Vaya con Dios, Talk Radio

The glorious past, the stagnant present, and the pitiful future of talk radio

On Wednesday, February 17th, Rush Limbaugh passed away at the age of 70 after a year-long battle with advanced lung cancer. Social media—being social media—has been aflame with people celebrating and lamenting his death, with dimly lit clowns using his death to get attention, either for themselves or for their agendas (political or otherwise). And when I say “dimly lit clowns,” I’m referring to people on the Left and the Right, to liberals and conservatives, to Democrats and Republicans. I’ve seen some people comparing him to Hitler and other people calling him one of America’s greatest patriots. Let me just note that Rush Limbaugh didn’t order his troops to kill millions of innocent people or invade Poland in an effort to conquer the world, nor did he storm the beaches of Normandy or put his life on the line to protect the civil rights of minorities. Of course, I didn’t do any of these things, either.

What Limbaugh did do, however, is establish himself as the preeminent talk radio host in the United States (in the world, really), beginning back in the late 1980’s. This is an indisputable fact. The Rush Limbaugh Show dominated the radio airwaves almost since day one of it’s inception and rapid syndication at WABC in New York City during the summer of 1988. By the latter 1990’s, Limbaugh’s dominance was such that he was number one in most major markets for his time slot (noon to 3 pm). Local talk shows were desperate to either have the slot just before or just after Limbaugh, though these slots frequently ended up going to other syndicated talk show hosts like Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck.

And because Limbaugh’s show was so dominant, because it was a bastion of conservative political think (indeed, many Republican politicians in the 90’s and after credited Limbaugh with helping them win elections), there was an effort from the Left to counter his show, leading to the laughably awful Air America Radio network. Though I guess one might credit AAR for helping Al Franken launch his political career. Beyond that, Air America offered shows that were little more than pale imitations of Limbaugh’s show, pajama parties with hosts who cracked unfunny jokes about political adversaries or engaged in blatant historical revisionism.

Air America’s total failure—it lost money every year it was in existence—isn’t hard to understand. It failed because it was always focused on countering Limbaugh and conservative talk radio. There was nothing organic about its growth, its hosts never learned how to build and keep a national audience. Most of them aped Limbaugh’s show, assuming that by doing so they would be successful. This was foolish for two primary reasons: first, none of the hosts there were as good as Limbaugh (it’s a simple truth), and second, the demographics of talk radio listenership has always favored conservatives, insofar as it’s older, more rural, and blue collar (independent blue collar, really).

I was—once upon a time—an avid listener to Limbaugh’s show. Really, I was an avid listener to talk radio in general. I would listen on my commute to and from work, which was at odd hours because of the business I was in at the time, the grocery industry. When I changed careers and worked for NAPA, I had a sales route that had me in the car three or more hours a day, so I listened to even more talk radio.

And truly, I listened to everything. I listened to sports talk radio, I listened to NPR, I listened to late night hosts like George Noory, who promoted ridiculous conspiracy theories. I even listened to Air America. And what I was looking for—when listening to these various programs—was to be entertained, first and foremost. Getting informed was sometimes a consideration, so actual news shows were always on the menu, but that was mostly an early morning thing, be it general news or sports news.

Given all of this, let me just note that talk radio was truly fantastic from the 1990’s to about 2008 (unsurprisingly, the rise of social media sucked the life out of talk radio, as personalities on the latter sought attention from people on the former). Apart from Limbaugh, Noory, and Air America (which could be so bad that it would be good), there were people like Neil Rogers in South Florida, Phil Hendrie, and—for a time—Glenn Beck. There were also some FM morning show hosts like Howard Stern, though I personally would get bored with Stern rather quickly. Still, there’s no denying his place in these golden years of talk radio.

The utter collapse of Air America was perhaps a sign that the times were changing, because even though it was a pale imitation of Limbaugh’s show, even though it wasn’t a moneymaker, it had some real personalities. But even worse than what happened there was what happened to Glenn Beck. He had established a very successful national show by the mid-2000’s, largely by parroting Rush politically and getting to be the lead-in for Limbaugh’s show (Hannity did the same, except he followed Rush’s show). Still, he could be entertaining and had some original bits. But for me, that all changed circa 2008 when Beck published some book called The Christmas Sweater. He proceeded to use his show as little more than an infomercial to promote his stupid book. I guess he made plenty of jingle, but it was truly shit radio, soon equaled by Sean Hannity doing what amounted to the same show, day after day after day. Both became un-listenable for me, so…I stopped listening.

Meanwhile, Neil Rogers passed away, Phil Hendrie became harder and harder to find on local stations (he also had a lot of other things going on), and sports talk became more and more focused on fantasy nonsense (plus, I realized just how unbelievably repetitive all the sports talk hosts were). Limbaugh—amazingly enough—soldiered on, even as he dealt with personal problems, including drug addiction and losing his hearing.

But this is no Limbaugh hagiography. Again, I listened avidly to Limbaugh because his show was entertaining, above all else. True enough, he often espoused political points of view that were consistent with my own. He would also occasionally have guests like Thomas Sowell on his show, or even allow Walter Williams to guest host (two economists whose views are really consistent with my own). But he could be quite obnoxious, to say the least, especially when he was trying to appeal to his core listeners. His mockery of Michael J. Fox is true low point for his show, which—looking back now—perhaps was an indicator that the glory days would soon be gone.

And then came the Rush Revere books, children’s books on American history ostensibly written by Limbaugh, himself. I’ve never read one, I can’t fairly say if they are any good, or if they’re nothing but right-wing propaganda. But what I can say—as a talk radio junkie—is that Limbaugh fell right into the same trap that snared Glenn Beck: he used his radio show to pimp his books. And for me, it became simply unbearable. To be fair to Limbaugh, he always said that his show was all about him, that he would only talk about things that interested him and would only take calls from people who would make him look good. All fans of his show know this (just as they all know that Limbaugh consistently characterized himself as an entertainer, first and foremost). But to be fair to me, I don’t have to listen to something that I don’t enjoy. And when Limbaugh started down this road, I ceased to enjoy his show. So I turned it off, for the most part. I’d still check in from time to time. I’d do the same for Hannity’s show, as well.

The rise—and fall—of Donald Trump, however, made listening to talk radio a simply brutal experience. And that’s too bad, because as awful as Trump was in some respects, there were serious issues during his Presidency that could have used some serious explaining and discussion, from a conservative and/or libertarian perspective. But Limbaugh—consistent with his stated goals, again to be fair—gave his core audience what it wanted: a full-throated defense of Trump, mostly as a “great disruptor” of the status quo.

This was quite disappointing to me, as Limbaugh essentially tossed Hayek and Rand in the trash, in order to play to the lowest common denominators in his audience. Perhaps I was being naive, but there was a time when Limbaugh openly applauded politicians like Jeff Flake, who stood on principle, even in the face of opposition from both parties (think “earmarks”). Now, he was catering to know-nothings on the Right who were shitting on Republicans like Flake because they weren’t willing to nod their heads like idiots in agreement with everything Trump said and did. But as disappointing as it was, it was also just horrible radio. Limbaugh’s past excellence in coming up with funny political bits gave way to garbage bits like the ones I used to hear on Air America.

As bad as Limbaugh’s show was, other right wing talk radio was even worse. Sean Hannity’s show was—and still is—the quintessential example. Here’s a guy who pushed a bootstraps narrative for years, who prided himself in being am actual fiscal conservative, who wears his faith on his sleeve, but who ultimately prostrated himself before Trump, just in the name of ratings. And again, as bad as this was, what made it worse was just how awful the show had become. To call it repetitive would be unfair to repetitive things. I listened to Hannity’s opening monologue one day, a week or so later I listened again, and I swear to God, it was the same thing. And would use the same catch phrases and nicknames relentlessly. I remember having his show on one time and hearing him say “zero-experience Hunter” over ten times in less than an hour. Shit radio. Awful radio.

That’s where we are right now: talk radio is awful. Conservatives who opted to defend Trump to the hilt this last four years made bad situation worse, in my opinion. And in the face of social media and things like podcasts, I don’t see a path forward. I’m becoming less and less interested in talk radio on a daily basis. And at 55, I’m in the prime target audience for talk radio. But I guess that not being a dimly lit clown pushes me out theses days. And that’s a real shame. Once upon a time, there was real value in talk radio, entertainment at the very least. Now, there is mostly just garbage. And the three hour hole Limbaugh has left on so many stations across the country, I fully expect it to be filled with more garbage in short order.