Why talk radio is conservative

The Arbitron numbers that provide the basis for Table 1 do not include noncommercial stations such as those of National Public Radio (NPR), which, according to its critics, already provides a liberal voice on the airwaves. The two top-rated NPR programs are "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered," which have a cumulative weekly audience of 13 and 12 million listeners, respectively. This places them just behind Limbaugh and slightly ahead of Hannity. But both of these programs are news programs, and are not what most people have in mind when they speak of "talk radio." The most listened-to talk show on NPR is "Fresh Air," which has a weekly audience of 4.4 million. "Talk of the Nation," which airs at approximately the same time as Limbaugh in most markets, has an audience of 2.9 million.

Explaining the ideology gap

Much discussion of the talk radio phenomenon in newspapers and magazines has sought to explain why conservative voices are so dominant. It is also plainly of interest to many on the Left, who recognize that they are decisively outgunned in this medium and, as we have seen, would clearly like to find a liberal counterpart to Rush Limbaugh. Yet most attempts to explain the conservative advantage are unconvincing.

One argument, for example, claims that Rush Limbaugh's popularity is due to his skills as an entertainer, not to any of the policy positions he defends. If the Left could only find someone of comparable ability, some observers claim, he would also rack up huge ratings. As a recent marketing study of the talk radio industry put it,

   The driving factor for listeners is talent, not ideology. Rush
   Limbaugh works because he is a talented entertainer who puts a great
   deal of effort into preparation so that he hosts a good show. He just
   happens to be a conservative.

This argument contains one valid insight. Even most of Limbaugh's critics concede that he is an enormously talented radio performer who seems to have loved radio from a very early age and honed his skills at a long succession of radio jobs before hitting it big. In a real sense, one can say that he created the art form and has been its star performer for more than a decade. At least part of Limbaugh's audience, according to several surveys, consists of people who disagree with what he says but simply find him entertaining.

But however influential Limbaugh was in making talk radio a political phenomenon, the conservative dominance of the medium, as the numbers in Table 1 make clear, extends well beyond his program. Sean Hannity, for example, has an audience only slightly smaller than Limbaugh's, yet whatever Hannity's other talents, no one has ever called him a "master showman." And is creative talent really so scarce among liberals that after at least a decade of searching, they have been unable to find a single left-leaning talk show host with enough pizzazz to establish a modest national following?