Right-Wingers Are on the Defensive About Talk Radio Dominance

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted June 29, 2007.

On its face, quantifying the conservative domination of talk-radio is about as valuable as studying the leftward lean in women's studies departments at American universities. The conventional wisdom is that during the 1980s, talk-radio tapped into a substantial group of angry, white and mostly male listeners who blamed their perceived loss of influence on what they believed were real powers in American society: feminists, gays, black kids applying for affirmative action programs and potty-mouthed Hollywood screenwriters. It was a niche market -- AM radio was a dying format waiting for an infusion of energy -- and the Limbaughs and Hannitys gave the people what they wanted.

But if that were all there was to the phenomenon, a new report by the Center for American Progress and the Free Press on right-wing talk's domination of the airwaves wouldn't be causing as much chagrin among conservative commentators as it has. The report, (PDF), "The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio," is stirring up the right-wing squawkers because its analysis flies in the face of conventional wisdom; Right-wing talk doesn't dominate AM radio because of the magical hand of a functional free market, it dominates thanks to multiple market failures. Even worse, those failures represent a strong case for better regulation of what goes out on the public's airwaves.

The report contrasts the amount of right-wing talk -- nine out of every ten hours broadcast on talk-radio is exclusively conservative -- with a talk-radio audience that, according to Pew Research, identifies itself as follows: forty-three percent of regular talk radio listeners are conservative, while "23 percent identify as liberal and 30 percent as moderate." In other words, fewer than half of those listening to some of the most feverish voices on the right are themselves self-identified conservatives.

The report also shows that in markets where progressive and liberal talk has proven itself to be competitive, conservative programming still dominates the airwaves. The authors note: "[A]lthough there is a clear demand and proven success of progressive talk" in these markets, "station owners still elect to stack the airwaves with one-sided broadcasting." In radio, the "market" simply isn't meeting consumers' tastes.

That observation is what has so many on the right up in arms about the report (the Center for American Progress reports that they have never received such "vitriol" following the publication of previous studies). The report found evidence to support what critics of media concentration have long maintained: that for some media owners, advancing a series of political narratives can be just as much in their interest as a healthy bottom line ever was.

An analysis of all 10,506 licensed commercial radio stations found that stations "owned by women, minorities, or local owners are statistically less likely to air conservative hosts or shows." In contrast, "stations controlled by 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." Markets that aired both conservative and progressive programming were "less concentrated than the markets that aired only one type of programming and were more likely to be the markets that had female- and minority-owned stations."

See more stories tagged with: media, right-wing talk radio

Joshua Holland is an AlterNet staff writer.

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