Why Talk Radio is largely conservative - (Was: Howie Carr, etc.etc. etc)

[Donna Halper]

>Sid wrote--
>
>For me, the problem with most talk radio as it's practiced now is 
>that talk hosts don't get ratings unless they're talking past the other side.

Sid names G. Gordon Liddy as polite to callers; from the progressive 
side, I'd say the same about Thom Hartmann, who is both literate and 
courteous.  But this brings up a historical point-- in the first 
heyday of talk radio, the late 1960s, stations had both righties and 
lefties on the air, and the public loved it.  The folks who hated the 
rightie listened just to disagree with him, and the folks who hated 
the leftie did the same, but people listened to ALL the shows, 
according to Arbitron "time spent listening" numbers. These days, 
most stations are all right-wing talkers all the time (or a few are 
all left-wing talkers all the time), but the idea of letting both 
sides be heard rarely occurs.