Talk radio
Listener contributions are usually screened by a show's producers to maximize audience interest and, in the case of commercial talk radio, to attract advertisers.
The most popular talkback radio station historically was Sydney's 2UE, whose populist programs like The John Laws Morning Show, were widely syndicated across the continent.
[5] 'Talkback' radio, using a seven-second time-lapse mechanism, began in Australia in April 1967, simultaneously on 2SM, Sydney (with Mike Walsh) and 3DB, Melbourne (with Barry Jones).
Top political programs such as The Rush Limbaugh Show are never broadcast on Canadian stations, mainly due to high rights fees compared to their relevance to non-American audiences.
Typically the programming of main talk radio stations is modified whenever there is a major football event, such as a La Liga or a national team match.
Daily late-night sport (football) talk shows are also very relevant, with a very intense competition of the radio stations in this time slot which typically starts around midnight.
After some marital troubles, refusing to pay alimony and child support, he sought professional help and began his radio series where listeners would call in with their problems in 1930.
[21] While working for New York's WMCA in 1945, Barry Gray was bored with playing music and put a telephone receiver up to his microphone to talk with bandleader Woody Herman.
A unique opportunity presented itself when Joe Pyne, who had begun his career as a radio talk personality in Pennsylvania, was fired by KABC in Los Angeles.
Henry suggested to John Kluge that Joe Pyne should be put on Metromedia's newly acquired TV station in Los Angeles, KTTV-TV.
In March 2018, CBS Radio's corporate successor Entercom (now Audacy, Inc.) attempted a hot talk format in San Diego with KEGY 97.3 The Machine.
It featured a weekday lineup devoted to hot talk programs, blocks of classic rock interspersed with comedy bits during off-peak hours, and coverage of San Diego Padres baseball.
The network has picked up personalities such as Shannon Burke and Ed Tyll, with the syndicated Bubba the Love Sponge serving as its morning show.
[28][29][30] In 2022, after receiving the station in a trade from Audacy, Beasley Broadcast Group's KXTE in Las Vegas shifted to a hot talk format for its weekday lineup, which consists primarily of syndicated morning shows (including Dave and Mahoney, for which it is the flagship station, as well as Free Beer and Hot Wings, and Dave & Chuck the Freak from sister WRIF in Detroit).
[31] The genre has also shown up on satellite radio and in podcasting, which typically have more creative freedom due to the lack of indecency rules and lower reliance on corporate advertising.
The United States saw dramatic growth in the popularity of talk radio during the 1990s due to the repeal of the Federal Communications Commission's post-war Fairness Doctrine of 1949, in 1987.
It had required the holders of broadcast licenses to "present controversial issues of public importance" and to do so in a manner that was, in the commission's view, "honest, equitable and balanced".
Limbaugh's success demonstrated that there was a nationwide market for a passionately delivered conservative polemic on contemporary news, events, and social trends, and changed the face of how the talk radio business was conducted.
Other radio talk show hosts (who describe themselves as either conservative or libertarian) have also had success as nationally syndicated hosts, including Hugh Hewitt, Sean Hannity, Jon Arthur, Glenn Beck, Michael Medved, Laura Ingraham, Neal Boortz, Michael Savage, Bill O'Reilly, Larry Gaiters, and Mark Levin.
In the summer of 2007, conservative talk show hosts mobilized public opposition to the McCain-Kennedy immigration reform bill, which eventually failed.
[32] Conservative hosts Limbaugh, Ingraham, Bennett, Prager, Hannity, Beck, Levin, and Hewitt coalesced around endorsing former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for president at the end of January 2008 (after Fred Thompson, the described favorite of some of the hosts, dropped out), to oppose the nomination of Senator John McCain;[33] however, Romney suspended his campaign in February of the same year and endorsed McCain.
The unified support from the conservative base helped propel Hoffman to frontrunner status and effectively killed Scozzafava's campaign, forcing her to drop out of the race several days before the election.
Some prominent examples of liberal talk radio shows either previously or currently in national syndication include: Dial Global talk show hosts Ed Schultz (who moved on to hosting on MSNBC and later on RT America), Stephanie Miller,[34] Thom Hartmann,[35] and Bill Press;[36] Norman Goldman[37] (not with Dial Global and is a self-described independent) is still included on syndication stations – see WCPT (AM).
In some markets, local liberal hosts have existed for years, such as the British talk host Michael Jackson (who was on the air at KABC in Los Angeles beginning in 1968 and is currently at KMZT); Bernie Ward in San Francisco; Jack Ellery in New Jersey and Tampa; Dave Ross in Seattle, and Marc Germain in Los Angeles.
A few earlier syndicated programs were hosted by prominent Democrats who were not experienced broadcasters, such as Jim Hightower, Jerry Brown, Mario Cuomo, and Alan Dershowitz; these met with limited success, and Air America has been faced with various legal and financial problems.
On January 21, 2010, Air America radio ceased live programming citing a difficulty with the current economic environment and announced that it would file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy production and liquidate itself.
Liberal opinion radio has long existed on the Pacifica network, though only available in a small number of major cities, and in formats that more often act as a volunteer-run community forum than as a platform for charismatic hosts who would be likely to attract a large audience.
[citation needed] Conservative critics have long complained that the long-format news programming on National Public Radio (NPR) shows a liberal bias, although this was disputed once in 2004 by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a progressive media criticism organization, which found that, for example, "representatives of think tanks to the right of center outnumbered those to the left of center by more than four to one: 62 appearances to 15.
There had been some precursors for talk radio show stars, such as the Los Angeles-area controversialist Joe Pyne, who would attack callers on his program in the early 1960s – one of his famous insults was "gargle with razor blades"; the similar Bob Grant in New York City; and Wally George in Southern California.
[42] Talk radio also included personal relationship consultants such as Laura Schlessinger and Barbara De Angelis both heard on KFI AM in Los Angeles.
