Talk Radio

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture by Geoff Edgers

Credited with shaping presidential elections and blamed for creating a climate of intolerance, talk radio rose to prominence in the 1990s by offering Americans a free, unfiltered, and often national forum. Whether the issue was a pushy boss, a hapless sports team, or a downtown parking crunch, talk radio became a sort of water-cooler for the masses. The rise also reflected the increasingly combative nature of American discourse, with on-air arguments, taunts, and racy, satiric routines often the key to a talk show's success. As ratings increased, so did the critics who believed that the radio hosts were, in part, to blame for the increasingly hostile environment that led to a series of high-profile incidents, including the terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City. Leading talk show hosts Howard Stern, G. Gordon Liddy, and Don Imus were branded "shock jocks" for their brash, obnoxious, and often controversial points of view. As Howard Kurtz notes in Hot Air, "When White House chief of staff Leon Panetta wanted to attack Newt Gingrich, the strongest insult he could muster was to accuse the House speaker of acting like 'an out-of-control radio talk show host.'" But whether agitator or great equalizer, talk radio offers anyone with a telephone a chance to become part of the national debate. And its influence can be felt off the dial as well, as radio jocks write best-selling books, star in films, and are spoofed on the television sketch comedy show, Saturday Night Live.

The emergence of talk radio came about because of technological advances as much as the need for an open forum. Commercial radio had existed since the 1920s, but the toll free telephone lines and satellite hook-ups that encouraged the spread of the format were not in place for another 60 years.

In the early days of radio, before television, the best known voices were comedians making the jump from the vaudeville stage, old-style newsmen, and sportscasters. The first true talk radio host may have been celebrity interviewer Barry Gray, who began broadcasting out of New York City in the mid-1940s. But Gray's show was without one key element: the caller. Jerry Williams, who went on the air in Boston in 1957, became the first to take calls. He used two tape recorders to comply with the federal regulations requiring delays.

In addition to technical limitations, talk radio was held back by a 1949 law, the Fairness Doctrine, which required equal time for opposing views. The change began in the late 1950s when machinery made the seven second delay possible, enabling hosts to put callers on the air without fear. Talk radio received a similar boost in the 1980s with the spread of satellite and digital phone technologies, which made toll free numbers more affordable for station managers. Emboldened by the fact that these calls were being made not only to a radio station, but also in many cases a radio station in another time zone, callers embraced this new forum. They could yell at another human and risk nothing more than being cut off by the host. In addition, Ronald Reagan abolished the Fairness Doctrine in 1987. Talk radio spread from 75 stations nationwide in 1980, to 125 by 1987, and 1,350 by 1998.

From the start, talk radio proved a strong voice for political protest. Jerry Williams brought consumer advocate Ralph Nader onto the air to criticize automobile makers in the 1960s. Twenty years later, Williams led a repeal of a law requiring the mandatory use of seat belts in Massachusetts. In 1988, Congress wanted to vote itself a 51 percent pay raise. A nationwide network of talk show hosts, led by Detroit's Roy Fox, suggested listeners send tea bags to Washington, D.C., to show their displeasure. More than 150,000 tea bags were dumped in front of the White House; Congress withdrew the pay raise. A decade later, lawmakers had not forgotten. A survey of members of Congress revealed that 46 percent of them found talk radio the most influential media source during the health care debate; 15 percent cited the New York Times.

As talk radio gained stature, so did the voices behind it. In many cases, these were failed disc jockeys who had tried, in vain, to fit into the more conventional music format. Larry King was a broadcasting veteran who first went on the air in 1960 in Miami, Florida, struggled later with a gambling problem and three bad marriages, and was eventually arrested for misusing $5,000 from a business associate. In 1978, King got what just about everyone in radio gets: a second chance. From the 12th Floor Studio in Crystal City, Virginia, he launched the first nationally broadcast radio show, talking from midnight to 5:30 a.m. The success of his show proved that national talk shows could make it. King eventually left radio for his nightly interview television talk show on the Cable News Network and launched a regular column in the USA Today, laying the foundation for the rise of the talk star.

Rush Limbaugh, a college dropout who had failed repeatedly as a rock 'n' roll disc jockey, launched his talk show in the mid-1980s, immediately establishing himself as a conservative voice; his show went national in 1988. No matter that Limbaugh had not registered to vote for several presidential elections; he was courted by then-President George Bush as the 1992 elections approached. Seeking his on-air support, Bush invited Limbaugh to the White House and even carried the talk show host's bags. Limbaugh's influence was considered so widespread that an effort by Congress to bring back the Fairness Doctrine in the 1990s was quickly dubbed the "hush-Rush" bill by the Wall Street Journal.