Talk radio audience shows little growth

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), August, 1996

While much has been reported on the growing popularity of talk radio, the size of its audience has remained largely unchanged over the last three years, according to a University of Michigan study. Using data from 13 Times Mirror Center polls since 1993, Michael Traugott, professor of communication studies, found that the number of regular listeners of call-in shows on current events, public issues, and politics has remained constant--from 17% of respondents in May, 1993, to 18% in March, 1996.

The relative size of the regular audience for shows hosted by Rush Limbaugh, Bob Grant, G. Gordon Liddy, and others has ranged from a high of 22% in June, 1994, to a low of 15% in October of that year. "The `conventional wisdom' that the talk-radio audience is growing is not supported. Neither the size of the audience nor its demography and ideology seem to have shifted over time."

According to the study, a higher proportion of men (ranging from 18 to 26% in the 13 surveys) than women (12-19%) regularly listen to talk radio. While Traugott found no difference in attention to talk radio among whites and minorities, his results show that Americans under 30 are less likely to listen regularly and that those with household incomes over $50,000 and with college educations are more apt to tune in.

Traugott suggests that it is probable that listeners today are more likely to attribute their political view-points to talk radio, and that the psychological benefits they reap from listening, as well as the likelihood of their becoming politically mobilized, have changed. "The data do not suggest that the audience is composed of listeners with a wide range of political views. In general, the listeners seem to have a clear sense of what they are looking for and what to expect when they tune in. There may be some heterogeneity in the range of offerings across the genre, but the content within a given show does not reflect an open exchange of political points of view."