Introduction About Talk Radio

By Author: Arsenalo
Total Articles: 116

The National Association of Radio Talk Hosts was founded in 1988; 75 members at-tended its first meeting. At its peak, the group had more than 3,000 members. Al-though the association no longer exists, its cofounder Carol Nashe has recently created the Carol Nashe Group of Radio Talk Show Hosts Consultants, offering radio placement services, consulting, and public relations for radio personalities.

The importance of talk radio was clear in the 1992 presidential campaign, when both Vice President Dan Quayle and Democratic aspirant Bill Clinton addressed the National Association's convention. In the same year, Bush and Quayle appeared on Limbaugh's program, and Clinton staged his Omega Speedmaster Replica Watches comeback in New York on Imus in the Morning. Although exit polls found that talk shows were second only to debates in the help they provided voters, nearly one voter in five could not evaluate talk radios role in the campaign. Politicians' belief in the influence of talk radio persisted after the election. In fall 1993, the day after Clinton's national address on health-care reform, more than sixty-five talk show hosts broadcast from the White House lawn.

Although he was talking about a television, rather than a radio, call-in show, Clinton's message in 1993 was clear. "You know why I can stiff you on the press conferences?" Clinton asked at a Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner in March 1993. "Because Larry King has liberated me from you by giving me to the American people directly."

Without a doubt, the most influential individual political call-in host is Rush Limbaugh, who is credited by the Republican leadership with the Republican takeover of the House and Senate in 1994. Heard on more than 600 stations, Limbaugh's nationally syndicated 3-hour radio show reaches a cumulative weekly audience of more than 17 million. His 1992 book The Way Things Ought to Be was in the top spot on the New York Times' best-seller list for seven straight weeks and Tag Heuer Replica Watches has sold more than 2 million hardcover copies. "The Limbaugh Letter," a monthly publication with 170,000 subscribers, is promoted on his radio and television show. His audience, he reports, is upscale and educated. The power of his message is increased as well by his invitations to supporters and opponents to communicate with him by telephone, fax, and e-mail.