Talk Radio Decidedly Right of Center

By Rick Bird

Conservative voices continue to have a stranglehold on talk radio — at least on those stations owned by the biggest media corporations, according to a study released this week from a liberal think tank.

The report, from the Center for American Progress, in collaboration with the group Free Press, found 91 percent of the total weekday talk radio programming is conservative-oriented on 257 news/talk stations owned by the top five group owners: Clear Channel, CBS Radio, Citadel Broadcasting, Cumulus Media and Salem Communications.

“Group owners, those with stations in multiple markets or more than three stations in a single market, were statistically more likely to air conservative talk,” the report said.

Called “The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio,” the study’s findings are hardly surprising. Even the most casual radio listener has known that popular conservative talkers are dominating the airwaves, like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage. The study claims each weekday there are 2,570 hours and 15 minutes of conservative talk on the 257 stations compared to 254 hours of progressive talk.

The study blames the imbalance on a “complete breakdown of the public trustee concept of broadcast — and the relaxation of ownership rules including the requirement of local participation in management.”

The report is expected to be fodder for politicians and others calling for the re-regulation of radio ownership.

The report acknowledges that “simple consumer demand” also contributes to the success of the conservatives.

Indeed, program directors insist they are apolitical — they air what gets ratings, and the right-wingers have simply produced more entertaining personalities that draw listeners. Radio observers have noted the major radio chains find it cost-effective to air syndicated programming rather than develop local talent, so they go with the most successful shows, which right now happen to be conservative ones. (Clear Channel has its own syndication arm, Premier, which distributes the Limbaugh show, among others.)

Left-wing talk radio has failed to produce a true political talk star that might entice programmers. Liberal network Air America continues to struggle; it recently relaunched with new owners and a fresh lineup. The closest progressives have come to a radio star is Ed Schultz, now on more than 100 stations.

In Cincinnati, Clear Channel dropped the liberal talk format last December, which bounced from WCKY (1530) to WSAI (1360), after a nearly two-year experiment in which the station rarely rose higher than 18th in the market.

The report claims the political talk disparity is partly because of the lack of local ownership. An analysis conducted by Free Press of more than 10,000 commercial stations found that stations owned by minorities, women and local owners are less likely to air conservative hosts or shows.

The study called for restoring local and national caps on the ownership of commercial stations and new regulations that would assure local accountability and ownership, arguing that diversity of ownership translates to diversity of political talk programming.

The report stops short of calling for the return of the Fairness Doctrine, but argues its 1987 repeal helped create the current political disparity on talk radio. The doctrine required broadcasters to make a good-faith effort to devote comparable airtime to contrasting views (not to be confused with the Equal Time Rule, which remains in effect, regulating coverage of political candidates and ballot issues).

(c) 2007 Cincinnati Post. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.