill, only Republican talk hosts are invited... which 
by the way, I think is wrong.  (And I would say that if it were a 
Democrat doing the same thing and only inviting Democrats.)

These days, the audience has fragmented, with a few successful 
liberal/progressive talkers (Ed Schultz is the most successful of 
that group, getting over 3 million in weekly cume-- doesn't sound 
like much, but he's only on about 100 stations, compared to the 650 
that carry Limbaugh), and a LOT of blogs.  Many of the lefties now 
have influential blogs that reflect their point of view.  Where the 
righties dominate talk radio, the lefties seem to have come to 
dominate the "blogosphere."  But as many of us media critics have 
observed, this isn't necessarily good for democracy.  It's possible 
for people to construct their listening and viewing so that they 
never see or hear anyone with an opposing or different point of view, 
and they only hear the other side demonised.  I'm not sure that's 
helpful, no matter which side is doing the demonising.