Why is liberal talk radio such a failure?

Question

This is not really a political question but a media and marketing standpoint that I want to know from. I mean I hear that liberals had to get money together to keep this guy Ed Schultz on the air. That Air America has always been in financial trouble and if it wasnt for George Soros they would be gone already. Why is it that the only liberal talk radio that succeeds is NPR supported by the government. Is it programming or host or some other thing. I ask this from a radio marketing standpoint not from political.

Could it be that liberal talk radio refuses to admit its liberal and pretends to be mainstream we have a station here with the slogan KTLK Progressive is the new main stream. Would they be better off being honest and admit they are left as talk radio is mostly unapologetic on the right? At least they are intelectually honest Could that be part of the problem with liberal talk radio?

Marianne I am impressed with your depth of knowledge to my question and the incite you show.

Some who have answered are delusional into believe it hasnt been a failure

Also people look at the category and answer the question accordingly

Answer 1

The problem with Liberal talk shows is they spent the whole time *********.i.n.g. about the Conservative talk shows. They should have presented their views and just ignored what the Conservatives were doing. From a radio marketing standpoint, if you don't have the listeners, you won't be able to sell advertising on the station. No listeners = no money. NPR is Liberal radio supported by the government that is why that works. The taxpayers are paying for it whether they are Liberal or Republican or somewhere in between.

Answer 2

This is all about demographics, not politics. The market for radio audiences, particularly in the daytime, obviously skews to the conservative side. The population is more or less split evenly on a national basis. Could you argue that conservatives are more likely to be home listening to a radio during the day, as their income is higher? Perhaps.

I don't think you can read any great political truths into this argument. Otherwise, the conservatives would have won every election of late handily, and that's just not true. I'm in a state that's definitely Democratic, and the local talk shows are pretty Republican.

Answer 3

I have had a theory on this for a long time. I must first ask a question. Do conservatives really listen to a lot of right-wing radio? Because as a liberal, I could not stand listening to liberal shows. Why? Because in most cases, I agree with what is being said. So if you are a republican, how much can you really listen to Rush, Hannity and the such? I mean, most of all you get is their opinion, stated over and over and over. So if you listen to someone you agree with, what do you do. How much back patting is neccessary? I mean, say I was on the right, and agreed with Rush most of the time. What is the purpose of listening? To say "I agree with you again Rush"? Why listen all the time to things you agree with. I get's boring. So that is why liberal radio fails. I don't need to know my views - I would rather hear what the other side is saying, and then I come up with material I would debate or dispute. But I never call - it is a waste of time. No one would change because of what I say. Minds are already made up.

Answer 4

Most people in America are really neither a true conservitve or a real liberal. I would never argue the point that a radio station wasn't making any money because they have a leberal program on their station but the real fact is that most liberal programs lose money across the board in America. some of those reason are things like, home owners taxes already much to steep, but the liberals think that we need this program and the conservatives feel like if you want it, do what I did and get off of your butt and go and do it for your self. That is just one way but over all most of the conservitive side feel like the income taxes are spent in a way that doesn't serve them as a whole. I am spending much more time in here than I would like but I will go just a little bit longer. I want to point some thing out and I could be wrong but it is the way that I see it. The very rich don't seem to mind paying their taxes nor do the mittle class but remember that if You are making $250,000 and they take 40% of your money away in taxes you still have $150,000 a year or $12500 a month to live on. A middle class family with $50,000 at 25% for tax leaves them with $38,000 or $3,166 a month to live on. The middle class is just under $800 a week and the guy with the big income is living on a week what the middle class is living on in a month $3125. As you can see from this the middle class is going to be more conservitive that the rich guy, dah......I wonder why. There are more middle class that listen to the radio than the upper class just because there are a lot more of them. It comes down to dollars and cents

Answer 5

You hit on the main reason why they weren't successful, its due to financial problems.

Air America for example was so far out to the left that they targeted a very small part of the population. This is really hard to sell to advertisers due to how little the audience was.
Air America had Alex Baldwin as one of their hosts, in one show i listened to he actually was pleading for people to call in. No host on any other radio program has this problem.

If Air America and the other liberal shows were to focus on topics instead of personal feelings they would have greater success. Anyone who has responded to this question, who has listened to one of the shows on the liberal radio, has to admit that the hosts get hysterical about certain news items, instead of pulling people together for changes they would like to see.

Answer 6

It isn't a failure, but naturally if you listen to O'Reilly you think it is. FOX 'news' ran at a gigantic loss for YEARS. Quote some real statistics if you want to call it a failure. Air America Radio did go chapter 11, but so have many many other business, including most airlines you now fly on.

The responses here only show how easily 'conservatives' believe all the propaganda they hear on FOX 'news' and right wing radio. Perhaps right wing radio succeeds because it is heavily subsidised by corporations who benefit from their 'greed is good' message.

Answer 7

Trying to say this as neutrally as possible: I think the problem is that Franken et. al. tried to copy pretty slavishly the insulting, blowhard approach so successfully used by Rush and company, and that there is a basic disconnect between the type of humor employed and the audience base.

Put another way: one definition of "conservative" is someone who likes things the way they are and dislikes attempts to change them and they are often stereotyped as closed-minded bigots; "liberals", on the other hand are broadly sterotyped as touchy-feely types that want to make everybody happy but can't actually decide on or accomplish anything. Assuming that there is at least a grain of truth to these stereotypes (and isn't there usually?), it's easy to see why the kind of self-congratulatory, us-vs.-them, ridicule-the-other-guy approach spearheaded by Rush and the dittoheads and aped by much of Air America would resonate and succeed more with conservatives than liberals.

NPR is significantly more than "talk radio" -- they are primarily news with a few talk shows. Admittedly, their news analysis often skews left (and I say this as an unapologetic lefty), but they do have a stated mission to be objective (and mostly are in their reporting) and nobody else is even attempting to put "real" news on the radio with their kind of depth and experience.

Answer 8

Simple... there is not a big enough market for it, so advertisers will not support it. No advertisors = no money= no radio show. Plus, there are many other place to get those kinds of views. The opposite can be said for conservative talk shows that are successful.

Answer 9

Ratings. Republican radio gets more reactions and more attention. Corporate America listens to corporate radio that supports corporate views. The government supports NPR as another of many attempts to show it really does support both sides, no really, it does.

Answer 10

It seems like it's not really a market for it. If somebody like Rosie O'Donnell gets a talk show on liberal radio, she could probably boost listenership. Liberal radio is fairly new and it needs a boost.