It began as a crazy idea. DJs would get bored with music and start talking to the audience. They would take calls, tell stories, and even talk a little politics, sports, and pop culture. Early on, it produced some enduring national personalities like Jean Shepherd, and Brad Crandall, Long John Nebel, and Larry King, and Barry Gray, and Joe Franklin. It was known first as Spoken Word Radio. Later, it would give way to an even more colorful and cantankerous cast of characters. People like Joe Pyne, Alan Berg and Morton Downey Jr..
Talk radio moved to the big cities with folks like Don Imus and Howard Stern. In New York, Bob Grant would redefine the formula beginning in the early 70s. In fact so much of Trump on race, comes directly out of the Bob Grant playbook. Grant was the soundtrack for the New York that Donald Trump came of political age in.
The Fairness Doctrine would be repealed in 1987 and suddenly radio would be set up to have political power. Then in 1988, a little known Sacramento newscaster and talk show host named Rush Limbaugh would be let loose nationally. He took the freedom of being untethered from the Fairness Doctrine, combined it with the formulas that had already proven successful in talk, added conservative politics in a sardonic and entertaining tone, and the rest is radio history. It began 30 years ago last week, and it certainly changed our entertainment, news, and the political landscape.
To bring this all into focus, I'm joined by Michael Harrison, the editor and publisher of Talkers Magazine, the "bible of the talk radio industry."
My WhoWhatWhy.org conversation with Michael Harrison:
Digital Titans and the Echoes of the Gilded Age
MAGA Unraveled: An Insider’s Perspective on Right-Wing America
The Last Candidate of the GOP
‘Fox News’ Is Not News
Daniel Sokatch: A Pivotal Figure in Modern Jewish Dialogue and Israeli Affair is Redefining Jewish Advocacy
Unmasking the Elepahant
Jonathan Taplin vs. the tech billionaires
From Poverty to Empowerment: The Rise of the Global Middle Class
Robert Sapolsky and our Illusion of Free Will
Don’t Shoot the Messenger: The Methods and Power of Pollsters
My Conversation with Heather Cox Richardson
From Buy to Cell: The Journey of SBF
The Shifting Sands of the Middle East: What’s Next for Israel, Hamas, and Iran?
Navigating the New Geopolitics: A Conversation with Sam Ramani
Carl Safina on Nature, Philosophy, and Unexpected Teachers
Can America Survive Its Own Constitution? The Tyranny of the Minority
The Invisible Frontlines: Israel’s Secret War Against a Nuclear Iran
The Wisdom of Survivors: Overcoming Global Trauma
When the Game Was War: The 1987-88 NBA Season
Power Play: How Just 12 People Control America’s Economic Destiny: A conversation with John Coates
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